Some thirty-odd years ago, I attended an intimate breakfast meeting with George Soros, American businessman. He won’t remember. But I do. My one takeaway from the meeting was that Soros was very upset about the squalor and poverty in urban India. He repeatedly wondered how we could let “them” live like that. The fact is that urban India was and remains a rough spectacle even for us natives. It is not surprising that foreigners are shocked and bewildered. Many are polite and talk about India’s so-called vibrancy. Others like Soros are more candid and forthright.
In any event, now is not the time to discuss personalities. We on the Right side of the political spectrum are often accused of attacking the messenger and not paying attention to the content of the message. So let us switch to looking at Soros’ messages.
Soros is of the considered opinion that Modi’s political rise is because of the latter’s ‘anti-Muslim stance’. Soros, you are wrong.
Also read: BBC’s anti-Modi stance promotes imagined Hindu supremacy. Muslims in India are not at risk
Why Modi rose
Anyone who follows Indian politics knows that the Congress-UPA “lost” the 2014 elections, much more so than the BJP-Modi “won” it. The UPA lost because of the penumbra of corruption that surrounded it, its inability to coalesce with its communist friends, its image of having a bullied Prime Minister and quite simply the public getting a little tired after ten years. Modi was helped by the alluring appeal of the “Gujarat Model” of development. If Soros thinks that middle-of-the-road Indian voters would switch to Modi because of this anti-Muslim bogey that exists in Soros’ perfervid mind, then all I can say is that his understanding of India is profoundly flawed.
Modi’s 2019 win is largely due to a sense of appreciation on the part of India’s poor who have benefited from welfare policies. Surely when he hears of this, the kind-hearted Soros, who was so concerned about our urban poor, will change his mind about the reasons for Modi’s success.
Soros apparently feels that the Indian democracy is on the decline. Soros, you are grossly incorrect. That is simply not the case. There are many examples that I can refer to and a lot of empirical data that experts can provide to prove otherwise. Let me put forth just one admittedly anecdotal story.
The Indian government passed a few laws that were progressive, pro-poor and supportive of the attempt to improve the prospects of Indian agriculture. There was an agitation against these laws. This agitation was financed and organised by intermediary traders who felt threatened and by a few rich landlords (one can hardly call them farmers). The agitation lasted for many months. The Government of India, which Soros thinks is anti-democratic, patiently tolerated this agitation. There was virtually no police action. The only casualties were a hysterical young man who lost control of his tractor, one man who was lynched and others run over by a car allegedly driven by a young man close to the present ruling dispensation. The trial of this young man is in the works and the debate as to whether he is being treated with kid gloves has been openly and vociferously joined.
The police did not fire tear gas canisters, let alone bullets. Finally, the government actually gave in to these misguided agitators and withdrew the laws, admitting that the government had failed in its messaging. If this does not demonstrate the existence of a fundamental right to protest and to be heard, one wonders what does.
Contrast this with Monsieur Trudeau’s country where protesting truckers were impoverished by the State and handled with studied brutality. I wonder what Soros thinks of Canadian democracy. As an aside, Soros should know that densely populated and heterogenous India does have a long and tortured history of lynching for disparate reasons, not always tinged with religious issues.
In my opinion, riots and violence have reduced under Modi government. There have been no Meeruts, Mallianas, Moradabads, Samastipurs, let alone Bhiwadis, Jalgaons etc. in the last eight years.
Soros has earlier been concerned with the Modi’s government elimination of the so-called autonomy of the erstwhile Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. Let us be charitable. Soros must have been misled by his advisors. Those who know the ground situation are aware that the ‘pretentious autonomous’ governments of that state were dominated by a few elite groups who denied rights not only to the minorities in the region but also to women of ‘Fortress Kashmir’. The property rights of women were curtailed in a blatantly discriminatory manner. The same elite groups also simply refused to implement affirmative action policies available elsewhere in India to Dalits.
If only Soros had been informed of these matters, I am sure that given his great concern for the rights of women, minorities and the oppressed, he would probably have supported the action of the Indian government.
Also read: Why Muslims must consider the rainbow BJP is making. Identity matters in a democracy
Soros betting it wrong
I am told that Soros has objected to India’s new law on citizenship for persons fleeing religious persecution in neighboring Muslim majority countries. He thinks that this law is directed against Indian citizens of the Muslim faith. Again, one should be charitable. Soros is terribly misinformed and mistaken. This law is meant to help long-time refugees from multiple persecuted religious minority groups, to stop going from pillar to post to get their refugee status formalised. It has no reference at all to Indian citizens of any faith. In fact, it is such a weak and dated law that recent refugees fleeing Afghanistan after America’s shambolic withdrawal, do not get covered by it.
Among Soros’ Indian friends, clearly there are as many astrology buffs as there are weak-minded Leftists.
Soros predicts that the decline in the share prices of Adani companies will hurt Modi. As a seventy-year-old who has studied Indian politics for long and as one who takes astrology seriously, I wish Soros would pay just a little bit of attention to my analysis.
It is only the Indian middle class that is interested in the stock market. And unlike the situation that prevailed some sixty years ago, today’s Indian middle class is quite comfortable with national business champions on the lines of Japanese Zaibatsu or Korean chaebols. The poorer classes, whose interests do not cover the stock market, notice that Modi is perhaps the only major Indian politician who is not promoting his children (he has none) or his nephews or nieces and who has no interest in amassing wealth for himself or his family. Soros’ advisors may dismiss this matter. But I implore him to trust my not-so-humble judgement. This matters to Indians.
Soros, I am aware that you are a betting man. The Pound, the Baht and the Rupiah are all aware of your prowess. Please do not make the wrong bet. Please do not fall for the losing betting tips provided to you by foolish, elitist Leftists from my country. Remember that they are primarily foolish and elitist, and only conveniently Leftist.
You said ‘perhaps I am being naïve’. Let me assure you that you are being naïve. Let me also assure you that Indian democracy is alive and kicking. We welcome your good wishes. But we do not require your attention and certainly not your monetary patronage of the many fools who abound in my country. Take a break!
Jaithirth Rao is a retired businessperson who lives in Mumbai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)