New Delhi: The Indian embassy in Washington DC has accused author Kapil Komireddi of “targeting” Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his essay in The Washington Post. The embassy’s response, written by its press secretary Stephen Mani, appeared in the newspaper Saturday.
In a tweet, Komireddi said, “The Indian embassy in Washington has responded to my essay in Washington Post detailing the unrivalled cult of personality built by Narendra Modi with a letter denouncing me for “insulting” Indians by “targeting the prime minister”.
The Indian embassy in Washington has responded to my essay in @washingtonpost detailing the unrivalled cult of personality built by Narendra Modi with a letter denouncing me for “insulting” Indians by “targeting the prime minister” https://t.co/3RxY9jvizE
— Kapil Komireddi (@kapskom) March 27, 2021
Komireddi’s opinion essay — India, the world’s largest democracy, is now powered by a cult of personality — appeared in The Washington Post on 19 March.
‘Bitter polemic targeting Prime Minister’
The Indian embassy said that the essay was “a bitter polemic targeting the prime minister of India. Its depiction of the people of India as powerless and malleable was downright insulting to them.”
The embassy details how Modi’s policies have only prioritised policy direction to aid fighting the Covid pandemic and managing its socio-economic fallout along with fighting national security challenges at the border. “If a society judges its leader positively and his political colleagues speak well of him, that should hardly be a cause for concern,” the embassy in its response said.
It also denounced Komireddi for citing the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the central government’s three new farm laws, the abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and 2018 demonetisation as examples of Modi building his “personality cult”. “Making decisions on long-pending issues is hardly caprice; it is testimony of serious governance,” it said.
It also said that the “New India” criticised by the author had successfully managed the pandemic by feeding over 800 million people, putting money in 400 million bank accounts and giving vaccines to 80 countries. “Elections have articulated the real sentiment of the people. Personal attacks will not change that reality,” it said.
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India now ‘cautionary tale for established democracies’
In his essay, Komireddi argued that while Modi’s glorification may have started to embolden Hindu nationalism by showcasing him as a successful proponent, it has now imposed a steep cost on Indians.
Komireddi said that while Modi campaigned as an “inclusive modernising technocrat in 2014” to escape the shadow of the likes of Gandhi’s assassin Nathruam Godse,he “cannonized himself as the Father of what his admirers call the New India” after he was elected to power.
Komireddi said that the demagogue status given to Modi by top BJP leaders including Chief Ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Ministers like Kiren Rijiju has furthered the cause of Modi’s personality cult with these leaders extolling his virtues. The author also argued that a digital army keeps his personality cult going by “pumping out lies about the prime minister’s accomplishments”.
The essay also accused Modi of crushing dissent and routinely bypassing Parliament and making decisions like the scrapping of Article 370, demonetisation and the Covid induced lockdown without consultations. “But country that was once a source of inspiration for aspiring democrats has become, under Modi, a cautionary tale for established democracies,” it said.
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