Written by Michael Thervil
AP Photo - Evan Vucci
Currently India's Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi is facing fierce social backlash from his inflammatory statements towards those practicing Islam and residing in India. During his Sunday speech he called them “Infiltrators”. Some people are wondering if Prime Minister Modi accidentally misspoke as he was speaking off the cuff. However, his distractors, mostly Muslims in the country and around the world, are seeing things differently. The remarks made by Prime Minister Modi couldn’t have come at a worst time, especially since he’s up for reelection. And since he’s up for reelection, observers of the political chessboard are wondering if he made these remarks regarding Muslims in India as a miscalculated political move to align himself with western powers.
One reason why this is the worst time PM Modi could have made these remarks is because of the potential to bring the adverse tensions of West Asia to India's doorstep. Keep in mind that India literally shares a border with Pakistan. If you don't know, Pakistan has long been considered a safe haven for Terrorists. If PM Modi is complaining about “Infiltrators”, we think the 44 active terrorist organizations within Pakistan can teach him a quick lesson on infiltration.
It was reported that practicing Muslim's make up roughly a fifth of the Indian population which is a country of at least 1.4 billion people to date. But whether Muslim's in India make up a 5th or 15% of people living in India – there is no reason why an elected official should engage in such discriminating rhetoric. If you're wondering exactly why PM Modi went off the cuff and asked the following question to the attendees of his speech: “should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators?”, here’s a couple of reasons why.
The first reason is because PM Modi has been seeking to garner continued financial support via the investments of American tech firms for decades. Now that he finally has their attention as the rest of the world is pivoting towards the east to countries like Russia and China, it could be said that he thinks the time is right for India to appeal to American tech firms. With America placing sanctions on Chinese tech companies and the geographical location of India in the region, it seems like a no brainer.
With American tech firms not only winning to financially invest in India, but their ability to invest and build infrastructure within India, one can consider PM Modi essentially bought and paid for by the American Tech companies to the tune of nothing less than $18 billion. Now like any good political leader that wants to see their country thrive, PM Modi seems to have been fostering a strategic partnership with various American tech companies for quite some time now.
This is strange considering that India is a part of the BRICS+ collective, who is seeking to strengthen its influence on the world stage and develop its own currency independent of the U.S. Dollar. Many people would consider this to be a “conflict of interest” and therefore India's BRICS membership should be revoked. Moreover, political pundits are now referring to India as a “weak link” within BRICS+ that has the high probability of undermining their efforts as a collective.
The second half of the answer lies in the fact that American tech companies don't want their technology to fall into the hands of Islamic Extremists that may be residing in India. Therefore, the adverse rhetoric of Prime Minister Modi calling the Muslims in India “Infiltrators” could be seen as him having just the right tone that many American tech companies needed to hear in order to view him and India as “favorable” for long term investment. This is something to think about, but as always, we’d really like to know your thoughts.
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