CFR 5/15 Religion and Foreign Policy Webinar: India's 2024 General Elections
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- Lisa Curtis, senior fellow and director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at Center for a New American Security, and Milan Vaishnav, senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discuss the geopolitical implications of India’s general elections and the influence of religion on politics in India. Alyssa Ayres, dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, moderates the discussion.
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Hindus like Mr. Vaishnav, who claim intellectual superiority and profess to understand Indian politics and religious dynamics, only echos Western agenda against India. Such individuals, reminiscent of historical figures like Jaichand, unfortunately undermine the interests of their country of origin.
they are the elite who kept everything for themselves, and now that there is truly inclusive growth by discarding their leadership, they are very agitated.
It's ok as long he remits the foreign exchange earned back to India.🤧
@@rakadus I say let the likes of Jaichands keep their money with them. India doesn't need money earned by who speak ill of our beloved country and of Hindus. What a shame!
Your brown sahib certainly earned his cheque. Well done. He did his ancestors proud. 😂😂😂
seems like a Pakistani sneeked in this discussion!!😂😂
The West can cope,
Modi's coming back
Jewish state of israel can be a friend but Hindu india is not😂😂😂looks like a abrahamic hypocrisy .
I can understand the pain of Sepoy Vaishnav😂 He literally is clutching at straws.
How less they know about India..and they call themselves experts..shame!
Seriously. !!!
Hinduphobia at its peak
Not phobia bur hindudvesh
The constant references to India as a "secular" democracy by both Milan Vaishnav and Lisa Curtis, overlook one basic fact: the Constitution of India promulgated in 1950 contained no statement of India as a "secular" or "socialist" country! In fact, India's Constitution begins with the words, "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States,"" with the word "Bharat" being a reference to its ancient Vedic name, establishing that India as a modern entity is founded on its civilizational basis, "Bharat". The framers of India's Constitution were well aware that the Hindu religion is innately accommodating of all religions because it recognizes many paths to the divine. The words "secular" and "socialist" were added to the Preamble of India's Constitution during the 1970's by the government of Indira Gandhi, under the Congress Party, during the period known as the "Emergency," when Indira Gandhi needed the support of the leftist parties and the Muslim vote bloc, to remain in power.
Yet the “secular” votaries - many Muslims ( men in particular) - are resistant to a common "secular" civil code for marriage, divorce and succession, for all Indian citizens. Instead, many Muslims insist on following a separate Sharia code that allows polygamy to continue, while the rest of India, including Hindus and all the other minorities, such as Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians/Parsees, Jews, and others, follow marriage laws based on monogamy. Similarly with divorce and succession. The verdict in the 1985 Shah Bano case of a 70 year-old divorced Muslim woman who successfully petitioned the Supreme Court of India and was granted an alimony to be paid by her ex-husband, was overturned in Parliament by the Congress Party government under former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1986, in deference to the Muslim community that wanted Muslim divorces to be governed by Sharia traditions, not "secular" laws that they constantly advocate for political convenience.
There are other draconian Acts passed by the Congress Party when they held power, that are certainly not "secular" and clearly contravene the fundamental, constitutional right of Hindu citizens, such as, The Places of Worship Act of 1991, that prevents Hindus or Hindu entities from legally reclaiming a converted Hindu temple ( from a mosque). Any Act that provides an advantage to one religious community while depriving another religious community of its constitutional right to legal redress, is neither "secular" nor constitutional. Similarly, the Wakf Act passed by the Congress Party government in 1995, gives the Muslim Wakf Board the right to claim any property in India, that it believes as belonging to the Wakf board. Not long ago, there was the bizarre case of the Wakf Board claiming the property of an ancient 2500-year old Hindu temple in southern India, when Islam did not even exist as a religion at the time!
Both Milan Vaishnav and Lisa Curtis seem to completely ignore the real history of issues like the reconstruction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the 2002 Gujarat riots. Vaishnav cherry picks certain events, such as the demolition of the Babri mosque, without mentioning the very basic fact that there was a large Hindu temple at that very site in Ayodhya during 11th-12th century that was destroyed in the 15th century by the Islamic invader, Babur. The ‘Babri’ mosque was built over the ruins of this temple. The Archeological Survey of India ( ASI) conducted a thorough survey/excavation of the site, which was ordered by the Supreme Court of India, and confirmed the ruins of a large Hindu temple under the mosque. In fact, one of the senior archeologists working on the ASI excavation, Mr. K.K. Mohammed, repudiated the completely false claims of the ruling government’s ( the Congress Party) Marxist historians, Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar and others, that there was never a Hindu temple beneath the mosque. He reiterated that there was indeed “clear evidence of a large Hindu temple" beneath the Babri mosque.
As a general historical fact, there are many thousands of Hindu temples that were pillaged and destroyed in India, by Muslim invaders between the 12-17th centuries C.E., with Islamic conquerors often building a mosque directly over the ruins of the temple, as a symbol of Islamic victory and Hindu humiliation. The sacred Vishwanath temple in the city of Varanasi ( or Kashi in Sanskrit) was repeatedly destroyed by Islamic invaders and repeatedly rebuilt by the Hindus. The Mughal ruler, Aurangzeb made it a point to have the pillars of the destroyed Hindu temple clearly visible ( on the western side) beneath the dome of the 'Gyanvapi' mosque that was built in the 17th century over the temple ruins, just to rub it in. Once again, the ASI survey found clear evidence of the ruins of a "grand" Hindu temple beneath the mosque, yet the Muslim side continues to petition the courts to slow-walk the process of justice.
In any other culture and country, such as in Spain and Greece, for example, all churches that were converted to mosques under Islamic conquerors centuries ago, were reconverted back to churches, without any litigation or public debate. It’s hypocritical that leftist analysts constantly refer to “Hindu nationalism” when Hindus want to reclaim their spiritual heritage in their own land, after more than a millennium of their religious subjugation, and the economic and political exploitation by British colonialists. The history of the Islamic invaders in India can be described in the words of U.S. historian, Will Durant, as "perhaps the bloodiest in human history,"' with at least 80 million Hindus slaughtered (in Durant's estimate).
The British colonialists placed only Hindu temples under government control, while churches and mosques were left free to administer their places of worship and manage their revenues unhindered. The misappropriation of Hindu temple funds ( donated by Hindus) and lands and interference in the administration of Hindu temples by government agents, from certain anti-Hindu state governments continues to this day in India, particularly in states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Yet there is the constant refrain about "secularism."
The question from someone about mistreatment of Muslims in India is also absolutely baseless. Muslims have been some of the biggest beneficiaries ( 30% as beneficiaries against their population percentage of 15%) of the BJP/Modi government’s welfare schemes, including the construction of new homes for the poor, new connections for electricity, water and cooking gas, etc. The fact is India’s Muslim population has grown by 43% since 1950, while the Hindu population has fallen by 7.8% (since 1950). In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, on the other hand, the population of the Hindu minority as a percentage, has drastically fallen to the low single digits. There can only be one obvious conclusion from those figures: that India’s Muslims have generally prospered, while the Hindu minority of India’s neighbors has been persecuted and forced into conversions. Yet none of the leftist analysts ever bring up this subject as a human rights issue, despite overwhelming data and evidence of the routine abduction of 14-15 year old Hindu and Sikh girls (particularly in Pakistan) and their forced ‘marriage’ ( and conversion) to much older, polygamous Muslim men. This pernicious practice continues even today!
Modi’s electoral speech was about the Congress Party’s electoral agenda to redistribute everyone’s personal wealth by doing a deep probe or “x-ray” ( the term used by Rahul Gandhi, the dynastic Congress Party ‘scion’) and redistributing it equitably, which was seen as a provocatively socialist agenda. Modi warned voters about a Congress government that would assume the authority to probe into people’s hard earned savings and ‘redistribute’ it to those whom they consider more deserving, particularly Muslims. Modi quoted speeches by former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, who on more than one occasion, said that "minorities, particularly Muslims," should be given priority over public resources. Modi was, of course, pointing to the blatant ‘vote bank’ and ‘minority appeasement’ politics of the Congress Party. The leftist/Islamist noise about “minority mistreatment” is political propaganda. None of the other minorities including Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians or Jews and others have any issues. In fact, India is one of those rare countries that has no history of anti-Semitism. In its foreign policy, India has close relations with both Israel and several Muslim countries.
The other glaring false narrative in this discussion was that Modi caused the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. In fact, a thorough 10-year investigation ( a Special Investigation Team-SIT) was set up by the Supreme Court of India, which concluded that Modi ( as the former Chief Minister of Gujarat) had not caused or abetted the riots. The courts also threw out false testimony from false 'victims' (paid by Congress Party-linked NGOs) some of whom served jail sentences. Importantly however, the trigger for the riots was the gruesome burning of a train carriage carrying (Hindu) women, children and the elderly, that was returning from Ayodhya, a few days before the riots. The train carriage was set on fire at a station named Godhra, by arsonists who poured kerosene on the carriage and would not allow the passengers to escape, causing the deaths of 59 defenseless women, children and the elderly, who were all charred beyond recognition. The arsonists were some local Muslims and Congress Party goons. Strangely, leftist analysts suffer from selective amnesia when they talk about the 2002 Gujarat riots but remain silent about the horrific Godhra train carriage burning.
In general, the discussion contained a lot of biased references and factual inaccuracies.
delighted to read your reply
this is the change
i do not watch the video but read comments.
Very nicely articulated giving point by point rebuttal to the typical Leftists anti Modi and anti Hindu propaganda spewed by so called scholars on religious and civilization issues of India/Bharat.
Wow…you seem to know Indian democracy and polity so well. Better than most of the so called experts
The talk is glaring in its anti-hindu bent. Speaking of Kashmir and omitting hindu genocide. Speaking of governance history and omitting how muslim women's civil rights were taken away by Congress in order to pander to islamists.
Regarding Covid, India developed its own vaccine and administered it to more than a billion people.
Look closely towards Muslim women voters😂😂😂😂will shatter all of your hypothesis
I encourage American So called India experts to talk to some of the Indian Hindu living in US to understand Indian perspective better.
I feel these experts are poorly informed or have their own bias.
Love jihad is a term coined by Kerala high court….
Kashmiri Hindu genocide happened on n 1990 in a Hindu majority India….let it sink
Lisa... 200 Million becomes a minority 😂
Also, can anybody especially the Sepoy, provide one instance wherein the Quran was publicly burnt in INDIA like it regularly happens in Sweden and USA?
Everyone should listen to Modi’s interview given today to Aaj Tak.
He answers most of the questions discussed here. I think all the western so called India experts should watch this ( sorry, it is in Hindi).
We are surviving Hindu at last
Some context on Ram temple:
In the 14th century, Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, resident of today's Uzbekistan, led an attack to conquer India. He had a mosque built in the temple city of Ayodhya, which to the residents of India is like Bethlehem. Archaeological survey of India has established and documented that the mosque was built on the ruins of a 'magnificent temle' - in the words of Mr KK Muhammad, one of the lead archaeologists of the excavations. Indians never gave up their claim on the land, and issue was taken to the courts right after India's independence from the British.
Hoping that you can use this context in your future discussions on this subject
This brown sahib has deep inroads into US academia. Hope, trust and pray that Americans are wise enough not to be taken in by the sahib, but apply their own research and thought.
The audience questions provides hope.
The questions from the audience are more educative than the talk of the speakers.
He is lying through his teeth!
Bharat is one of the friendliest country in the world with glorious ancient wisdom and civilization.... Why are these skewed hypocrytic anti-hindu discussions going on... Bharat will run according to majority people of Bharat and not based on opinionated western media... Bharat is reclaiming it's lost glory and civilization after invaders and looters captured constructed and looted the ancient centres... Why others are having stomach and heart aches?? Best wishes...
When you talk of Babri so called masjid demolition..also mention there was a huge temple existed there per archeological surveys done multiple times…
What a Stupid and One sided Conversation 😅😅😅😅😅😅Modi is Coming to Power with 400 seats ..
These guys know nothing about the religious matters of India.
"In long run facist state" - we have heard this in 2014. We hear the same for Trump. Is Dr Ved a foretellers.
Why would a majority want to bring anti conversion laws..it’s actually minorities who should be concerned about forced conversion..?
31:16 This guy needs to use lots of burnol
The US FP Establishment can simply not stop its default hostility towards India. Unfortunately, CFR is no exception.
What a superficial discussion by the people who claim they are "experts"😂. Here are several things that make this entire conversation devoid of objectivity
1) Muslim population share in India grew from 9% to 14.5% as per 2011 and mostly nownstands at 17%. This is remarkable considering minorities in every other country in this region has reduced greatly. This is also after Muslims got an Islamic nation out of India.
2) In the name of "secularism", consecutive governments pandered to islamic demands of sharia based civil code, madrasas, Haj subsidies. These are enormous and devastating privileges given to muslims that stunted indias development while helping muslims grow their numbers
3) The so called freedom of expression has been curtailed specifically to pander to muslims. Banning of Rushdie, blasphemy lynchings are encourgaged and justified while the same seculars/liberals didn't hesitate to openly criticize hindusim and say all kinds of derogatory statements against Hindu practices (justify hijab while mocking bindi etc)
4) Muslims as a group got more provileges than other groups where even Indias foreign policy was influenced by muslim sentiments rather than Indias interests.
5) The only muslim majority state in India (J&K) genocided its minority hindus and still claim victim card.
There are many more like above but not a single one from above list didnt feature in your conversation is the reason why people like you have lost complete credibility.
Let me begin by saying I am not Hindu. Am an atheist but don't hols grudge against anyone following any faith. Now, I hv been touring India for past 7 weeks. My very intimate interactions with all reveal 1. Modi in past 10 years at the helm, hasn't made any policy that's anti-muslim or anti any minority (including CAA foe those who have read its fine print). 2. Ram temple issue has gone on foe so long that while it initially polarized, in later years, it actually brought to fore historical facts which most in India hadn't been aware of. These facts including result of archeological surveys & final verdict of country's highest court, has actually led to greater acceptance of the reconstruction of temple at historical site amongst greater Muslim community. 3. Amongst Muslim community, there's larger acceptance of Modi than ever before though relatively, Muslim women are more vocal than their men. 4. Then who are those making noise of oppression against Muslims? Well, it is mostly the feudal (& many radical) Muslim elites of the past who have had a free run to run their small mafias and grab max benefits doled out in name of minorities for past 5 decades, whose authority & hold over Muslim masses are threatened by what one may call a paradigm of "equal opportunity foe all" that Modi has attempted to usher in and had largely succeeded. My observation : if this is the brand of "hindutva" thar Modi & RSS is pursuing then, this what true secularism should mean. Helping fear mongering by radical/ feudal/ corrupt Muslim elites will not help India nor will help world
Congress used to demolish state govts literally,bjp hasn't done that even once,states spend more as percentage of total revenues now more than ever,so they have unprecedented power now,than anytime under Congress,what r u even talking about man
Why it is political discussion in the west about India always ends up in bashing Indian Hindus and appeasing Muslims.
Look at the trouble everywhere in the world especially in the west. It is sickening to listen to this discussion. SAD!
I recommend folks listen to Milan's interview with Sukumar Ranganathan before accepting his analysis of the elections.
Thank you. I did listen to the full talk. Confirmation of Milan's biases.
Congress is Muslim league
I guess then these are not Experts o this subject...... If this is their analysis.
A good brown sepoy..
Milan earned his lollipop and a pat on the back
Why do these people think that Congress will change Indian foreign policy if elected to power😂😂no indication apart from rhetorical similarity.
Guys guys calm down, it is CFR they have certain take on world, as BJP and RSS has, let them who they want to be, anti Modi or pro modi, at this point it doesn't matter to anyone, because the world order is in flux. It will take century or 50 years to decide what will new world order will look alike.
It is an urgent requirement for those invited commentators to come out of their inaccurate, Reuterish, BBCish, ideas soon. India is moving faster(across all dimensions) than your imagination… stay tune with its ground reality or listen to what Mr. Garcettii evaluations are on CFR (I do not know whether he will keep his job) or else you will surely miss the bus.
Milan need more education.😅😅😅. Hope South Asian department get better expert otherwise no hope because milan has really poor analysis
Lisa and Alyssa has good knowledge keep it up girls.
But disappointed by milan for poor analysis
PLEASE... DO THESE TYPE OF WEBINARS ON PAKISTAN AND BANGLADESHI MINORITIES.. INDIAN MINORITIES ARE WELL THRIVING
Lisa Curtis is no less than a symbol of US hegemony and a BIG ONE.
Old western agenda......
Recently, the UN passed a resolution against Islamophobia, clearly pointing fingers at the Christian ( formerly) Christian-majority nations
The GINI Coeficient measures income inequality. I checked, in last 10 years, it has improved from 0.49 to 0.4 for India/BJP/Hindutva. The speakers do not use such relevant datapoints when speaking of a topic which can be measured by real world data, rather just give biased opinions.
The West is upset that socialism/communism has finally lifted from the citizens of India. They tried so hard to keep Indians under this economic prison for 60+ years. This economic model is a Western construct (i.e. utopia/heaven on earth) imposed on most of Asia. Now Russia and India, two power houses of Asia are free. The third China remains a prisoner of the West supported CCP but it will not last too long in power. Now, let us imagine what the new world order will look like when all 3 Asian powerhouses are FREED.
Will the world finally experience peace when the 3 expansionary and destructive powers ends expanding i.e. missionary, radicalization, marxist and communism? We can see it taking place. Your talk about how the foundations and churches are upset about the changes in the FCRA laws in India. People around the world get it.
I would love to see a panel talk on religon, geo-politics and world order based on this scenario please. Thank you!
Bring something new......same rhetoric since last 70yrs....😂😂😂one answer India is not gone be a military ally..
Freedom of expression for Muslim not in India right now? Seriously?? And you are an ‘expert ‘??
Do you guys remember this guy 2019 India elections type democracy news? 😂😂😂😂😂
Well done vaishnav
You made your white daddys proud
Glaring anti-hindu hypocrisy and high nosed discussion with any knowledge of history of the glorious ancient civilization of Bharat... The people of Bharat will decide what needs to be done in Bharat or India... If a burglar captures your house and constructs own premises does it stop future generations claiming their own house... Learn history and learn to work with Bharat in the Indian way... Best wishes..
24:34 Scaremongering..Gujarat Riots were probably one of the best handled riots. Those killed include 150 Hindus who were shot by the police. Interestingly there used to be regular riots under Congress & non BJP Govts which this lady decides to ignore. This compulsion to cherry pick facts is desperation but we in India have git used to it. Why didn't Vaishnav dude mention that the so called mosque had been in dispute and courts were sitting on it for more than a century?
Mr Obaid is the Pak influencer who wants to hold India accountable without any specific examples of Muslim oppression. He forgets the fact that here in the US one of the presidential candidates is vocally Anti Islamic so what Mr Obaid needs to worry about is conditions in this country
really man you are an expert 🤣🤣🤣
Modi 2024 ✌️
Muslims Got Pakistan .
At last what happened to antimuslim articles 370 abrogation and the impending muslim genocide in kashmir😂😂😂no mention......Grow Up
America is exception be very cautious to apply American models elsewhere
I wonder why these people bring pakistani's in all conversations about India. Tell them to preach secularism to Muslim countries..
Great discussion 👏👏
Poor analysis by Milan
Did these experts know in this modi govt after covid 4-5 hindu people were killed by minority just because they supported a bjp leader who quoted something from minority book which offended their belief even though it is written in their own book. So they did sar tan se juda. And all these hindu who you accused is so radicals kept mum. Think this was happened against while by black or any minority in Muslim countries. How did they react? These Muslim leaders in US get money from other countries and make such propoganda in western world. And these western exparts dances in their tune but slowly they are and will pay for their karma. Different countries in Europe are suffering from these immigrants and stopping them. US also surely get their taste if they keep fanning these propoganda. After all US closed it's eye towards terrorism which India was facing in kasmir till unfortunate incident of 9/11. Hope they stopped encouraging these propoganda.
Clowns
council of propaganda
Mr. Gunga Deen spotted.
Brown sepoy milan😂😂😂...
cry cry more because Modi is coming back with 400 seats
Clowns