As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the USA for the QUAD meeting, he captivates a crowd of 15,000 NRIs in Long Island. This analysis by Justice Markandey Katju examines the themes of Modi's speech, contrasting his focus on diaspora pride with the pressing socio-economic challenges facing India today, including poverty, unemployment, and child malnutrition. Explore the disconnect between political rhetoric and the realities faced by millions in India.
Modi and the Indian diaspora
By Justice Markandey Katju
Indian Prime Minister Modi is on a visit to USA to attend the QUAD meeting.
But he also addressed a gathering of 15,000 NRIs from 44 US states in Long Island, New York soon after his arrival.
And this is an analysis of Modi's speech
Was there any mention in Modi's speech, or its analysis, about India's real problems and how to resolve them--the massive poverty among the vast majority of its 1.44 billion people, the record and growing unemployment, the appalling level of child malnutrition ( every second child in India is malnourished, according to Global Hunger Index, and we have slipped in recent years from position number 101 to 107 out of 125 countries surveyed ), the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities like food, fuel and medicines, the almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for our masses, etc?
Not at all. Modi feels more comfortable abroad, particularly in Western countries, than in India, because in India he will have to address these real issues, whereas in America he can speak homilies and platitudes about non issues or irrelevant ones ( for the Indian masses ), like 'namaste' becoming global or multinational, love of NRIs for Modi being his good fortune, every time he comes to USA the previous record is broken, no ocean is so deep that it can separate NRIs from India, we are marching forward unitedly despite our diversiy, NRIs serve the country they live in, AI means Artificial Intelligence for the world, but I believe it stands for American Indians, to whichever country I go, the leaders there praise NRIs, President Biden took me home for dinner, and this honour was for 1.4 billion Indians, and the NRIs, India and America are celebrating democracy, the Indian parliamentary election in 2024 was the largest in world history, for a third term my government has come to power, we have to move at 3 times the strength and speed, our motto is PUSHP ( lotus ) which stands for Progressive, Unstoppable, Spiritual, Humanitarian, and Prosperous, I will dedicate my life to suraj and samriddhi, we have Aspirational India, etc, etc.
No doubt he also mentioned crores of Indians getting cooking gas, water pipes, electricity connections, toilets, etc, more metros and airports, etc, but not a word about how he will resolve the real massive socio-economic problems of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, etc referred to above.
The truth is contained in these articles :
What I was really sad about was to hear the NRI audience repeatedly shouting '' Modi, Modi, Modi '' like the minions shouting '' Sieg Heil '' and '' Heil Hitler '' in Nazi party rallies in Germany in the 30s and 40s.
NRIs in the West are very good in their technical jobs, but politically they are mostly a bunch of gullible fools and blockheads. The fact that they are largely polarised on religious lines proves this. Any fraud can take them for a ride, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin
These NRIs are highly educated people, but they were saluting a leader who believes that ancient Indians knew head transplant surgery because Ganesh had an elephant's head, they knew genetic engineering because that is how Gandhari, wife of Dhritrashtra, bore 100 sons, Karna was born by stem cell therapy, which ancient Indians knew, and other such nonsense.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)