New Delhi: With US President Donald Trump visiting India, comedian John Oliver used the opportunity to take potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, in the latest episode of his satirical show ‘Last Week Tonight’.
Oliver began his 20-minute-long show, which aired in the US Sunday night, by criticising Trump for calling Modi the ‘Father of India’ during a press conference in New York last year. Called the title “absolutely inappropriate” for Modi, he noted that it was already used to refer to Mahatma Gandhi.
The late night show host also called Modi a “temporary symbol of hate” and juxtaposed him with the Taj Mahal, which he said was an “enduring symbol of love”. A video clip from this segment of the show went viral on social media with many applauding Oliver for not mincing his words.
https://twitter.com/ChiragINC/status/1231872739339730944?s=20
it got so bad that we made it to John Oliver pic.twitter.com/LMG06I1vx1
— Andre Borges (@borges) February 24, 2020
Also read: ‘Populist, more symbolism than substance’: How global media described Trump’s India Day One
‘Hindu nationalist’ Modi
Oliver covered a wide range of issues on his show, including the ongoing protests in India against the contentious CAA, which he said was a “diabolically clever two-step way” of stripping millions of Muslims of citizenship. He went on to explain how the proposed nationwide NRC will exclude all those without proper citizenship documentation, but the CAA will bring those left out back, except the Muslims.
The episode also covered demonetisation, the controversial 2016 decision by the Modi government that banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Oliver said, “His [Modi’s] charisma is such that he somehow evades public anger sticking to him [and that is a] very dangerous superpower.”
Oliver also condemned the controversial statements made by Modi’s “closest confidant and second-in-command”, Home Minister Amit Shah. He played a clip of one of Shah’s speeches, where he referred to minorities as “infiltrators sucking our blood like parasites”.
He mentioned the Modi government’s attempts at rewriting history and said, “Modi and his party are actively trying to erase whole sections of India’s history. Nehru, for example, has been edited out of some history textbooks all together.”
Calling Modi a “Hindu nationalist” and the RSS an organisation that takes inspiration from Hitler, Oliver said, “India has always struggled to strike a balance between its ideals of tolerance and the reality of religious tensions.”
This is not the first time Modi has been featured on his show. In 2014, the year the show was launched, Oliver covered Modi’s address at a sold-out Madison Square Garden in New York on 28 September that year.
‘Last Week Tonight’ is a US late-night talk show where news, politics and current events are looked at through a satirical lens.
Also read: If Imran Khan is envious of Trump’s India visit, he should do more than drive leaders around