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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/18/narendra-modi-hindu-nationalism-india-gautam-adani">theguardian.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Modi’s model is at last revealed for what it is: violent Hindu nationalism underwritten by big business<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Arundhati Roy - February 18, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-maincontent" lang=""><p><span><span>I</span></span><span>ndia
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.</span></p><p>The covert operatives are the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc">BBC</a>, which in January broadcast a two-part documentary called India: The Modi Question<em>,</em>
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.</p><p>The BBC-Hindenburg moment has been portrayed by the Indian media as nothing short of an attack on India’s twin towers – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/narendra-modi">Narendra Modi</a>,
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).</p><p>Modi and Adani<strong> </strong>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.</p><p>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<strong> </strong>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 <a href="https://www.dailyo.in/politics/how-modi-has-placed-his-old-friends-adani-and-torrent-on-the-high-table-1566">Resurgent Group of Gujarat</a>.
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.</p><p>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 <a href="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">made $72bn</a>, which is more than the combined earnings of the world’s next nine billionaires put together.</p><p>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 <a href="https://archive.is/PwvQc">replicated at scale</a>.</p><p>“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?</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62574247">similarly gruesome massacres</a> that took place over those few days in Gujarat.</p><p>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<strong> </strong>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.</p><div><span></span><span><img alt="A Bajrang Dal Hindu nationalist brandishes an iron rod in Ahmedabad in 2002.." src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/891b632f999b2d8fad6bee0937f945a71e2dd8a9/0_0_1561_1800/master/1561.jpg?width=445&quality=85&dpr=1&s=none" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="340" height="392"></span></div><span></span></div></div></div></div><span>A Bajranj Dal Hindu nationalist brandishes an iron rod in Ahmedabad in 2002</span> Photograph: Sebastian D’Souza/AFP/Getty Images<p>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.</p><p>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.”</p><p>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.</p><div><span></span></div><span></span><span>Narendra Modi receives a garland as he campaigns during the Gujarat state legislature elections last year.</span> Photograph: Ajit Solanki/AP<p>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 <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/union-minister-jayant-sinha-garlands-8-lynching-convicts-faces-opposition-flak/articleshow/64901863.cms">garlanded and congratulated</a> for it by senior ministers in Modi’s cabinet.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-64371327">stop them watching</a>. The government instructed YouTube and Twitter to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/india-ban-on-bbc-modi-film-elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-emergency-laws">delete all links and uploads</a>.
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.”</p><p>Then came the attack on the second tower.</p><p>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 “<a href="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">brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme</a>”,
which – through the use of offshore shell entities – artificially
overvalued its key listed companies and inflated the net worth of its
chairman.</p><p>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 <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/explainer-how-big-is-lics-and-sbis-business-with-adani/articleshow/97632672.cms">such as the State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation of India</a>, where millions of ordinary Indians invest their life savings.</p><p>The Adani Group responded to the Hindenburg report with a <a href="https://www.adani.com/-/media/Project/Adani/Invetsors/Adani-Response-to-Hindenburg-January-29-2023.pdf?la=en">413-page rebuttal</a>.
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.<strong> </strong></p><p>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 <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/standard-chartered-stops-accepting-adani-bonds-as-collateral-report-11675647249164.html">stopped accepting Adani bonds as collateral</a> for margin loans. The French firm TotalEnergies has paused a $4bn green hydrogen venture with the Adani Group.<strong> </strong>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, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/02/jo-johnson-resigns-director-adani-elara-capital">resigned as a director</a> of London-based Elara Capital, one of the companies mentioned in the Hindenburg report as tied to the Adani Group.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/adani-group">Adani Group</a> years before the Hindenburg report, stood up to speak.</p><p>Among the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_UICBipWx4">questions Moitra raised</a>
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?</p><p>For his part, Gandhi <a href="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">noted</a>
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:<strong> </strong>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-28/modi-s-bjp-keeps-top-spot-as-india-s-richest-political-party?leadSource=uverify%20wall">India’s, but perhaps even the world’s, richest political party</a>. Will the old friends ever let us look at their account books? <em>Are</em> there separate account books?</p><p>Moitra’s questions were ignored. Most of Gandhi’s were <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-politics/rahul-gandhi-parliament-expunged-8432402/">expunged from parliament records</a>. Modi’s reply lasted for a full 90 minutes.</p><p>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 <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/pm-narendra-modi-speech-parliament-8432485/">wore the protective shield</a>
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. <strong> </strong>Almost every sentence was greeted with desk-thumping from the BJP benches accompanied by the chant of “Modi! Modi! Modi!”</p><p>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://youtu.be/gMOUEx8AFcw">front-page advertisement</a> with a huge photograph of him announcing another investment summit, this one in the state of Uttar Pradesh?</p><div><span></span></div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en"><div class="gmail-content"><div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div id="gmail-maincontent" lang=""><div><span>BBC offices in India raided by tax authorities weeks after Modi documentary released – video report</span></div><p>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 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW382mw7AvA">stonewalled the possibility of a joint parliamentary committee</a> and advised the opposition parties to go to court instead.</p><p>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: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/14/bbc-offices-india-raided-tax-officials-modi-documentary-fallout">the BBC’s</a>.</p><p>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 <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/business/air-india-to-buy-250-airbus-planes-8444906/">would be buying 470 Boeing and Airbus aircraft</a>.
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.”</p><p>So the lotus blooms on, in a bog of blood and money. And the truth most definitely shines like gold.</p><ul><li><p>Arundhati Roy is a novelist and writer. Her novel The God of Small Things won the Booker prize in 1997</p></li></ul></div></div></div>
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