Clear parallels between Nazi and Modi regime, says prominent US scholar
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi mimics the Nazi playbook, said Yale University professor and prominent scholar on fascism Dr. Jason Stanley.
“Modi’s far-right supporters and other Hindu supremacists celebrate their connections with Nazis. The RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] explicitly says, ‘We want to do to Muslims what the Nazis did to Jews,” Dr. Stanley said, speaking at an event in New Jersey.
Dr. Stanley argued that the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act introduced by the BJP government could be used to strip Muslims of Indian citizenship, just as the Nuremberg laws were used by Nazis to strip German Jews of citizenship.
“Modi’s visions of a pure Hindu past also mirrors the idealized Aryan past envisioned by Adolf Hitler. I don’t need to uncover connections between Modi and prior fascist regimes. They are clear and explicit,” Dr. Stanley said.
Dr. Stanley made these remarks at an Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) event held in New Jersey, commemorating the 21st anniversary of the Gujarat Muslim genocide.
Home of Muslim politician’s relative demolished in Uttar Pradesh
The Hindu supremacist administration of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state demolished the house of the relative of a prominent Muslim politician, Atiq Ahmed.
The cost of the house is around $300,000 USD.
The house reportedly belonged to Khalid Jafar, where Ahmad and his wife were currently residing after Ahmad’s house was illegally demolished in September 2020.
“The house was illegally constructed in violation of set norms and is therefore being demolished,” officials have claimed.
Uttar Pradesh’s notorious Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “bulldozer policy” against Muslims has been criticized as a means of selective targeting by many Indian and international rights groups.
Hindu extremist administrations have targeted Muslim-owned homes, stores, and spaces of worship in demolition drives across India using flimsy justifications of “illegal encroachment” to target the properties of religious minorities.
Popular Indian news outlet faces backlash for targeting, vilifying Muslims
The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA), a regulatory body, passed orders against four shows hosted by Hindu supremacist news anchor Aman Chopra of the popular news channel News18 India for hate speech against Muslims.
Referring to his coverage of the Uttar Pradesh polls last year, the NBDSA said that “the anchor had given the debate a thrust, which is communal in nature and not appropriate.”
“The program had violated the fundamental principles of impartiality, objectivity, and neutrality that are necessary during reporting,” the NBDSA added.
While debating on the globally-condemned public flogging of Muslim men by Gujarat Police, the anchor celebrated the flogging of the men by describing it as “police ki dandiya” – a reference to a traditional Gujarati dance form in which sticks are used as a prop.
In other programs, the channel had “targeted, vilified, and castigated the entire Muslim community for the actions of a few miscreants.”
The NBDSA has imposed fines on the broadcaster and asked them to remove the Islamophobic content from their website and YouTube.
