Recently, the American news magazine – TIME – featured Modi on the cover page of its May 20 issue, with the headline ‘India’s divider in Chief.’ The cover story by Aatish Taseer, titled ‘Can the World’s Largest Democracy Endure Another Five Years of a Modi Government?’, critiqued Modi for his disastrous economic policies and his strategy of invoking Hindutva sentiments to divert the public’s attention from his failure. Predictably, Taseer faced severe backlash from BJP and its supporters, with the BJP spokesperson calling Taseer a Pakistani. (Taseer is the son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer. Taseer was born in Britain and received a green card a few years ago.)
In this video, Taseer, in conversation with Barkha Dutt, calls the backlash a typical BJP tactic. Taseer says, “They are trying to delegitimize me and it’s again that kind of a ‘Muslim dog-whistling.’ If you are not ‘pure’ enough, if you are not Hindu enough, then you don’t have the right to speak. And that’s been very much the sort of playbook of the BJP. It’s been one of the ugliest sides of the kind of India they brought into being.”
Watch the whole video here
Source: HTN