[News] Modi’s model is at last revealed for what it is: violent Hindu nationalism underwritten by big business

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theguardian.com
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/18/narendra-modi-hindu-nationalism-india-gautam-adani>
Modi’s model is at last revealed for what it is: violent Hindu nationalism
underwritten by big business
Arundhati Roy - February 18, 2023
------------------------------

India is under attack by foreign powers. Specifically the United Kingdom
and the United States. Or so our government would have us believe. Why?
Because former colonialists and neo-imperialists cannot tolerate our
prosperity and good fortune. The attack, we are told, is aimed at the
political and economic foundations of our young nation.

The covert operatives are the BBC <https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc>,
which in January broadcast a two-part documentary called India: The Modi
Question*,* and a small US firm called Hindenburg Research, owned by
38-year-old Nathan Anderson, which specialises in what is known as activist
short-selling.

The BBC-Hindenburg moment has been portrayed by the Indian media as nothing
short of an attack on India’s twin towers – Narendra Modi
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/narendra-modi>, the prime minister, and
India’s biggest industrialist, Gautam Adani, who was, until recently, the
world’s third richest man. The charges laid against them aren’t subtle. The
BBC film implicates Modi in the abetment of mass murder. The Hindenburg
report, published on 24 January, accuses Adani of pulling “the largest con
in corporate history” (an allegation that the Adani Group strongly denies).

Modi and Adani have known each other for decades. Things began to look up
for them after the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom, which raged through Gujarat
after Muslims were held responsible for the burning of a railway coach in
which 59 Hindu pilgrims were burned alive. Modi had been appointed chief
minister of the state only a few months before the massacre.

At the time, much of India recoiled in horror at the open slaughter and
mass rape of Muslims that was staged on the streets of Gujarat’s towns and
villages by vigilante Hindu mobs seeking “revenge”. Some old-fashioned
members of the Confederation of Indian Industry even made their displeasure
with Modi public. Enter Gautam Adani. With a small group of Gujarati
industrialists he set up a new platform of businessmen known as the Resurgent
Group of Gujarat
<https://www.dailyo.in/politics/how-modi-has-placed-his-old-friends-adani-and-torrent-on-the-high-table-1566>.
They denounced Modi’s critics and supported him as he launched a new
political career as Hindu Hriday Samrat, the Emperor of Hindu Hearts, or,
more accurately, the consolidator of the Hindu vote-bank.

In 2003, they held an investors’ summit called Vibrant Gujarat. So was born
what is known as the Gujarat model of “development”: violent Hindu
nationalism underwritten by serious corporate money. In 2014, after three
terms as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi was elected prime minister of
India. He flew to his swearing-in ceremony in Delhi in a private jet with
Adani’s name emblazoned across the body of the aircraft. In the nine years
of Modi’s tenure, Adani’s wealth grew from $8bn to $137bn. In 2022 alone,
he made $72bn
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/adanis-wealth-surges-72-5-billion-in-2022-equal-to-that-of-nine-other-billionaires-combined/articleshow/94251447.cms?from=mdr>,
which is more than the combined earnings of the world’s next nine
billionaires put together.

The Adani Group now controls a dozen shipping ports that account for the
movement of 30% of India’s freight, seven airports that handle 23% of
India’s airline passengers, and warehouses that collectively hold 30% of
India’s grain. It owns and operates power plants that are the biggest
generators of the country’s private electricity. The Gujarat model of
development has been replicated at scale <https://archive.is/PwvQc>.

“First Modi flew in Adani’s plane,” the bitter joke goes. “Now Adani flies
in Modi’s plane.” And now both planes have developed engine trouble. Can
they get out of it by wrapping themselves in the Indian flag?

Episode one of the BBC film The Modi Question (I appear briefly in the
documentary as an interviewee) is about the 2002 Gujarat pogrom – not just
the murdering, but also the 20-year journey that some victims made through
India’s labyrinthine legal system, keeping the faith, hoping for justice
and political accountability. It includes eyewitness testimonies, most
poignantly from Imtiyaz Pathan, who lost 10 members of his family in the
“Gulbarg Society massacre”, which was one of several similarly gruesome
massacres <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62574247> that took
place over those few days in Gujarat.

Pathan describes how they were all sheltering in the house of Ehsan Jafri,
a former Congress party member of parliament, while the mob gathered
outside. He says that Jafri made a final, desperate phone call for help to
Narendra Modi, and when he realised no help would come, stepped out of his
home and gave himself up to the mob, hoping to persuade them to spare those
who had come to him for protection. Jafri was dismembered and his body
burned beyond recognition. And the carnage rolled on for hours.
[image: A Bajrang Dal Hindu nationalist brandishes an iron rod in Ahmedabad
in 2002..]
A Bajranj Dal Hindu nationalist brandishes an iron rod in Ahmedabad in 2002
Photograph: Sebastian D’Souza/AFP/Getty Images

When the case went to trial, the state of Gujarat contested the fact of the
phone call, even though it had been mentioned not just by Pathan but
several other witnesses in their testimonies. The contestation was upheld.
The BBC film clearly mentions this. Vilified though it has been by the BJP
government, the film actually goes out of its way to present the BJP’s
point of view about the pogrom, as well as that of the Indian supreme
court, which on 24 June 2022 dismissed the petition of Zakia Jafri, Ehsan
Jafri’s widow, in which she alleged there was a larger conspiracy behind
the murder of her husband. The order called her petition an “abuse of
process”, and suggested that those involved in pursuing the case be
prosecuted. Modi’s supporters celebrated the judgment as the final word on
his innocence.

The film also showcases an interview with the home affairs minister, Amit
Shah, another old pal of Modi’s from Gujarat, who compares Modi to Lord
Shiva for having “swallowed poison and held it in his throat” for 19 years.
After the supreme court’s “clean chit”, the minister said: “Truth has come
out shining like gold.”

The section of the BBC film that the government of India has acted most
outraged about was the revelation of an internal report commissioned by the
British Foreign Office in April 2002, so far unseen by the public. The
fact-finding report estimated that “at least 2,000” people had been
murdered. It called the massacre a preplanned pogrom that bore “all the
hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”. It said reliable contacts had informed them
that the police had been ordered to stand down. The report laid the blame
squarely at Modi’s door. It was chilling to see the former, but obviously
still cautious, British diplomat who was one of the investigators on the
fact-finding mission choosing to remain anonymous, with his back to the
camera.
Narendra Modi receives a garland as he campaigns during the Gujarat state
legislature elections last year. Photograph: Ajit Solanki/AP

Episode two of the BBC documentary, less seen but even more frightening, is
about the dangerous divisiveness and deep fault lines Modi has cultivated
during his tenure as prime minister. For most Indians it’s the texture of
our daily lives: sword-wielding mobs, saffron-clad god-men routinely
calling for the genocide of Muslims and the mass rape of Muslim women, the
impunity with which Hindus can lynch Muslims on the street, and not only
film themselves while doing it but be garlanded and congratulated
<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/union-minister-jayant-sinha-garlands-8-lynching-convicts-faces-opposition-flak/articleshow/64901863.cms>
for it by senior ministers in Modi’s cabinet.

Though The Modi Question was broadcast exclusively for a British audience,
and limited to the UK, it was uploaded by viewers on YouTube and links were
posted on Twitter. It lit up the internet. In India, students received
warnings not to download and watch it. When they announced collective
screenings in some university campuses, the electricity was switched off.
In others, police arrived in riot gear to stop them watching
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-64371327>. The government
instructed YouTube and Twitter to delete all links and uploads
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/india-ban-on-bbc-modi-film-elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-emergency-laws>.
Those sterling defenders of free speech hurried to comply. Some of my
Muslim friends were baffled. “Why does he want to ban it? The Gujarat
massacre has always helped him. And we’re in an election year.”

Then came the attack on the second tower.

The 400-odd-page Hindenburg report was published on the same day the second
episode of the BBC film was broadcast. It elaborated on questions that had
been raised in the past by Indian journalists, and went much further. It
alleges that the Adani Group has been engaged in a “brazen stock
manipulation and accounting fraud scheme
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/02/why-has-the-adani-group-shed-us90bn-in-value-and-what-do-short-sellers-have-to-gain>”,
which – through the use of offshore shell entities – artificially
overvalued its key listed companies and inflated the net worth of its
chairman.

According to the Hindenburg report, seven of Adani’s listed companies are
overvalued by more than 85%. Based on these valuations, the companies
reportedly borrowed billions of dollars on the international markets and
from Indian public sector banks such as the State Bank of India and the
Life Insurance Corporation of India
<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/explainer-how-big-is-lics-and-sbis-business-with-adani/articleshow/97632672.cms>,
where millions of ordinary Indians invest their life savings.

The Adani Group responded to the Hindenburg report with a 413-page rebuttal
<https://www.adani.com/-/media/Project/Adani/Invetsors/Adani-Response-to-Hindenburg-January-29-2023.pdf?la=en>.
It claimed the group had been cleared of wrongdoing by Indian courts and
that the Hindenburg allegations were malicious, baseless and amounted to an
attack on India itself.

This wasn’t enough to convince investors. In the market rout that followed
the publication of the Hindenburg analysis, the Adani Group lost $110bn.
Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Standard Chartered stopped accepting Adani
bonds as collateral
<https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/standard-chartered-stops-accepting-adani-bonds-as-collateral-report-11675647249164.html>
for margin loans. The French firm TotalEnergies has paused a $4bn green
hydrogen venture with the Adani Group. The Bangladesh government is
reportedly seeking a reworking of a power purchase agreement. Jo Johnson, a
former minister in the British government, and former prime minister Boris
Johnson’s brother, resigned as a director
<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/02/jo-johnson-resigns-director-adani-elara-capital>
of London-based Elara Capital, one of the companies mentioned in the
Hindenburg report as tied to the Adani Group.

The political firestorm caused by the Hindenburg report brought squabbling
opposition parties together to demand an investigation by a joint
parliamentary committee. The government stonewalled, alarmingly indifferent
to the concerns that managers of international finance capital might have
about India’s regulatory systems. In the continuing budget session of
parliament, two opposition party MPs, Mahua Moitra of the All India
Trinamool Congress, and Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress, both
of whom have raised questions about the Adani Group
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/adani-group> years before the
Hindenburg report, stood up to speak.

Among the questions Moitra raised
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_UICBipWx4> were: how did the home
ministry give security clearance to the “A” Group for operating ports and
airports while refusing to divulge the identity of one of its shareholders?
How did the group amass about $5bn in foreign portfolio investments from
six Mauritius-based funds, all which have the same address and company
secretary? On what grounds did the public sector State Bank and the Life
Insurance Corporation continue to anchor investments in the group?

For his part, Gandhi noted
<https://firstindia.co.in/news/india/rahul-gandhi-attacks-modi-government-over-rise-in-adani-group-fortunes-says-magic-started-in-2014-bjp-hits-back>
the prime minister’s travels to Israel, Australia and Bangladesh, and
asked: “In how many of these countries that you visited did Adani-ji get a
contract?” He listed some of them: a defence contract with Israel, a
billion-dollar loan from the State Bank of India for a coalmine in
Australia, a 1,500MW electricity project for Bangladesh. Last, and most
pertinently, he asked how much money the BJP received from the Adani Group
in secret electoral bonds.

This is the nub of it. In 2016, the BJP introduced the scheme of electoral
bonds, which allow corporations to be able to fund political parties
without their identities being made public. Yes, Gautam Adani is one of the
world’s richest men; but if you look at its rollout during elections, the
BJP is not just India’s, but perhaps even the world’s, richest political
party
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-28/modi-s-bjp-keeps-top-spot-as-india-s-richest-political-party?leadSource=uverify%20wall>.
Will the old friends ever let us look at their account books? *Are* there
separate account books?

Moitra’s questions were ignored. Most of Gandhi’s were expunged from
parliament records
<https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/rahul-gandhi-parliament-expunged-8432402/>.
Modi’s reply lasted for a full 90 minutes.

He did what he does best – cast himself as a proud Indian, the victim of an
international witch-hunt that would never succeed, because he wore the
protective shield
<https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/pm-narendra-modi-speech-parliament-8432485/>
made up of the trust of 1.4 billion people that the opposition could never
pierce. This figure (a politician’s equivalent of inflating the value of
his shares) peppered every paragraph of his spongy rhetoric, ridden with
derision, barbs and personal insults. Almost every sentence was greeted
with desk-thumping from the BJP benches accompanied by the chant of “Modi!
Modi! Modi!”

He said that however much filth was thrown at the lotus – the BJP’s
election symbol – it would bloom. He never mentioned Adani once. Maybe he
believes it’s not a debate that should concern his voters because tens of
millions of them are unemployed, live in abject poverty on subsistence
rations (delivered with his photograph on the packaging) and will not
remotely comprehend what $100bn even means.

Most of the Indian media reported Modi’s speech in glowing terms. Was it a
coincidence that in the days that followed a number of national and
regional newspapers carried a front-page advertisement
<https://youtu.be/gMOUEx8AFcw> with a huge photograph of him announcing
another investment summit, this one in the state of Uttar Pradesh?
BBC offices in India raided by tax authorities weeks after Modi documentary
released – video report

Days later, on 14 February, the home minister said in an interview, on the
Adani matter, that the BJP had “nothing to hide or be afraid of”. He once
again stonewalled the possibility of a joint parliamentary committee
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW382mw7AvA> and advised the opposition
parties to go to court instead.

Even as he was speaking, office premises in Mumbai and Delhi were being
surrounded by police and raided by tax officials. Not Adani’s offices: the
BBC’s
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/14/bbc-offices-india-raided-tax-officials-modi-documentary-fallout>
.

On 15 February, the news cycle changed. And so did the reporting about the
neo-imperialist attack. After “warm and productive” meetings, Modi,
President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron announced that India would
be buying 470 Boeing and Airbus aircraft
<https://indianexpress.com/article/business/air-india-to-buy-250-airbus-planes-8444906/>.
Biden said the deal would support more than a million American jobs. The
Airbuses will be powered by Rolls-Royce engines. “For the UK’s thriving
aerospace sector,” Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, said, “the sky is the
limit.”

So the lotus blooms on, in a bog of blood and money. And the truth most
definitely shines like gold.

   -

   Arundhati Roy is a novelist and writer. Her novel The God of Small
   Things won the Booker prize in 1997
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