Narendra Modi, you asshole

The BBQ Pit
1

The Prime minister of India is a worthless dick

Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won the 2014 general elections in India in a landslide victory. The BJP … aligned with the extremist right-wing group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS. (This unholy alliance is comparable to the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party, but the RSS is a paramilitary group with more violent overtones …) Together, (they) promote the agenda of Hindutva, the notion that India is the homeland of Hindus and all others — the hundreds of millions of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others in this sprawling, secular democracy — are interlopers.

Ok, racism/theocracy, a good place to start. This guy is the South-Asian Rafael Cruz.

*Despite his blatantly anti-secular stance, Modi’s stated goals for economic development are wildly popular, particularly among the country’s majority Hindus…

In January 2015, at the 102nd session of the Indian Science Congress, several members of the BJP government led a session on ancient Indian science and claimed that thousands of years ago, Indians had built planes that could fly not just on earth but between planets. There were other outlandish claims — that the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is proof that Indian ancients knew the secrets of cosmetic surgery, for example…*

Good old historical revisionism. Spacecraft? What is this guy playing at?

In February 2015 … gunmen attacked a left-wing politician called Govind Pansare and his wife; Pansare later died of his injuries. Then, in August, gunmen killed Malleshappa Kalburgi, a leading scholar and rationalist, at his home. “They were a threat, so they were eliminated,” says (number theorist Rajat) Tandon.

Now they are killing infidels?

The latest controversy is over the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a graduate student in life sciences at the University of Hyderabad. Vemula was (an “untouchable”)…On 17 January, Vemula hung himself, saying in his suicide note, “my birth is my fatal accident.” His death has rocked academia, with unabated protests on the Hyderabad campus and elsewhere.

And reinvigorating the loathsome caste system.

I do not care a whit how good your economic policies might be, if your leadership causes violence and militant sectarianism, you must go. This is just fucking up the second largest nation on Earth.

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And the largest democracy on the planet, as well.

3

Probably 5% of what is written in the OP is correct, rest 95% is uninformed bullshit, not even remotely worthy of a response.

Thxbye.

4

Well, there you have it, folks. Some guy on the Internet says that it’s all bullshit. Game, set, match.

But seriously, did this thing happen?

It should be fairly easy to confirm or deny that claim, shouldn’t it?

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Well, the OP is rather weak on evidence. The Prime Minister is allegedly “linked” to this extremist group. Is he “linked” in the way Obama was “linked” to terrorists? Or is there some actual cooperation between the PM and this group? The cite in the OP is to Scientific American, but it’s a blog which means it’s some guys opinion. Is this guy a recognized journalist or scholar in this field, or just someone with a political ax to grind? Pardon me if I’ve never heard of Apoorva Mandavilli.

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The article does not use the term ‘linked’; it uses ‘aligned’ on one specific point. I’d prefer it were clearer as to what ‘aligned’ means in this case.

With that said, I’m actually in agreement with you overall; I’m just not impressed by a bunch of Handwaving by truthseeker2, who has a known political axe to grind.

In any event, the point I was making is that specific statements are made in the blog post that can fairly easily be fact-checked. Here is a Wiki (yes, I know) page regarding the paper on ancient Indian aircraft:

The paper apparently was indeed presented, along with several others on subjects such as “Engineering applications of Ancient Indian botany”, “Neuro-science of yoga: understanding the process”, “Advances in surgery in Ancient India” and “Scientific principles of Ancient Indian architecture and civil engineering”. Did “several members of the BJP government” lead the session? Still looking for evidence on that one.

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But he’s a Truth Seeker. Ipso facto…

What happened to unit #1 though. Was it defective in some way?

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Well, he’s right. Most of the stuff in the OP doesn’t actually have anything to do with Modi. He has certainly staked out some right wing positions in the past, and some of his policies are less than ideal in a purportedly secular state. He’s also been vaguely connected to sectarian violence.

But really, the OP is just “bad things that happened in India,” with no attempt to even tie any of it to Modi other than the first paragraph.

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That one quote is indeed by Modi is truly idiotic obviously.

People interested abt Indian politics should know that** BJP, the present ruling party , is practically the political wing of RSS. **Almost all BJP’s members of parliament are RSS members. (And BJP itself has the largest members of all political parties in the world, more than China’s Communist party iirc).

Many prominent bjp leader’s are Muslims. defense minister in last Bjp govt. was a Christian (George Farnandes). Punjab, goa the Sikh and Christian majority states have been ruled by BJP for last 10-15 yrs.

BJP/RSS is the only truly nationalist organization which stands for various right things like uniform civil code. Modi himself belongs to So-called low-caste(and very poor background as well, used to sell tea on railway station as a kid). So much for being anti-dalit lol.

Compare that to congress dynasty ,nehru–>his daughter Indira gandhi–>his son rajeev gandhi–>his wife Sonia → his son Rahul.

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I don’t know anything about the politics of India, but if this part is true:

*extremist right-wing

*then that is bad fucking news right there!

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Off the rationalists!

12

Yes.

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Gandhi wept.

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And who is the RSS? A right-wing Hindu nationalist organization whose members often incite anti-Christian and anti-Muslim violence and which has a militant subgroup, Bajrang Dal, dedicated to Hindu fundamentalism and suspected of several mosque bombings. Bajrang Dal members who participated in the massacre of 2500 Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots have stated that Modi (at the time chief minister of Gujarat) approved of and even encouraged their actions.

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It’s an old meme in India, actually. I recall reading an anecdote by the late SF writer and globetrotter L. Sprague de Camp: Once when he was in India, an Indian insisted that in ancient times Indians had aircraft, as proven by a verse in the Rig Veda. De Camp replied that in ancient times the West had washing machines, as proven by Homer’s description of the whirlpool Charybdis in the Odyssey. “I heard no more about the Vedic Air Force.”

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I have actually heard Hindus claim that because of the dramatic weapons written about in the Mahabharat, it is clear that ancient India had nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

The BJP is shit, and they had lost power for a while, and I was hopeful, but now they are back in power. They are just like any other religious assholes.

It’s disgusting because Hinduism isn’t even like that. We don’t say “only Hinduism will lead you to god”, we ask that you lead a proper, moral life, follow the rules, and consider Jesus (Isai) just another one of the incarnations of one of our Gods.

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If that’s what Hinduism is like, then why is the BJP so popular among Hindus?

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More like, some guy on the Internet claims all those things happened, based on one guy’s opinion piece, that contains no external citations.

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Well, I found another piece in the Guardian that is not very flattering to Modi. This one is not presented as an “opinion” piece, as such, though the author does use the first-person in a spot or two.

Curiously, the authors of both this article and the blog in the OP are women (not, I think, living in India). Not sure if that means anything.

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BJP is not as bad as it is made out to be. There are some religious nuts, largely harmless, but holding ridiculous fantasy views who are given prominence by media.

Why BJP is so popular: because other alternatives are much worse and BJP takes the correct stand on most issues, and is perceivably least corrupt. If there were no caste-ism and near 100% literacy in India, BJP would practically be invincible. Other parties are doing well because of divisions and ignorance in Indian society.