As the bad news continues to pile up, the Modi regime has decided it is not enough to deny it. The solution: if India is falling in global rankings, it must come up with its own.
Throughout the buildup to G20, the Narendra Modi regime had repeatedly used the catchphrases ‘mother of democracy’ and ‘vishwaguru’. The term ‘mother of democracy’ appears to have been coined as a counter to India’s rapid slide on the global democracy index. ‘Vishwaguru’ pushes the theme that Modi is a world leader whose arrival can no longer be ignored.
The G20 presidency is rotational and it happened to be India’s turn last year to host the summit. Yashwant Sinha has recalled that when he chaired the G20 in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s term, the then prime minister had not turned it into an occasion for cult building. But the present government’s entire focus at G20, with its logo of a globe resting on a lotus, was to project India as a vigorous democracy and Modi as its only leader. So, why has the BJP manifesto now suddenly replaced ‘Vishwaguru’ with ‘Vishwabandhu’?
Several western governments have of late voiced concern over developments in India. The US, for instance, has commented on communal tension, religious freedom and the arrests of political workers:
- The US state department in its annual human rights assessment found “significant” abuses in Manipur;
- It also expressed concern over communal violence in Gurugram;
- The US Commission on International Religious Freedom flagged ‘declining religious freedom’ in India and appealed to the Modi government to free 37 individuals across multiple faiths jailed for the ‘peaceful exercise of their freedom of religion or belief’.
- State department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US was closely following Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and was aware of the freezing of the Congress party’s bank accounts, and that it encouraged fair, transparent and timely legal processes for each of these issues.
- A state department official called upon India to uphold its human rights obligations.
President Joe Biden not attending the Republic Day parade as chief guest, the postponement of the Quad summit, and NSA Jake Sullivan’s cancellation of his India visits have been seen by some as signals of US disapproval. The latest uncharitable commentt: Biden’s reference to India as ‘xenophobic’.
Even at the G20 summit in New Delhi, a resolution was adopted calling for religious freedom and freedom of peaceful assembly and deploring all acts of religious hatred.
Faced with criticism, the Modi regime’s first instinct has been to dismiss all of this as Western propaganda and try to limit its impact on domestic politics….
https://thewire.in/politics/the-vishwaguru-is-realising-the-world-does-not-dance-to-his-tune
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