Global community has called
out Modi regime over religion-based law as well as Kashmir lockdown and
demonetization
BySAIKAT
DATTA, NEW DELHI
After decades of notching
important diplomatic victories, India is now on the receiving end of unprecedented
global suspicion and hostility.
New Delhi’s diminishment of
global stature has been fed by three key policies of the Narendra Modi
government – a religion-based citizenship law, the abrogation of Kashmir’s
special status and demonetization.
Modi won a landslide victory
for a second term in the general elections held in April-May this year. But a
series of major policy changes in the first few months has now put the
government under siege globally.
In the historic South Block,
which houses India’s venerable Ministry of External Affairs, there is deep
consternation over this eroding stature.
On Tuesday morning Indians
woke up to the news that a German exchange student, Jakob Lindenthal, was
“orally informed” by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office to leave
India.
Lindenthal was in India as an
exchange student to do a masters’ course in the department of physics at the
prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai campus.
He was seen on social media
marching with his fellow students, protesting India’s new controversial
citizenship law that uses religion as a criterion and excludes Muslims from
getting fast-track citizenship.
While that is seen as a
violation of India’s constitution, many fear that once a national register of
citizens starts, it will end up disenfranchising Muslims
India has already started
building detention centers to house those found without adequate documentation.
The centers closely resemble the concentration camps built by the Nazis.
Lindenthal was seen holding up
placards warning people about what happened in Germany under the Nazis between
1933 and 1945.
“I love India but I am
concerned about illiberal extremes in the country,” he told
the media before flying back to Germany. “In Germany, nobody is ever
evicted for participating in a legal demonstration.”
It is unclear under what
sections of India’s visa regime Lindenthal was deported. However, this shows
how the Modi government’s recent actions are increasingly undermining its
foreign policy objectives.
US fire
The controversial citizenship
law that excludes Muslims has already drawn fire from India’s most important
strategic partner, the United States. Two Democratic Party presidential
candidates, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, have already expressed concern.
“India is an important friend
and partner of the United States, which is why I’m concerned about the ongoing
political detentions, communications blackouts, and other steps being taken by
the government that could threaten its longstanding democratic
traditions” Buttigieg
said on Twitter.
Kamala Harris, who pulled out
of the Democrat presidential race, also criticized India for the lockdown in
Kashmir and the ongoing protests over the citizenship law.
Three presidential hopefuls
criticizing India and its policies has rarely, if ever, happened before. But
the bilateral relationship has seen more downs than ups in the past few months.
Two congressional committees called for detailed hearings on Kashmir after
Article 370, a special constitutional provision giving India’s only
Muslim-majority state a special status, was abrogated.
US American congresswoman
Pramila Jaypal also filed a report calling out India’s policies on Kashmir. Her
report drew more diplomatic blood when India’s foreign minister, in Washington
DC to attend the strategic 2+2 dialogue called off a scheduled meeting.
Jaishankar was slotted to meet
a US Congress delegation to brief them about India’s positions on Kashmir, the
new citizenship law and other bilateral matters. He insisted that Jaypal be
dropped from the meeting, a demand that was immediately refused. The US State
Department told Indian counterparts that Jaishankar was in no position to
“dictate terms” to members of the US Congress, according to at least two Indian
diplomats who are aware of the matter.
The 2+2 meeting between
India’s foreign and defense ministers and their American counterparts also
proved to be a non-starter. According to US State Department officials, there
is a lot of frustration with India’s slow pace in making the strategic
partnership stronger.
“Patience is running out in
Washington and the latest move has raised major concerns for us,” a US diplomat
told Asia Times.
The US Federal Commission on
Religious Freedom has also proposed sanctions against India’s federal home
minister, Amit Shah. (Modi himself used to be on a US visa ban list for his
alleged role in the Gujarat riots that saw a number of Mulsims being killed in
2002. This was reversed after he was elected as the prime minister in 2014.)
Other countries
Canada, the UK and Israel have
issued travel advisories urging their citizens not to travel to India in the
wake of the widespread protests across the country.
After protests broke out over
the citizenship law, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe called off a
long-planned trip to India. He was expected to travel to Assam, the epicenter
of the protests, to announce new investments in the region. Abe was seen as one
of Modi’s closest international allies.
India’s relationships with
Bangladesh, one of its closest allies in South Asia and a key partner on
counter-terrorism, have been hurt by the NRC and CAA.
The new reverses on the
diplomatic front get some residual effect from the Modi government’s move
earlier, in November 2016, to demonetize 87% of India’s cash. That damage to
the economy has been severe and led to doubts about India’s potential to grow
economically as the GDP has shrunk with consumption falling drastically and
economists calling the slowdown “severe.”
India’s “soft power”has also
been eroded as editorials and front-page reports in the Washington Post, New
York Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Haatrez and other
major publications have castigated the Modi government for its citizenship law
and the continuing lockdown in Kashmir.
In perhaps the unkindest cut
of all, NTV, a German TV channel, went so far as to depict a cartoonish Adolf
Hitler holding up a baby Modi as his offspring.
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