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During my first year in Medill, we were required to do “person on the street” interviews. It’s when Medill students went around campus asking several people random questions in order to build interview skills. As an introvert, I was very intimidated by this. However, throughout that quarter, not a single NU student denied my silly little interviews. If you are one of the many people who have at least responded once to the relentless — and sometimes awkward — Medill students, you have officially answered to the press more times than the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has in the entirety of his ongoing regime.
Modi was elected Prime Minister of the world’s largest “democracy” in 2014, and then reelected in a landslide victory in 2019. Over the past 8 years, he has not taken a single question from the Indian media or the international press.
MODI, THE BJP AND THE RSS
In case you aren’t familiar with the leader of the second-largest nation in the world, Modi is the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political arm of the para-militant Hindu nationalist group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). I will use these acronyms moving forward because, as you can see, the alternative is a lot of letters.
The BJP and RSS run on “Hindutva,” a movement working to establish India as a Hindu state. India – while primarily Hindu — is home to a diverse array of religions including the third largest Muslim population and some of the oldest Christian and Sikh populations. Mahatma Gandhi stated that such diversity necessitated that the Indian government remain secular. Gandhi was assassinated by RSS member Nathuram Godse.
Modi’s 2014 election was embraced by both the right and the left in the West: Trump and Modi bonded over mutual right-wing nationalist values, while Obama wrote Modi’s profile in the Time “100” list. Here’s an excerpt:
“When he came to Washington, Narendra and I visited the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We reflected on the teachings of King and Gandhi and how the diversity of backgrounds and faiths in our countries is a strength we have to protect. Prime Minister Modi recognizes that more than 1 billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world."
However, before he was elected Prime Minister, Modi was actually banned from entering the United States because of his involvement in the 2002 Gujarat Massacres. When Modi was Chief Minister of the Indian State of Gujarat, right-wing Hindu mobs killed, burned and tortured thousands, leaving 790 Muslims dead. Police and government officials remained silent as Muslim houses and mosques were destroyed, while people remained trapped inside. The violence was actively instigated by the rhetoric of the BJP. Due to Modi’s refusal to apologize or acknowledge his inaction during the massacre as Head of State, the US revoked his visa. It was then reinstated when Modi was elected Prime Minister.
Modi grew up a part of the RSS, as a child. The RSS is a militant, volunteer organization entrenched in the Hindutva ideology. These Hindu nationalists believe India is a fundamentally Hindu nation. Founders of the RSS, such as MS Gowalkar cited Mussolini, Hitler and Nazism as influences for their organizations' push for “purity of a race and its culture.” The RSS has a history of violence against Christians, Sikhs and Muslims over the past 50 years that has often totaled thousands of deaths at a time in mass killings.
In a disturbingly circular manner, it now perpetuates white nationalism itself. Both the 2019 Christchurch shooter, who murdered 51 Muslims during Friday prayer, and the neo-Nazi behind the 2011 Norway attacks cited the RSS as an influence. In fact, the manifesto left by Anders Breivik, the terrorist behind the Norwegian attacks, shared URL links to both the BJP and RSS websites.
SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE IN INDIA
According to a study by India’s NDTV network, hate
During my first year in Medill, we were required to do “person on the street” interviews. It’s when Medill students went around campus asking several people random questions in order to build interview skills. As an introvert, I was very intimidated by this. However, throughout that quarter, not a single NU student denied my silly little interviews. If you are one of the many people who have at least responded once to the relentless — and sometimes awkward — Medill students, you have officially answered to the press more times than the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has in the entirety of his ongoing regime.
Modi was elected Prime Minister of the world’s largest “democracy” in 2014, and then reelected in a landslide victory in 2019. Over the past 8 years, he has not taken a single question from the Indian media or the international press.
MODI, THE BJP AND THE RSS
In case you aren’t familiar with the leader of the second-largest nation in the world, Modi is the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political arm of the para-militant Hindu nationalist group, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). I will use these acronyms moving forward because, as you can see, the alternative is a lot of letters.
The BJP and RSS run on “Hindutva,” a movement working to establish India as a Hindu state. India – while primarily Hindu — is home to a diverse array of religions including the third largest Muslim population and some of the oldest Christian and Sikh populations. Mahatma Gandhi stated that such diversity necessitated that the Indian government remain secular. Gandhi was assassinated by RSS member Nathuram Godse.
Modi’s 2014 election was embraced by both the right and the left in the West: Trump and Modi bonded over mutual right-wing nationalist values, while Obama wrote Modi’s profile in the Time “100” list. Here’s an excerpt:
“When he came to Washington, Narendra and I visited the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We reflected on the teachings of King and Gandhi and how the diversity of backgrounds and faiths in our countries is a strength we have to protect. Prime Minister Modi recognizes that more than 1 billion Indians living and succeeding together can be an inspiring model for the world."
However, before he was elected Prime Minister, Modi was actually banned from entering the United States because of his involvement in the 2002 Gujarat Massacres. When Modi was Chief Minister of the Indian State of Gujarat, right-wing Hindu mobs killed, burned and tortured thousands, leaving 790 Muslims dead. Police and government officials remained silent as Muslim houses and mosques were destroyed, while people remained trapped inside. The violence was actively instigated by the rhetoric of the BJP. Due to Modi’s refusal to apologize or acknowledge his inaction during the massacre as Head of State, the US revoked his visa. It was then reinstated when Modi was elected Prime Minister.
Modi grew up a part of the RSS, as a child. The RSS is a militant, volunteer organization entrenched in the Hindutva ideology. These Hindu nationalists believe India is a fundamentally Hindu nation. Founders of the RSS, such as MS Gowalkar cited Mussolini, Hitler and Nazism as influences for their organizations' push for “purity of a race and its culture.” The RSS has a history of violence against Christians, Sikhs and Muslims over the past 50 years that has often totaled thousands of deaths at a time in mass killings.
In a disturbingly circular manner, it now perpetuates white nationalism itself. Both the 2019 Christchurch shooter, who murdered 51 Muslims during Friday prayer, and the neo-Nazi behind the 2011 Norway attacks cited the RSS as an influence. In fact, the manifesto left by Anders Breivik, the terrorist behind the Norwegian attacks, shared URL links to both the BJP and RSS websites.
SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE IN INDIA
According to a study by India’s NDTV network, hate
13 min