Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Do Trump & Modi Have Much in Common?

Why is the Hindu Right excited about the Trump candidacy? Why are they openly supporting Trump for President? What do Trump and Hindu Nationalists have in common? Let's explore answers to these questions.

Photo Credit The Guardian


Hindu Nationalists Support Trump:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu supporters have organized "puja" (worship) to pray for the Trump victory in the heart of Indian capital, according to The Guardian newspaper. “He’s our hero,” said a Hindu supporter of Trump. “We are praying for Trump because he is the only one who can help mankind.” “He’s the only many who can put an end to Islamic terrorism", the supporter added.

Some of Trump's Hindu supporters have rallied outside the US embassy in New Delhi to urge their fellow Hindu citizens of the United States to vote for Donald Trump for president.

Indian-American Support for Trump:

Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, a close Modi ally and the BJP’s advisor on U.S. politics, has emerged as a big backer of Trump’s candidacy. Kumar is actively raising campaign funds within the Indian American Hindu community for Trump. Kumar has so far raised $898,000 from Hindu donors for the Trump campaign.

“That’s just a start. That’s the seed money,” Kumar told The Hill in an interview at Cleveland’s tony Renaissance Hotel during the first day of the Republican National Convention in July this year.

Kumar has pledged to personally spend $2 million of his own money on Republican candidates this cycle, according to The Hill.

The Hill reported that "Shalli Kumar was especially won over by Trump’s tough words for Pakistan, India’s neighbor and nemesis; and the businessman praised Trump’s views on Muslim profiling".

Modi and Trump:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has built his entire political career on the intense hatred of  Muslims. Republican presidential candidate has built his entire campaign on Islamophobia and xenophobia. That's what the two men have in common.

Just as white racists form the core of Trump's support base in America, the Modi phenomenon in India has been fueled by Hindu Nationalists whose leaders have praised Adolph Hitler for his hatred of Jews.

M.S. Golwalkar, a Hindu Nationalist who Mr. Modi has described as "worthy of worship" wrote the following about Muslims in his book "We":

 "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening.”

"To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races -- the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by."

Trump's Hindu Nationalist Ties:

Trump has close business ties with Mangal Prabhat Lodha,  a real estate mogul and a BJP state legislator. Trump organization is building a 75-story Trump Tower in Mumbai that is scheduled to be completed in 2018. Trump signed the licensing deal for it in 2014, according to The Intercept.

Lodha is known for his support for anti-Muslim and anti-Christian causes. Lodha has over the past two decades repeatedly pushed for anti-conversion legislation, called the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, that would criminalize the work of Christian and Muslim missionaries.

Lodha rose to political power in Mumbai in 1994 as Hindu activists protested over claims that Christian missionaries were entering slums and converting low-caste Hindus. In one incident, BJP activists attacked Christian converts over a dispute in Dharavi, a Mumbai slum. In another local incident, Hindus attacked a Catholic convent after accusing the school of converting a Hindu student to Christianity. Skirmishes between Christians and Muslims led to BJP activists taking to the streets to demand anti-conversion laws, according to The Intercept.

Summary:

Modi and Trump have much in common. Both share their hatred of Muslims and they have used it gain political support in their respective countries. Both have racist xenophobic supporters. Modi-loving Hindu Nationalists are actively supporting Trump's candidacy in the upcoming US elections.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Hinduization of India Under Modi

Trump Phenomenon

Hindu Nationalists Love Nazis

Globalization of Hindu Nationalism

Norway's Breivik's Hindutva Rhetoric

Does Trump Know India Sends More Illegals to US Than Mexico?

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/clinton-holds-41-point-lead-over-trump-among-asian-american-n659416

Trump has very supporters in Indian Americans.

Riaz Haq said...

#US and #Indian Police bust #India's call centers posing as #IRS scam #American taxpayers of millions of dollars

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/fake-call-centers-in-india-scam-americans-of-millions/ar-BBx4xsM?li=BBnb7Kz


The Indian police have managed to uncover a huge tax scam where a large number of Americans were duped of millions of dollars by people posing as tax authorities and asking for the payment of unpaid taxes. Seventy people have been arrested as of Thursday, and hundreds questioned in relation with the fraud, a Mumbai police officer said.

The scam ran for almost a year, the Indian police told the Associated Press (AP). Fake call centers were used to voice mail messages to U.S. nationals, telling them to call back regarding the back taxes they owed. When any of these people did call back, the scammers would manage to take out thousands of dollars from them to “settle” the tax cases.

“They would make threatening calls to honest taxpayers in the U.S., ask them to deposit money through pre-paid cards,” Param Bir Singh, the police chief of Thane, a Mumbai suburb, told Indian news network NDTV.

According to Mumbai police officer Parag Marere, the elaborate plan brought in more than $150,000 a day — possibly amounting to almost $55 million in the one year the scam ran.

“We are questioning those who were involved in the fraud, including those posing as tax investigators,” Marere said, according to the AP.

Of the 600 or more people being questioned, many are expected to face charges for running the fake call centers, the police said. They include alleged leaders of the scam, as well as those associated with other tasks within the fraudulent enterprise that ran out of several stories in a Mumbai office building.

The criminal charges filed against those involved include extortion, impersonation and violations of the country’s information technology laws, the AP reported.

Indian media reported that the scam involved collaborators based out of the United States as well. At least one company in the U.S. reportedly supplied the Mumbai call centers with personal information of those targeted by the scam. Almost 70 percent of the money made stayed in India, while the remaining was shared with those based outside the country.

In police raids this week, hundreds of hard disks, high-end servers and other electronic equipment were seized from the offices of the fake call centers.

Jairam said...

@Anony: So your link shows that Indians support the least for Trump. So what is the point Riaz is trying to make.

Riaz Haq said...

Jairam: "So what is the point Riaz is trying to make. "


70% of Indian-Americans are leaning against Trump, about the same percentage of Indians who voted against Modi in India in the last elections.

Read: BJP's 31% lowest vote share of any party to win majority

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/BJPs-31-lowest-vote-share-of-any-party-to-win-majority/articleshow/35315930.cms

It's possible in India's parliamentary system to win majority of seats in Indian parliament and pick Indian PM.

It's not possible in the US or a candidate to get such a low percentage as Modi did to be elected president.

Jairam said...

That is the first-past-the-post system, whether you like it or not.

check this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2005

Now pls don't tell me that Tony Blair's 35.2% was MUCH MORE than Modi's 31% percentage :-)

In US it is possible for the elected president to get less % of popular votes, as it happened with
Bush vs Gore. So it is not as if US system is perfect.

In any case I hope Trump does not win. But many feel that the voters are so angry with status-quo that they will vote him on Nov 8. Did you see Fareed Zakaria's interview of Nigal Farage. NF is betting Trump will win.

Yuck. I dislike both candidates. Is this the best US could offer.

Riaz Haq said...

Jairam: "Now pls don't tell me that Tony Blair's 35.2% was MUCH MORE than Modi's 31% percentage :-)"

Indian system is a copy of the British system. It has inherited all of its flaws.


Jairam: " In US it is possible for the elected president to get less % of popular votes, as it happened with
Bush vs Gore. So it is not as if US system is perfect."

Yes, but not as low as 30%. Most US presidential elections are close with each major party candidate getting close to half of the votes. It's a much more authentic mandate than in India or UK or for that matter Pakistan.

Jairam said...

No sir , USA looks better because it is essentially a 2 party system. If in USA other presidential candidates also get sizaBle vote, then the elected president can end up getting like what modi got.

Riaz Haq said...

Jairam: " If in USA other presidential candidates also get sizaBle vote, then the elected president can end up getting like what modi got. "


US election is state-by-state on the basis of "winner takes all" electoral votes in each state.

The winner must get a minimum of 270 of the 538 electoral votes.

A 3rd party candidate can win only if he/she manages to get sizable votes across 50 states...an impossible task under the current system.


Another model is in Europe. Countries like France have run-off elections between the top two vote-getters if none gets over 50% in the first round.

Right-wing parties like Modi's (like Marine Le Pen's National Front in France) have won lots of votes in first round but lost in 2nd round run-offs.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi unable to defend role in #Gujarat massacre, abruptly cuts off interview with Karan Thapar IBN-CNN https://youtu.be/tAGAYL8dtic via @YouTube

Anonymous said...

UK system is superior to US system as it is near immune to gridlock resulting from different parties controlling the legislature and executive.

Jairam said...

@anonymous: Not only that, the only reason why elected presidents in US get around 50% of popular votes is because in US there are only two parties.

Anonymous said...

@Jairam Which also means cartelization of power aka duopoly.

In any case political systems grow organically and the Republic of India is a continuation of the British Empire in Asia as a political entity.The institution s are 250 years old and have stabilized democracy in sharp contrast with our immediate neighborhood we abandon this framework at our peril though 10_20 years later when we are a second world country like Brazil we should introduce proportional representation on the Australian model i.e single transferable vote.This is already the case for Rajya Sabha elections so should be conceptually easy to implement.Will require replacement of the EVMs though.

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "Which also means cartelization of power aka duopoly."

Power in India at the center is now a duopoly of BJP and Congress. Before that, it was a Congress monopoly for decades after independence.

Anonymous said...

"Power in India at the center is now a duopoly of BJP and Congress. Before that, it was a Congress monopoly for decades after independence."

Things are changing now. Cong has shrunk alarmingly. If cong by itself can not get more than 50 seats, there is no way it will be the dominant party in UPA.

Lesson for Cong is that, if for 60 yrs you try to appease minorities at the expense of majority, you end up being thrown out. And minorities still remain poor and backward.
A lose-lose situation.

Anonymous said...

In India a party at the centre having absolute majority like the current government is rare.Infact this is the first time since 1984.Congress is getting wiped out only 44 seats at the centre and not even the second largest party in all subsequent state election s.The opposition space is being filled with new parties like AAP which is a much more dynamic model.BJP itself had just 2 seats in 1984.

Then of course there is the upper house whose assent is required for important legislation like the GST.So I would hardly describe this as a duopoly at the centre.

In the UK in the 19th century the two main parties were conservative and liberals.Now it is conservative and labor.

This is completely different from 200 + year duopoly with the government not being formed automatically by the party that controls the legislature thus very prone to gridlock as in the US model.

Riaz Haq said...

#Trump recorded having extremely lewd, degrading conversation about women in 2005.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html


Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone, saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do it,” according to a video obtained by The Washington Post.

The video captures Trump talking with Billy Bush, then of “Access Hollywood,” on a bus with the show’s name written across the side. They were arriving on the set of “Days of Our Lives” to tape a segment about Trump’s cameo on the soap opera.

The tape includes audio of Bush and Trump talking inside the bus, as well as audio and video once they emerge from it to begin shooting the segment.

In that audio, Trump discusses a failed attempt to seduce a woman, whose full name is not given in the video.

“I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump is heard saying. It was unclear when the events he was describing took place. The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania.

“Whoa,” another voice said.

“I did try and f--- her. She was married,” Trump says.

Trump continues: “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’”

“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married,” Trump says. “Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

At that point in the audio, Trump and Bush appear to notice Arianne Zucker, the actress who is waiting to escort them into the soap-opera set.

“Your girl’s hot as s---, in the purple,” says Bush, who’s now a co-host of NBC’s “Today” show.

“Whoa!” Trump says. “Whoa!”

“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump says. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”

“And when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”

“Whatever you want,” says another voice, apparently Bush’s.

Riaz Haq said...

All Six of #America's science #NobelPrize winners this year are immigrants. #immigration #Trump http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nobel-prize-immigrants_us_57fbdf51e4b068ecb5e0cd4e?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 … via @TheWorldPost

Donald Trump has spent an inordinate amount of time this election claiming the only people that immigrate to the United States are the ones “that have lots of problems.”

If only he were talking about brilliant scientists, toiling away at some of the world’s most intractable issues, he might actually have a point. This year, every American who won a Nobel prize in a scientific field was an immigrant.

Riaz Haq said...

The Strange History of How Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Became a Bestseller in India

https://mic.com/articles/120411/how-hitler-s-mein-kampf-became-a-bestseller-in-india#.h80BQsrcO


Like almost anywhere else in the world, Indian bookstores tend to place national bestsellers at the entrance, enticing readers as they walk in. Foreigners might be surprised to discover the book very often featured among that coveted selection is none other than Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. One of the biggest publishing companies in India distributing the book has seen sales of it steadily increasing annually.

More than a dozen editions of Mein Kampf have circulated through India, translated into various languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Tamil and Bengali. The English edition distributed by publishing house Jaico sold more than a hundred thousand copies between 2003 and 2010.

"The initial print run of 2,000 copies in 2003 sold out immediately and we knew we had a best-seller on our hands. Since then the numbers have increased every year to around 15,000 copies until last year when we sold 10,000 copies over a six-month period in our Delhi shops," R. H. Sharma, Jaico's chief editor, told the Telegraph in 2009, at which point his publishing company was reprinting the book twice annually to keep up with demand.

The ebook version has been topping the charts, surpassing hardcopy sales and becoming a bestseller online in 2014. Right now, for a mere 76 cents USD, you can purchase the Kindle version of Mein Kampf, which sits at Amazon India's 11th bestselling book.

While a lack of official numbers and piracy issues mean these figures are likely an underrepresentation of the manifesto's prevalence, suffice to say that the book and its author's popularity have been on a steady rise in the world's second biggest country.

The fanfare in India extends beyond the written word. In 2011, capitalizing on the figure's popularity, the Indian film industry produced a film entitled Dear Friend Hitler, also known as Gandhi to Hitler. The IMDb synopsis reads, "Adolf Hitler assists India in its freedom struggle against the British, while Mohandas Gandhi writes to him to end violence." The reviews were not good, but the film exists nonetheless.

Riaz Haq said...

Among Donald #Trump’s Biggest #US Fans: #Hindu Nationalists. #Modi #BJP #India

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/us/politics/indian-americans-trump.html?_r=0

As one of Mr. Trump’s biggest Hindu financial backers, Mr. Kumar, who runs an electronics manufacturing company in Illinois and grew up in the state of Punjab along the Pakistani border, has helped organize a speech by the Republican nominee in Edison, N.J., at a Bollywood-themed charity concert on Saturday. The proceeds will benefit terrorism victims.

“It will be an incredible evening,” Mr. Trump said in a video promoting it, one of the few ethnic events he has agreed to do during this campaign.

Mr. Trump may be largely indifferent to the reasons behind his Hindu loyalists’ fervor, but his most senior advisers are not. The campaign’s chief executive, Stephen K. Bannon, is a student of nationalist movements. Mr. Bannon is close to Nigel Farage, a central figure in Britain’s movement to leave the European Union, and he is an admirer of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist Mr. Bannon has called “the Reagan of India.”

It may be pure coincidence that some of Mr. Trump’s words channel the nationalistic and, some argue, anti-Muslim sentiments that Mr. Modi stoked as he rose to power. But it is certainly not coincidental that many of Mr. Trump’s biggest Hindu supporters are also some of Mr. Modi’s most ardent backers.

At times, the similarity of Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Modi’s political vocabulary is striking. Mr. Modi fed the perception that India’s feckless leaders had failed to allow the country to reach its full potential. And he campaigned as the only one capable of fixing that.

“I will make such a wonderful India that all Americans will stand in line to get a visa for India,” he said once. A centerpiece of his agenda is the “Make in India” program, which is aimed at stimulating economic growth by encouraging more manufacturing in the country.

“It’s all about India first, or ‘Make India Great,’ ” said Sujeeth Draksharam, a civil engineer from Houston who supports Mr. Trump and planned to attend Saturday’s event. “Look at Donald Trump. It’s the same thing. ‘Make America Great Again’ — strong again.”

Another similarly powerful sentiment that both leaders have harnessed is grievance. Mr. Trump has seized on how the working class feels out of place and left behind in a country that is changing demographically and economically.

Even if Mr. Modi’s appeals were never as crass as Mr. Trump’s, his followers say he always understood that many Hindus felt their concerns were ignored by India’s secular and, in their minds, deeply corrupt government, which Mr. Modi vowed to clean up.

“One of the things that Modi very subtly articulated, but was very clear about, was something which nobody wanted to say,” said Subramanian Swamy, a longtime Indian politician and Hindu nationalist who is often a thorn in the side of the country’s political elite. “And that is that Hindus, despite being 80 percent of the population, feel like they got a raw deal.”

Riaz Haq said...

Pro #Trump #Hindu Group's Ad Attacks #HillaryClinton As 'Sympathetic' To #Pakistan http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/republican-hindu-body-attacks-hillary-clinton-as-sympathetic-to-pakistan-1620831 … via @ndtv

A Republican Hindu organisation is running anti-Hillary Clinton advertisement on Indian-American television channels, attacking the Democratic presidential candidate as "sympathetic towards Pakistan" and her longtime aide for her Pakistani origin.

"Hillary, sympathetic towards Pakistan gave billions of dollars in aid and military equipment used against India. She was instrumental in blocking PM Modi's visa. (She) takes contributions from countries and individuals known to support radical Islam," says the ad endorsed by the Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC).

The advertisement also attacks former US president and Clinton's husband Bill, and her longtime aide Huma Abedin.

"Her current aide Huma Abedin is of Pakistani origin and will become chief of staff if she wins. Her husband Bill Clinton wants to give Kashmir to Pakistan," it says and calls on Americans to "Vote Republican - great for you, great for US-Indian relations and great for America."

Riaz Haq said...

The Incendiary Appeal of Demagoguery in Our Time. #Trump #Modi #Bigotry

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/opinion/the-incendiary-appeal-of-demagoguery-in-our-time.html?_r=0


The stink first became unmistakable in India in May 2014, when Narendra Modi, a member of an alt-right Hindu organization inspired by fascists and Nazis, was elected prime minister. Like Donald Trump, Mr. Modi rose to power demonizing ethnic-religious minorities, immigrants and the establishment media, and boasting about the size of a body part.

To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre: If the truth remains cloaked in the motherland, in the colonies it stands naked. Before Mr. Trump’s election in America exposed the failures of democracy, they had been revealed in Mr. Modi’s India. Most disturbing, in both places, the alt-rightists were enabled by the conceits, follies and collusion of impeccably mainstream individuals and institutions.

Arguments over what precisely is to blame for Mr. Trump’s apotheosis — inequality, callous globalized elites, corruptible local legislators, zealous ideologues, a news media either toxic or complaisant — will only intensify in the coming months. Writers as various as George Packer and Thomas Frank have already identified as a culprit a professional class of bankers, lawyers, technocrats and pundits. Promoting free trade and financial deregulation around the globe, the Washington Consensus eventually produced too many victims in Washington’s own hinterland.

In the case of India, the role of institutional rot — venal legislators, a mendacious media — and the elites’ moral and intellectual truancy is clear. To see it one only has to remember that Mr. Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, was accused of supervising mass murder and gang rapes of Muslims — and consequently was barred from travel to the United States for nearly a decade — and that none of that prevented him from being elected to India’s highest office.

Mr. Modi’s ascent, like that of many demagogues today, was preordained by the garish dreams of power, wealth and glory that colonized many minds in the age of globalization. Americans are, as Mr. Frank writes, “a population brought up expecting to enjoy life in what it is often told is the richest country in the world.” In India, one of the poorest countries in the world, “the tutelage of a distant and self-satisfied elite” — to borrow from Ross Douthat, describing America — spawned a much more extravagant sense of entitlement. In that elite’s phantasmagoria, the India that embraced deregulation and privatization was a “roaring capitalist success story,” according to a 2006 cover of Foreign Affairs magazine.

The narrative went something like this: Now that the government was getting out of the way of buoyant entrepreneurs, a rising tide was lifting the boats of all Indians aspiring to the richness of the world. Suave technocrats, economists and publicists (mostly U.S.-trained) endlessly regurgitated free-market nostrums (imported from America) — what Mr. Frank calls the “liberalism of the rich.”

The fervent rhetoric about private wealth-creation and its trickle-down benefits openly mocked, and eventually stigmatized, India’s founding ideals of egalitarian and collective welfare. It is this extraordinary historical reversal, and its slick agents, that must be investigated in order to understand the incendiary appeal of demagoguery in our time.

Riaz Haq said...

League of nationalists

Economist Magazine

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21710276-all-around-world-nationalists-are-gaining-ground-why-league-nationalists

It is troubling, then, how many countries are shifting from the universal, civic nationalism towards the blood-and-soil, ethnic sort. As positive patriotism warps into negative nationalism, solidarity is mutating into distrust of minorities, who are present in growing numbers (see chart 1). A benign love of one’s country—the spirit that impels Americans to salute the Stars and Stripes, Nigerians to cheer the Super Eagles and Britons to buy Duchess of Cambridge teacups—is being replaced by an urge to look on the world with mistrust.

----------

In India ethnic nationalism, never far beneath the surface, is worryingly resurgent. Since 2014 the country has been ruled by Narendra Modi of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party seeks to distance itself from radical Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) groups, which criticise it as “soft” on Pakistan, Muslims and those who harm cows (which are sacred to Hindus). And Mr Modi is urbane, pro-business and friendly towards the West. But he is also a lifelong member of the RSS (National Volunteer Organisation), a 5m-strong Hindu group founded in 1925 and modelled loosely on the Boy Scouts.

Members of the RSS parade in khaki uniforms, do physical jerks in the morning, help old ladies cross the street, pick up litter—and are occasional recruits for extremist groups that beat up left-wing students. And last year Mr Modi’s minister of culture, Mahesh Sharma, said that a former president was a patriot “despite being a Muslim”. The minister remains in his job.

Hindutva purports to represent all Hindus, who are four-fifths of India’s population. It promises a national rebirth, a return to an idealised past and the retrieval of an “authentic” native identity. Its adherents see themselves as honest folk fighting corrupt cosmopolitans. They have changed India’s political language, deriding “political correctness”, and calling critical journalists “presstitutes” and political opponents “anti-national”. The RSS also exerts huge sway over education and the media. Some states and schools have adopted textbooks written by RSS scholars that play up the role of Hindutva leaders and marginalise more secular ones.

The BJP has made a big push to control the judiciary by changing rules for appointments, but has met strong resistance. It does not control most states in the east and south. Many of the educated elite despise it. And banging on too much about Hinduism and not enough about the economy is thought to have cost it a state election in Bihar last year.

So India will not slide easily into Turkish-style autocracy—but plenty of secular, liberal Indians are nervous. The police, especially, are thought to favour the ruling party. A reporter nabbed by cops for the “crime” of filming angry crowds outside a bank in Delhi this week says they threatened him with a beating and said: “Who gave you permission to film? Our government has changed; you can’t just take pictures anywhere you like any more.”

Riaz Haq said...

Does #India’s Right Wing #Hindu Have Any Ideas? #Modi #BJP
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/opinion/does-indias-right-wing-have-any-ideas.html?_r=1


What all these people had in common was an immense sense of grievance against an establishment they had vanquished electorally, but whose ideas still defined them. As the journalist Ashok Malik said while pointing out the right’s many victories, “Rather than confidently advance tomorrow’s agenda, the intellectual warriors of the right are still comfortable fighting the battles of yesterday.”

The targets of their rage are internationally familiar: the liberal elite, the news media, academia. But in India there is an added twist, a double sense of affront. It was not merely elitism that the New Right is reacting against, but an elitism that had the secret backing of the West, through its various newspapers, nongovernmental organizations and think tanks.

“So if you are an embattled Hindu, or even an atheist Indian,” Rajeev Srinivasan wrote in the right-wing magazine Swarajya, “you feel there is an entire constellation of powers with a negative intent arrayed against you, and that they have created a galaxy of sepoys, especially in media and academia.”

Historically, a “sepoy” was an Indian soldier serving in the British Army. It has become a favorite jibe on the right for an Anglicized liberal elite that was seen to be working against its own country.


At first glance it would seem that Shaurya Doval, who had organized the conclave, is part of such an elite. His father had been the director of India’s internal intelligence agency. He grew up in privilege, traveling the world. He has a business degree from the University of Chicago, and spent 10 years as a Wall Street banker.

But Mr. Doval, in fact, represents a new pain that globalization has wrought: the pain of cultural loss. In America, he had a revelation. “The eureka moment,” he told me, “came when I discovered the disconnect between what India really is, and who I am.”

It was true. The Indian elite had gloried in this disconnect; “foreigners in their own land,” Gandhi had called them in 1916. Even the modern state had in many ways been an extension of colonial power. Here, in Goa, it was as if the entire intellectual enterprise was suspect. Many felt that Western ideas like liberalism, secularism and freedom of speech had been used cynically against them to maintain the power of a cultural oligarchy. These exalted words were now terms of abuse.

But that did not mean the right wing had ideas of its own. Mr. Doval spoke of the need for “modern Indian state players” to make “a connect” with “India’s civilizational ethos.” He felt India had not been able to unlock the potential of its young, energetic population because the modern state represented too abrupt a break with the continuity of old India.

But was it really possible to reverse this process? Could modern India be remade to fit these sentimental longings? And didn’t all modernity represent a rupture with tradition?

The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which had, until recently, dominated politics since independence, was the supreme political achievement of an older English-speaking elite. Mr. Modi’s election was the crowning achievement of this new Indian elite.

The writer Patrick French, who was also at the Goa conclave, said of the right, “I’ve never ignored these people because I could see they had a political future.”

Riaz Haq said...

The number of people who vote for extremists like Masroor Jhangvi in Pakistan is relatively small but they are much more committed. They tuned to vote for him in a very low turn-out by-election.

In the by-election won Masroor Jhangvi, less than a quarter of the registered voters voted for him in a crowded field of 25 candidates for a seat in Punjab provincial assembly.

Nothing surprises me after the election of Trump and Modi who got elected to much more powerful top jobs with a lot more votes

http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/10/do-trump-modi-have-much-in-common.html

Riaz Haq said...

ECP declares Masroor successful in PP-78 election

http://pakobserver.net/ecp-declares-masroor-successful-in-pp-78-election/

Jhang—The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared official result of by-election in PP-78, held on Thursday, December 1. As per results, an independent candidate Maulana Masroor Nawaz Jhangvi has been declared successful with 48,563 votes.
A notification, issued here by District Election Commissioner/ Returning Officer Tanvirul Hassan Langah, stated that out of total 118,627 male voters 57,611 used their right to vote, while out of 97,935 female voters 37,925 voters cast their vote. 1,794 votes were rejected and total turnout remained 44.11 per cent.
The notification said that Haji Azad Naser Ansari of the Pakistan Muslim League-N got 35,471 votes, Sarfraz Rabbani of the Pakistan People’s Party secured 3,924 votes, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Arfa Majeed 2,845 votes.—APP


Total turn-out: 44%

Jhangvi's votes: 50%

Riaz Haq said...

Proposed #Trump Executive Order Clamps Down on #H1B #Visas. #India Worried. http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/proposed-trump-executive-order-clamps-down-on-h--b/article_e07cb01e-e8ad-11e6-9a24-bb5b1668a926.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share … via @IndiaWest

President Donald Trump is currently considering an executive order that would make sweeping changes to highly-skilled foreign worker visa programs, including H-1B visas.

A leaked draft of the executive order titled “Protecting American jobs and workers by strengthening the integrity of foreign worker visa programs” appeared on the New York Times Web site Jan. 27.

“With this executive order, President Trump will help fulfill several campaign promises by aligning immigration policies with the national interest, and ensuring that officials administer our laws in a manner that prioritizes the interests of American workers and – to the maximum degree possible – the jobs, wages, and well-being of those workers,” read the draft order, signed by Andrew Bremberg, assistant to the president and the director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.

Bremberg unfathomably focused on undocumented immigration in his preamble to the order, and also incomprehensively mentioned the impact of highly-skilled foreign worker programs on “low-skilled, teenage, and African American and Hispanic workers.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from Northern California’s Silicon Valley, also introduced legislation in the House last week, mandating that H-1B workers be paid a minimum wage of $130,000, to curtail what she called “the abuse of the work visa program.”

Shares of top Indian IT companies sank Jan. 31 in response to news of the re-formatting of the H-1B program. A total of 65,000 H-1B visas are allocated each year, with about 70 percent going to Indians. The H-1B visa allows American employers to hire highly-skilled foreign workers for a two-year period, which can be renewed.

Indian American immigration attorney Kalpana Peddibhotla, who handles a large number of H-1B applications each year, told India-West she has already seen a drop in applicants.

Trump’s “Buy American, Hire Americans” campaign slogan has had a chilling effect on Indian nationals willing to travel to the U.S. for temporary work. “It is not a drop in need, it is a drop in the number of people willing to fill those needs,” said the Newark, Calif.-based attorney.

Peddibhotla said there were several paragraphs of “unsettling language” in the six page order, particularly a directive that would mandate the Department of Homeland Security to “ensure that beneficiaries of the program are the best and the brightest.”

The attorney said this was troubling, as it invites government oversight into private employers’ hiring decisions. “It imposes a lot of ambiguous language on employers,” she said.

Furthermore, she told India-West, the term “national interest” is vague, and not defined in the order, noting that the order mandates DHS within 90 days to determine whether foreign worker programs violate prevailing immigration laws and are not in the national interest.

The text of the order does not impose an immediate freeze on the number of H-1B visas issued this year, but Peddibhotla said the language suggests there will be a reduction in the number of visas issued in future years.

Peddibhotla said the continuance of work authorization for some H-4 spouses of H-1B visa holders is uncertain and undefined in the draft order. At a press briefing Jan. 30, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters: “You’ve already seen a lot of action on immigration and I think whether it’s that or the spousal visas or other types of visas, I think there’s an overall need to look at these programs. You’ll see both through executive action and through comprehensive measures a way to address immigration as a whole.”

Riaz Haq said...

#India's Hindu Nationalists Love #Trump


https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/10155136396998690/

Riaz Haq said...

#India Cuts Lobbying Expenses In #Washington. #Modi #Trump #Congress #Senate #State #Trade http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/india-cuts-lobbying-expenses-in-us-1731087 … via @ndtv

India has cut expenses toward lobbying in the US with a total payment of $120,000 to its registered lobbyist firm in the second quarter of 2017 - the first cut in nearly seven years. The disclosure has been made by BGR Government Affairs, which lobbied on behalf of India on issues relating to "bilateral US-India relations". According to the latest quarterly disclosure report filed with the US Senate, BGR has disclosed a total income of $120,000 from India toward "all lobbying related income from the client".

All lobbyist firms need to get registered in the US for undertaking any lobbying activities and file quarterly disclosures including about the payments received, specific issues for lobbying and the agencies approached by it.

During the second quarter of 2017 ended June 30, BGR lobbied on behalf of the Indian government at the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, the Department Commerce, the Department of State and the US Trade Representative.

Prior to the latest quarter, BGR's quarterly lobbying income from the Indian government stood unchanged at $180,000 since the fourth quarter of 2010. Before that, the Indian government had paid BGR $60,000 in the third quarter of 2010 and less than $5,000 in the second quarter of that year, according to the disclosure reports filed over the years.

The latest disclosure report did not cite any reason for the decline in the quarterly payment to $120,000. The highest quarterly amount so far has been recorded in the fourth quarter of 2009 when BGR was paid $200,000, as per an analysis of all disclosure reports filed by it.

While the "specific lobbying issue" disclosed by BGR for Indian government has been "bilateral US-India relations" for many quarters now, the firm also used to lobby "issues related to the civil nuclear agreement" between the US and India till 2009.

BGR began lobbying in the US on behalf of the Indian government in late 2005. In its registration disclosure filed in October 2005, BGR had said it has been mandated to "provide guidance and counsel with regard to issues impacting bilateral relations between the United States and the Republic of India".

Subsequently, in its year-end disclosure report for 2005, when BGR was paid a total of $240,000, the lobbyist disclosed that it "provided guidance and counsel with regard to issues impacting bilateral relations between the US and the Republic of India, including a potential civil nuclear agreement".

Issues on bilateral relationship and civil nuclear agreement continued to be listed as "specific lobbying issues" in the disclosure reports for the years 2006-2009, after which the disclosed lobbying area has been limited to 'bilateral US-India relationship'.

Since 2005-end when BGR began lobbying in the US on behalf of the Indian government, it has been paid a total of $8 million (approximately Rs. 50 crore at the current exchange rate).

Riaz Haq said...

Trump’s Threat to Democracy
Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof JAN. 10, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/opinion/trumps-how-democracies-die.html

Two political scientists specializing in how democracies decay and die have compiled four warning signs to determine if a political leader is a dangerous authoritarian:

1. The leader shows only a weak commitment to democratic rules. 2. He or she denies the legitimacy of opponents. 3. He or she tolerates violence. 4. He or she shows some willingness to curb civil liberties or the media.

“A politician who meets even one of these criteria is cause for concern,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, both professors at Harvard, write in their important new book, “How Democracies Die,” which will be released next week.

“With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century,” they say, which sounds reassuring. Unfortunately, they have one update: “Donald Trump met them all.”

We tend to assume that the threat to democracies comes from coups or violent revolutions, but the authors say that in modern times, democracies are more likely to wither at the hands of insiders who gain power initially through elections. That’s what happened, to one degree or another, in Russia, the Philippines, Turkey, Venezuela, Ecuador, Hungary, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Poland and Peru.

Venezuela was a relatively prosperous democracy, for example, when the populist demagogue Hugo Chávez tapped the frustrations of ordinary citizens to be elected president in 1998.

A survey that year found that the Venezuelan public overwhelmingly believed that “democracy is always the best form of government,” with only one-quarter saying that authoritarianism is sometimes preferable. Yet against their will, Venezuelans slid into autocracy.

“This is how democracies now die,” Levitsky and Ziblatt write. “Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box.”

Likewise, the authors say, no more than 2 percent of Germans or Italians joined the Nazi or Fascist Parties before they gained power, and early on there doesn’t seem to have been clear majority support for authoritarianism in either Germany or Italy. But both Hitler and Mussolini were shrewd demagogues who benefited from the blindness of political insiders who accommodated them.

Let me say right here that I don’t for a moment think the United States will follow the path of Venezuela, Germany or Italy. Yes, I do see in Trump these authoritarian tendencies — plus a troubling fondness for other authoritarians, like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines — but I’m confident our institutions are stronger than Trump.

It’s true that he has tried to undermine institutions and referees of our political system: judges, the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies like the F.B.I., the intelligence community, the news media, the opposition party and Congress. But to his great frustration, American institutions have mostly passed the stress test with flying colors.

“President Trump followed the electoral authoritarian script during his first year,” Levitsky and Ziblatt conclude. “He made efforts to capture the referees, sideline the key players who might halt him, and tilt the playing field. But the president has talked more than he has acted, and his most notorious threats have not been realized. … Little actual backsliding occurred in 2017.”

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi, in #Davos2018 , Praises #Globalization Without Noting #India’s #Trade Barriers. #ModiAtDavos #China #tariffs

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/business/modi-in-davos-praises-globalization-without-mentioning-india-trade-barriers.html

“Forces of protectionism are raising their heads against globalization,” Mr. Modi said during a speech to the World Economic Forum here. “Their intention is not only to avoid globalization, but they also want to reverse its natural flow.”

Notably missing from the speech was any mention of recent moves by Mr. Modi’s own government to restrict imports into India as part of a broad industrial policy meant to force foreign companies to increase manufacturing operations in the country. In essence, he is pursuing a protectionist agenda, at odds with the mantra of globalization.

Mr. Modi’s speech reflects the tenor of the times. As President Trump pushes an “America First” strategy, global leaders are lining up to position themselves as a counterpoint, even if there is sometimes a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality.

In Davos last year, President Xi Jinping of China positioned himself as a champion of economic globalization in a rebuke to Mr. Trump, who, as president-elect at the time, was threatening to impose steep tariffs. Yet China has long bent the rules of commerce to fit it own needs.

Mr. Modi is following a similar path in India, as he looks to nurture growth in his sprawling economy and to create jobs.

Last month, India’s government imposed stiff tariffs on imports of cellphones, video cameras and televisions. The move put heavy pressure on Apple, which ships most of the iPhones it sells in India from China, to do more manufacturing in India.

Mr. Modi’s government is also considering a recommendation by India’s Directorate General of Safeguards, Customs and Central Excise that the country impose 70 percent tariffs on imported solar panels. Such a move would appear to conflict with Mr. Modi’s call here for international action on climate change. Introducing such stiff tariffs could well encourage the production of more solar panels in India, but it could also make solar power far more expensive for Indian consumers and, in turn, hurt the fight against climate change.

At 70 percent, the tariffs that India is considering on imported solar panels would be more than double those that the Trump administration said on Monday it would impose on such panels. Mr. Modi did not indicate in his speech what his government might decide on the issue.

-------

A ranking of countries on pollution and ecosystem protection released here on Tuesday showed India falling to 177 out of 180, down from 156 two years ago. By comparison, China was No. 120 on the list, which was compiled by Yale’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

“They are driving economic growth, but not paying attention to what I would call the parallel challenge of sustainable development: avoiding environmental degradation,” Daniel Esty, the center’s director, said of India.

As in the United States, industrial policies in India meant to foster domestic manufacturing can collide with a push by environmentalists and clean-energy electric utilities for solar panels, even imported ones, to be deployed as widely and as cheaply as possible. Among the other people attending Mr. Modi’s speech was Sumant Sinha, chairman and chief executive of ReNew Power Ventures, a company based on the outskirts of New Delhi that builds clean energy projects.

-----------
Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra, the vast Indian state that includes Mumbai and big manufacturing cities like Pune, also attended Mr. Modi’s speech. He said that he saw growing interest among companies from outside India to manufacture in the country. Foxconn, the giant Taiwanese manufacturer that produces the bulk of Apple’s consumer electronics, is in negotiations with Maharashtra officials to set up a large factory there.

Riaz Haq said...

#Trump Organization real estate partner in #India accused of 'large-scale fraud' #realestate

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/379078-complaint-filed-against-trump-organizations-real-estate-partner

The Trump Organization's real estate partner in India is being accused of at least $147 million in fraud.

Two global investment companies last month filed a criminal complaint with New Delhi police against IREO, accusing the company of engaging in "large-scale fraud," The Washington Post reported.

The complaint said the company was "illegally siphoning off" at least $147 million of investor money and alleges the number could actually approach $200 million.

The real estate investment company had worked with the Trump Organization on a project in India, according to the Post.

The two companies that filed the complaint against IREO include the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and Axon Partners. The companies invested about $300 million total in IREO, according to the Post.

The criminal complaint does not mention IREO's partnership with the Trump Organization, according to the newspaper.

IREO's managing director, Lalit Goyal, wrote in a March 13 letter to the company's investors that "as far as the allegation of fraud, diversion and misappropriation of funds is concerned, that is false, baseless and devoid of any merit."

In the letter, he also called the legal proceedings a "needless and unwarranted distraction," adding that they would result in "significant damage and harm to IREO."

Goyal did not comment directly to the Post regarding the complaint.

Donald Trump Jr. has, in the past, praised IREO as "truly a fantastic group." Goyal said in an interview with the Post in 2017 that IREO thought Trump Jr. would be "the ideal partner."

The Trump Organization and IREO had first discussed working together on a commercial real estate tower around 2013, according to the Post, but that deal didn't end up happening.

In 2016, the two groups signed a licensing agreement regarding a luxury office building.

Goyal offered praise for Trump Jr., saying he was "very focused on what the commercial building should be."

"The shape of the glass, what customers like. He was very businesslike," Goyal said in the 2017 interview.

Trump Jr. took a trip to India last month to promote Trump-branded developments in a number of Indian cities. The visit drew some scrutiny after buyers of certain apartments were offered “a conversation and dinner” with Trump Jr. for a fee of $38,000.

Trump Jr. did not promote IREO on the trip, only briefly mentioning the real estate partner in a CNBC interview.

Riaz Haq said...

#NewZealand mosques shooter Benton Tarrant praised #Trump in manifesto. Tarrant's manifesto also praised #AndersBreivik, the #Norwegian white supremacist who murdered 77 people in #Norway in 2011. #ChristchurchMosqueAttack #Islamophobia @AJENews https://aje.io/qgl4a

The Australian-born suspect who shot dead dozens of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, has published a manifesto praising US President Donald Trump and Anders Breivik, the Norwegian white supremacist who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011.

The 74-page dossier, which has been described by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a "work of hate", hailed Trump as "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose".

The 28-year-old, who is now in police custody, also claimed that he had "brief contact" with Breivik and had received a "blessing" for his actions from the mass murderer's acquaintances.

The dossier stated objections to immigration and multiculturalism, and decries the "decaying" culture of the white, European, Western world.

Earlier on Friday, at least 49 people were killed and 20 others seriously wounded in shootings at two mosques in Christchurch in the worst attack in the Pacific country's history.

The majority of the victims were shot at the Al Noor Mosque, while the rest were killed at another mosque in suburban Linwood.

The Muslim worshippers had congregated for Friday prayers, Islam's holy day of the week.

Trump, whose rhetoric is sometimes aligned with the far-right in the US, condemned the "horrible massacre" in a post on Twitter.

"My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The US stands by New Zealand for anything we can do," he wrote.

Moments before, his spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: "We stand in solidarity with the people of New Zealand and their government against this vicious act of hate."

"The United States strongly condemns the attack in Christchurch. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," she added.

Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand, described the shootings as a "well-planned terrorist attack", and said this is one of the country's "darkest days".

In addition to the Australian-born man, three other suspects, including a woman, have been arrested, according to Mike Bush, New Zealand's police commissioner.

Live stream
The main suspect also live broadcasted his rampage on social media.

The New Zealand government said it could be illegal to share the video, which showed the gunman repeatedly shooting at worshippers from close range.

The Facebook Live video, taken with a camera that appeared to be mounted on the gunman's body, shows a clean-shaven, Caucasian man with short hair driving to the Masjid al Noor mosque.

He enters the building and fires repeatedly at worshippers as he moves from room to room.

AFP determined the video was genuine through a digital investigation that included matching screenshots of the mosque taken from the gunman's footage with images available online showing the same areas.

In the video, the shooter parks his car next to the mosque and gets out of the vehicle with a rifle. He slowly goes to the boot of his car and retrieves another firearm.

Riaz Haq said...

#Facebook in #India Is Drowning in Anti-#Muslim #Hate Speech. #Modi #BJP #Islamophobia - VICE News

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/mb8xxb/facebook-in-india-is-drowning-in-anti-muslim-hate-speech

At the end of February, Facebook launched an ad campaign in the Indian state of Maharashtra that was designed to inform users about resources available to protect against harassment and hate speech.

But instead of informing the public, it enraged them.

Facebook’s mistake: portraying a troll as a member of the lower Dalit caste, an oversight that essentially reinforced ugly stereotypes against the very group that is most discriminated against on its platform. Hundreds of users reported the ad as hate speech, and within a day the ad was removed. But the incident symbolized Facebook’s mounting failures in its biggest market, particularly when it comes to the spread of harassment and hate speech.

In fact, despite Facebook’s efforts, it’s barely made a dent in that department: 93 percent of all hate speech posts reported to Facebook by monitoring group Equality Labs remain on the platform — including content advocating violence, bullying and use of offensive slurs, according to a new report from the South Asian advocacy group, which is dedicated to ending caste-based discrimination, Islamophobia and religious intolerance.

Facebook's inability to curb hate speech is disproportionately harming India's Muslim minorities and at times spilling over into real-world violence, according to the report, which draws worrying comparisons between the situation in India and the platform's failures in Myanmar, where it was used to fuel violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

“Facebook has failed its caste, gender, and religious minority users.” Thenmozhi Soundararajan, one of the authors of the report, told VICE News. ”By its own community standards, it has not fulfilled the bare minimum required to ensure that hate speech and disinformation does not become normalized in the platform.”

OVERRUN BY ISLAMOPHOBIA

Facebook has faced near ceaseless criticism at home and abroad for the often-unchecked megaphone it provides to hate mongers and merchants of disinformation. In India, those flaws appear super-charged and directed primarily at one community: Muslims. According to the report:

Islamophobic content was the biggest source of hate speech on Facebook in India, accounting for 37 percent of the content reported by Equality Labs. Fake News (16 percent), casteism (13 percent) and gender/sexuality hate speech (13 percent) were the next biggest groups.

43 percent of the hate speech Facebook initially removed was restored within 90 days, and 100% of these restored posts were Islamophobic in nature.

Facebook repeatedly states it responds to the majority of reports in under 24 hrs, but Equality Labs found that the median response time in India was 48 hours.

Facebook said it has removed some of the content Equality Labs flagged as breaching its Community Standards, though it has not seen the full report. But the company did not respond to a question about why so much of the content that was removed later reappeared on the platform.

Overall, researchers pinned the blame squarely on Facebook, which it described as ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with the torrent of hate speech on its platform. With almost 300 million active accounts and potentially hundreds of millions more still to join, India is Facebook’s biggest market, and its most challenging, with unique obstacles to overcome,. “Indian religious and socio-political contexts are complex enough to require their own review and co-design process to adequately address safety.” the report said.

But instead of tailoring a solution to cope with India’s specific challenges, the company continues to rely on community standards and practices designed for western markets, Equality Labs says, that don’t track with India’s challenges.

Riaz Haq said...

"White Nationalist" Steve Bannon: As a nationalist, #Modi was a #Trump before Trump. #India #BJP #Islamophobia #Xenophobia http://toi.in/9fjcIb46/a24gk via @timesofindia

Riaz Haq said...

As India’s #Economy Sags With Country's Worst Slump in Years, Even the #Trump Brand Is Struggling. #India has the largest number of Trump Towers outside North America, but sales are cool in an ailing market for luxury real estate. #Modi #BJP https://nyti.ms/37PJbih

According to its most recent annual financial disclosure, for 2018, the company earned perhaps as little as $200,000 last year on all four of its projects in India. The maximum revenue reported at Trump Organization from the four India projects dropped from $6 million in 2017 to $2 million in 2018, although some income from India might be counted as contributing to other accounts.

------------

As Donald J. Trump prepared to run for president, Indian real estate magnates made a bet that licensing his name would sell apartments. Now India has more Trump-branded projects than any country except the United States — six residential towers in four locations, including Pune, a quiet industrial city of more than 3 million people.

But when Mr. Trump touches down in India on Monday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his first official visit as president, he will enter a country caught in a grave slowdown. As the Indian economy faces its lowest growth rate in more than a decade, developers have abandoned residential projects and slashed prices to attract buyers.

It is not just the Trump brand that is suffering from weak demand. Thousands of apartments are vacant nationwide or trapped in construction delays and prices have stagnated. Debt-strapped builders cannot secure loans.

Real estate agents and developers sold about 40 percent less square footage last year than in 2014, according to Prashant Thakur, the head of research at Anarock Property Consultants, a real estate research firm.

At Trump Towers Pune, which were completed a few years ago as the first project in India to bear the Trump name, only seven of 46 units are occupied, according to building employees and others with knowledge of occupancy and sales.

The real estate market is now so weak, the Trump family’s partners in Pune decided to not even attempt — at least for now — to sell half of the luxury apartments in the complex, which retail for about 35 percent more than comparable properties.

Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Gurugram, a tech hub near New Delhi, all have Trump-branded projects. The deals in India were negotiated before Mr. Trump was elected, and the Trump family said they were contractually obligated to see them through. But the decision to push ahead has generated conflict-of-interest questions about the mixing of presidential duties with family business.

Panchshil Realty, which built the towers in Pune, did not answer emailed questions. Through a spokesman, the company’s chairman, Atul Chordia, declined to comment.

Asked to comment on its projects in India, the Trump organization and one of its India-based partners did not dispute that their real estate projects in India, particularly in Pune and Mumbai, have faced challenges because of the downturn in the luxury real-estate market.

But they argued that while they are suffering too, their sales are still better than others in the market.

“Despite the slowdown in India, Trump is still the most sought after luxury residential brand in the country,” Kalpesh Mehta, the developer of unfinished projects in Kolkata and Gurugram, said in a statement.

Riaz Haq said...

In January, #Modi poured scorn on experts & scientists who warned his country faced a "tsunami" of infection. Now the #Indian PM is facing harsh criticism for premature triumphalism amid a terrible surge that has people dying in the streets. #BJP #Hindutva https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/world/meanwhile-in-america-populism/index.html

Among its deadly properties, Covid-19 appears perfectly engineered to destroy the houses of sand built by populist leaders.

Back in January, Narendra Modi poured scorn on experts and scientists who warned his country faced a "tsunami" of infection. Now the Indian Prime Minister is being harshly criticized for premature triumphalism amid a terrible surge that has people dying in the streets.
Modi is only the latest populist crusader to come unstuck. Former US President Donald Trump's denialism appears to have cost tens of thousands of lives. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro fueled a disaster by rejecting Covid-19 countermeasures in favor of crank cures. UK PM Boris Johnson paid a heavy personal and political price for ignoring the threat of the pandemic early on, though he has since become more cautious.

Covid-19 doesn't have political preferences. Even some leaders praised for their scientific approach have seen their standing consumed by the virus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's final months in power for instance are being tarnished by a wave of infections worsened by Europe's slow vaccine rollout.

But the pandemic is guaranteed to expose leaders who undermine truth, create alternative realities, ostracize experts and scientists and refuse to take precautions to keep the public safe. Earlier this month for instance, Modi boasted of huge rally crowds ahead of elections in West Bengal. His hubris in the face of the virus recalls Trump's refusal to give up rallies last year at which he boasted the virus was being driven out -- even as his crowds contributed to a building wave of lethal infections that winter.
Having their negligence exposed may not deter the truth-twisting populist leaders inspired by Trump (who is already spoiling for a comeback). Populism will find fertile soil in the economic and social detritus left in the pandemic's wake. But when leaders prioritize their political image over public health, millions of people suffer.

Riaz Haq said...

Uncovering a ‘humble’ chaiwallah’s billion-dollar lifestyle
It could put every fat cat in Power Delhi and Khan Market to shame even as taxpayers foot Narendra Modi’s astronomical, wasteful bill.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2019/05/14/narendra-modi-a-humble-chaiwallahs-billion-dollar-lifestyle


For starters, if the country’s humble prime minister really wants to lead by living a life of humility and austerity—in deference to the millions of poor and impoverished people he constantly refers to with such touching sympathy—he could perhaps exit from his grand, five-house official residence in the intoxicating world of Lutyens’ Delhi, that not only takes up the entire road, but is spread over 12 acres, in the leafy boulevards of the Capital state. While the layout of the five-mansion residence is secret for security reasons, there are private quarters, guest rooms for visitors, and accommodation for family members, apart from salons to entertain. It’s all run efficiently by a staff of over 50 gardeners, chauffeurs, housekeepers, cooks, and electricians. There are barbers, hairdressers and tailors on call, apart from doctors and nurses on duty round the clock with a state-of-the-art fitted ambulance on stand-by. It’s a household expense that runs into crores of rupees.

Imagine if humble Modi had downsized his personal quarters to a functional minimum, not necessarily outside Lutyens’ zone but in a more modest house—hasn’t he tired of telling the world how he works a punishing 20-hour work schedule, barely sleeping for three-four hours? It would have sent a slap to the slothful and entitled Lutyens’-Khan Market gang he so reviles, and would have also revealed the prime minister’s true beginnings of not just being a chaiwallah’s son (the fable flip-flops from Modi being a tea-seller to being the son of one) but as an ascetic RSS pracharak too, brought up on a rigid and rigorous discipline of life.

I suppose it takes a lot of money to keep Modi humble and poor.

If there are five bullet-proof BMW sedans to ferry him around in the city—though he’s reportedly switched to Range Rovers—there’s Air India One, the plush Boeing 747 jumbo jet, which Modi uses whenever he flies on official visits abroad. It made sense to have the jumbo when prime ministers ferried officials, business delegations, and a sizeable media contingent on tours. But a media-averse Modi travels without them, and with only a bare minimum of officials. As RTI queries have revealed, Air India has sent a whopping bill of ₹443.4 crore for the PM’s trips abroad so far, on aircraft maintenance and setting up a secure hotline, though the airline is yet to calculate the expenses for Modi’s trips to five more countries stretching from Argentina to Japan. The Prime Minister’s Office has declined to give any calculation on Modi’s domestic trips, saying it does not keep an account of it.

Now, couldn’t the humble PM opt for a business jet, with less opulence and luxury, and save taxpayer’s money? Instead, the poor and humble PM has splashed out on his trips abroad with an astronomical bill of ₹2,021 crore in the last five years, which amounts to ₹400 crore a year. His fans say that previous prime ministers too blew up similar amounts of money, but aren’t we dealing with a frugal and ascetic RSS pracharak today?

But Modi’s vanity doesn’t end here: it’s in the publicity sweepstakes that expenses have blown through the roof. As RTI queries reveal, Modi spent nearly ₹4,400 crore on publicity alone (footed by the government and taxpayer) in just four years, until 2018, to bolster his image along with the schemes launched by him. Unfortunately, reports on the performance of the schemes fade in the blaze of Modi’s publicity blitzkrieg. In election year now, the mind boggles with the campaign bill, as reports say Modi’s BJP got 94 per cent of election bonds issued (running into ₹210 crore). Its Facebook and other social media is a multi-million dollar industry.


Riaz Haq said...

#Trump calls for scrapping of the #US #Constitution as a means to reinstall himself into the presidency. Trump also called for a do-over of the #presidential race that he lost in a landslide to President Joe #Biden. #Democracy #America https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-calls-for-the-termination-of-the-united-states-constitution-over-2020-loss/ar-AA14Rskv?li=BBnbfcL

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday morning raged on his anti-Twitter app Truth Social about non-existent "fraud and deception" in the November 8th midterm elections – and he proposed scrapping the United States Constitution as a means to reinstall himself into the presidency. Trump also called for a do-over of the race that he lost in a landslide to President Joe Biden.


"So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution," Trump "truthed."

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in either the 2020 or 2022 elections, let alone that which was pervasive enough to affect the results.

"Our great 'Founders' did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!" Trump added. The authors of the Constitution – many of whom were traffickers of enslaved human beings – only wanted white male landowners to vote.