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India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

reuters.com

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Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#91

Post by chimeracoder »

tokenadult wrote: post #12

Submitted in part because a Hacker News participant recently berated Americans on Hacker News for not being more aware of the election in India. (The person who wrote that comment is an American of Indian heritage, I'm pretty sure.) I was drawn to this article from the Google News news aggregator because it was listed as one of the "in-depth" articles. I was also startled by the title because until now I haven't hear…

> Submitted in part because a Hacker News participant recently berated Americans on Hacker News for not being more aware of the election in India. (The person who wrote that comment is an American of Indian heritage, I'm pretty sure.)

Thanks for submitting this.

Just so you know, my comment (that you refer to) was about the lack of awareness in the US of news outside the US (and a bit of Europe). The largest election in human history just happened to be the example that came to mind at the moment.

I include myself in that statement, for what it's worth. As it turns out, I myself am not as up-to-date on the news of this election as I should be, so I'm glad that you've posted all of this, both for my own benefit and so that others will see it.

There are many other significant world events that are even less visible in the US (but just as important), and I hope we all can become more aware of them, myself included.

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#92

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #82
curiousDog wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is alleged to have failed to stop the riots. He wasn't involved in inciting them. By those standards, Bush should be tried for war crimes for the thousands of innocent civilians that died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. But nope Obama was given a peace prize when there was war going on in Afghanistan

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#93

Post by [deleted] »

efuquen wrote: post #78
discardorama wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not Indian and have no connection to the sub-continent. I am, so allow me. 1. The RSS is not "violently anti-muslim", despite what you read on teh internets. They have a Muslim wing, so to speak: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/the-saffron-muslim/... 2. If the "BJP has other policies, which are disturbing", please enlighten us. Just lobbing an attack and walking away doesn't do any good. 3. The US deni…

I find it amazing the attitude that the 2002 Gujarat riots should be brushed under the rug. There is still plenty of controversy about what happened there and Modi's and the states role in those riots, regardless of what any Supreme Court ruling has said. But I guess we should just let bygones be bygones and forget the 1000+ deaths and 100,000s of displaced lives due to riots that are widely believed to have been enc…

[deleted]

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#94

Post by scarmig »

discardorama wrote: post #36
cstross wrote: post #33

Calling Modi "pro-business" seems like a bit of an over-simplication. He's a member of the RSS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh ), which is arguably a violently anti-muslim paramilitary group, as well as leading the BJP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party ). It's not unreasonable to call the BJP centre-right on economic/business issues ... but they have other policies as…

> I'm not Indian and have no connection to the sub-continent. I am, so allow me. 1. The RSS is not "violently anti-muslim", despite what you read on teh internets. They have a Muslim wing, so to speak: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/the-saffron-muslim/... 2. If the "BJP has other policies, which are disturbing", please enlighten us. Just lobbing an attack and walking away doesn't do any good. 3. The US deni…

That is maybe just a little too generous to the RSS. It's a big organization, so it does a lot of things.

Some well-known events to contextualize the RSS:

1949: A member of the RSS (EDIT: perhaps lapsed, perhaps active), Nathuram Godse, assassinates Mahatma Gandhi for being too partial to Muslims.

1992: The RSS organizes a rally of 150k activists at the Babri Mosque, as part of a campaign to get the government to demolish it and replace it with a Hindu temple. The activists riot, and destroy it.

2002: The Gujarat riots. The RSS played a key role in the violence, organizing communal reprisals against Muslims for a terrorist attack against Hindu pilgrims[1] returning from a trip to the aforementioned demolished mosque.

There are several other of these, along with smaller things that still make you raise an eyebrow (e.g. claiming the infamous gang rape in 2012 happens only in cities and because of malign foreign influences).

Overall, the RSS is a little bit darker than a Hindu-flavored version of the Red Cross.

[1] http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/04/29/india-gujarat-official...

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#95

Post by sgaunt »

The greatest trick Modi pulled is not convincing people that he is not responsible for the 2002 pogrom. Lots of people believe that he is directly or indirectly responsible. But somehow he convinced people that it doesn't matter. Also 10 years of corrupt, incompetent congress goverment made people desperate for change. This reminds me of The Dark Knight quote "You crossed the line first, sir. You hammered them and in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand".

The election battle looked like Kerry vs Bush. Rahul Gandhi looked so weak and incompetent to lead a country whereas Modi projected himself strong(with 52 inch chest!). His PR machinery was so effective that, BJB couldn't have produced the same result with some other leader. My guess is even Modi/BJB was replaced in 5 years, the fallout of this government will stay longer.

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#96

Post by datacog »

progetpro wrote: post #89
datacog wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most likely Mr. Modi doesn't care about US visa I would slightly disagree. To maintain relations, move forward discussion, a US visa would be helpful. And US has already been changing their stance since the last few months as they were aware of the possible Modi victory. But I totally agree that its not a benchmark of character.

So USA can gave you better character certificate then your mother and family :{

I never said that

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#97

Post by sergers »

discardorama wrote: post #50
[deleted] wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

There's no "argument from authority". The OP said he was not Indian; and I replied I was. Maybe you should try to read your own Wikipedia link? Instead of unnecessary blather, why not post some informative links? Educate us all, instead of trolling from behind a keyboard. RSS is no more "violently anti-muslim" than the Congress Party is "violently anti-Sikh". Read up about the 1984 riots, and learn something for a ch…

I would say the congress party is/was more anti-sikh than RSS is anti-muslim.

Sure they put a sikh in power, but he was just a puppet figure in recent years in taking no action.

I very much remember 1984 riots being a Sikh and being there during it.

I welcome modi as a change, NRI Sikhs definitely despise the gandhis

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#98

Post by 3apo »

discardorama wrote: post #86
efuquen wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amazing the attitude that the 2002 Gujarat riots should be brushed under the rug. There is still plenty of controversy about what happened there and Modi's and the states role in those riots, regardless of what any Supreme Court ruling has said. But I guess we should just let bygones be bygones and forget the 1000+ deaths and 100,000s of displaced lives due to riots that are widely believed to have been enc…

As I said, riots are far too frequent in India; even 1 riot is 1 too many. I was in Delhi in 1984. I saw the result of Congress goons going after Sikhs. And yet there was no Supreme Court enquiry. The Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) was never held accountable, since Delhi was a UT at that time. How come no tears are shed for my Sikh brothers?

This. and the fact that Modi was actually praised that Gujrat did not have any riots after 2002/3 and the stable socio-economic climate. Other secular/pro-muslim governments were unable to prevent quite a few during that time

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#99

Post by scarmig »

discardorama wrote: post #86
efuquen wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amazing the attitude that the 2002 Gujarat riots should be brushed under the rug. There is still plenty of controversy about what happened there and Modi's and the states role in those riots, regardless of what any Supreme Court ruling has said. But I guess we should just let bygones be bygones and forget the 1000+ deaths and 100,000s of displaced lives due to riots that are widely believed to have been enc…

As I said, riots are far too frequent in India; even 1 riot is 1 too many. I was in Delhi in 1984. I saw the result of Congress goons going after Sikhs. And yet there was no Supreme Court enquiry. The Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) was never held accountable, since Delhi was a UT at that time. How come no tears are shed for my Sikh brothers?

I don't think you understand how this works. It's not "Congress gets one communal violence pass free, it's only fair if the BJP gets a communal violence pass too!"

Re: India's pro-business Modi storms to historic election win

#100

Post by discardorama »

curiousDog wrote: post #68
cstross wrote: post #33

Calling Modi "pro-business" seems like a bit of an over-simplication. He's a member of the RSS ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh ), which is arguably a violently anti-muslim paramilitary group, as well as leading the BJP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party ). It's not unreasonable to call the BJP centre-right on economic/business issues ... but they have other policies as…

He is alleged to have failed to stop the riots. He wasn't involved in inciting them. By those standards, Bush should be tried for war crimes for the thousands of innocent civilians that died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. But nope Obama was given a peace prize when there was war going on in Afghanistan

> He is alleged to have failed to stop the riots.

One can't say he didn't try. The day after the riots started, the state government sent urgent letters to the 3 states surrounding it, pleading with them to send police reinforcements. But all of the 3 states (not coincidentally, ruled by the Congress Party) refused. Even the Army was not sent (by the Central government, again ruled by Congress Party) for several days as they were "busy".

Let's just think about it: if he was indeed so "anti-muslim", why weren't there more riots in Gujarat after 2002? There have been many riots in other states, but none in Gujarat.

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