A strange case of Trump-mania in India
by Apoorva Vishnoi
Yes! India of all the places. Stop pinching yourself. This is the reality. Actually, not the entire India loves it. The entire India does not love anything. There will always be that one person who does not think that mango is the ‘King of Fruits’ or has never watched a cricket match or does not care about movies, things that are usually considered integral to our Indian-ness.
To be clear, certain right-leaning Hindus love him. And to be honest, I don’t find it very strange. Allow me to explain why.
1. Modi and Trump
On the face of it, these two leaders can’t be more different. One is a former ‘chaiwala’ who was born in a lower middle class family. The other is a successful business man born with a silver spoon. One got married under pressure and later separated from his wife, becoming a celibate. The other is a womanizer, now on his third wife. One was elected three times as CM and has lot of governance experience. The other is holding a politcal office for the first time. One has got an excellent PR team. The other has slammed mainstream media rightly for their Leftist bias.
Still there are few similarities. Both are right-leaning politicians. Both are nationalists, in the sense that they emphasis a ‘Nation First’ policy. They are populists. They resonate with the middle class-majority. They have portrayed themselves anti-establishment by pitching themselves against the highly-educated elitist people. Their election was preceded by two terms of soft-spoken Left-leaning politicians. Their winning was to some extent contributed by the bad image of their opponents. They are divisive figures whose elections have been followed by turbulence. They love each other too!
2. The 5-letter word: Islam
What really unites both these figures is their anti-Islamic positions. Right-leaning people in both countries have real and imaginary grievances with Islamists and many a times Muslims in general. And many right-wing organisations are afraid of Islamisation of their respective countries. 2002 riots in India, shamefully needs no introduction and Trump’s Muslim ban has also been the talk of the town. And again both the sides bond over their love of Islam(-ist) bashing.*
3. Pakistan
Basically, an extension of Islam(ist) bashing. Some Pakistanis have a negative opinion of USA and India. And this favor is returned by right-wing in USA and India.
4. China
Now China-phobia is not merely restricted to right-wing people in India but is a general pursuit, encouraged by Indian media. But still, anti-Chinese rhetoric has made Trump the apple of the eyes of Indians who don’t like China, of which there are plenty.
*some people on the right-wing have a problem with Islam and some with Islamists. But both the sides believe that they have been victimized in the name of Islam.
