04/14/2014
David Cohen
Former Deputy Assistant Sec. of the Interior
India, the world’s largest democracy, is in the midst of a
marathon five-week election that will result in the selection of its
next prime minister. Although Nate Silver has yet to make it official,
most pundits and prognosticators predict that Narendra Modi will be
India’s next leader.
Modi bears striking similarities to a celebrated American
president: one Ronald Wilson Reagan. Both men rose from humble origins.
Modi, in particular, worked from childhood hawking tea in railway
stations. Both were popular and successful state governors: Modi is the
chief minister (equivalent to a governor) of Gujarat, an Indian state
whose gift to the world was Mahatma Gandhi. Modi, like Reagan, is an
unabashed proponent of free market economics: “Modinomics,” the term
coined to describe Modi’s free market and anti-corruption reforms, is of
course a nod to “Reaganomics”; it has unleashed an economic boom in
Gujarat.
A major common denominator between the two men is the
nature of their detractors. Like the U.S., India has cultural elitists
who seem to desperately crave the approval of their former colonial
masters in Europe. The Indian cultural elite despises Modi every bit as
much as the American cultural elite despised Reagan. They look down
their noses at Modi, cringing at the thought of being led by a common
“tea seller” who can barely speak English. (Can you imagine Chinese or
Russian citizens, proud of their own heritage, being ashamed that their
leaders don’t speak English?)
The American elites, of course, believed that Reagan was an
unsophisticated simpleton who was too extreme to be president. Prior to
his election, they issued dire warnings about the calamities that would
ensue if Reagan came to power. The rest, as they say, is history, and
the collapse of the Soviet empire left Reagan’s critics on the wrong
side of it.
The cultural elites labeled Reagan a racist. That’s a term
they use for anyone who believes that a robust and growing market
economy, rather than massive government bureaucracy, is the best way to
promote upward mobility for the poor and minorities.
Modi, a proud Hindu, is also labeled by his critics as a
racist. As with Reagan, the charge lacks merit and is stoked by
political opponents seeking to sow fear (and hence cement support) in
minority communities. In Modi’s case, the charge is linked to tragic
events that occurred in Gujarat in 2002: A train carrying hundreds of
Hindu pilgrims was set afire, killing about 60. Following reports that
Muslim arsonists were responsible, anti-Muslim violence broke out and
hundreds were killed. Modi took several steps to protect the besieged
Muslim communities, including imposing curfews, issuing shoot-on-sight
orders against rioters, and calling in the army.
Still, political opponents accused him of not doing enough
to prevent the violence, and even of condoning it. The Supreme Court of
India launched a special investigation of the incident, and found the
accusations against Modi to be unsubstantiated by the evidence. The
Supreme Court’s conclusions have been ignored by Modi’s political
opponents; they continue to profit politically by smearing Modi with
India’s version of the “race card.”
It is a testament to the tolerance of India’s
Hindu-majority society that it hosts several flourishing communities of
other faiths. Neighboring Pakistan, by contrast, is a highly
inhospitable environment for those who don’t subscribe to the majority
Muslim religion. The religious minority communities that have managed to
survive there are tiny and constantly under siege. Bangladesh has
similar problems. When critics lob the evidence-free accusation that
Modi is “intolerant” of religious minorities, they are certainly not
applying the standards that prevail in the region.
Modi promises to take a tough stand against Pakistan-sponsored
terrorism. In this regard, Americans would do well to remember that the
Islamists are not fighting against the “West.” Islamists are fighting
against all non-Islamic societies, including Buddhists in Thailand;
Christians in Nigeria, the Philippines, Chechnya, Cyprus, Kosovo,
Bosnia, Macedonia, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Timor-Leste; Jews in
Israel; minority communities throughout the Muslim world — and, quite
prominently, Hindus in India. India is very much on the front lines of
what we used to call the War on Terror, before our leaders lost the
nerve to name it. Modi — with his assertive posture against Pakistan
reminiscent of Reagan’s stance against the Soviet Union — should be a
valuable natural ally.
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