Relatively few Americans ever get to India, a real shame, since it's a truly incredible place. I set out from London in 1969 in my VW camper for my first trip. I spent nearly two years on that trip, much of it driving from the Punjab down along the west coast to the tip, crossing over by ferry into Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and then driving up the east coast, up into Nepal and across the north of the country and out through the Punjab into Pakistan again. And I barely scratched the surface. Since then I've been back to India half a dozen times-- by plane those times-- sometimes for business and sometimes for vacation. Several of those times in more recent year have been during Narendra Modi-election cycles.In December 2007, I wrote that there was a bitterly contested state election in Gujarat whose main issue was the controversial incumbent chief minister, Narendra Modi, of the far-right nationalistic party BJP, a Trump kind of guy through and through. The BJP is a classic right-wing political party, representing the status quo interests of the exploitative/owner class. In a thriving democracy like India, how does a party concerned exclusively with the welfare and prerogatives of .001 percent of the population, and espousing one prepackaged conservative nostrum after another, even hope to win votes? The BJP never needed Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove or the Southern Strategy to succumb to the siren song of the Dark Side's exploitation of social tensions, racism, xenophobia, religionist hatreds and fear of, what Modi always talked about-- "Islamofascist terrorism." That kind of divisiveness had turned very ugly-- and launched Modi's career as a national figure, leading to his current position as national prime minister. I write at the time that "In Gujarat over a thousand Muslims-- men, women and children-- have been brutally murdered, their homes and businesses burned and looted, just five years ago as a step on the ladder to Modi-power. This is called BJP-inspired Hindutva, sometimes called Moditva, in honor of his George Wallace-like encouragement for the mayhem." While I was there that year Modi bragged about having suspected Muslim 'terrorists' dealt with extra-judicially-- by having them killed.
Gujarat is one of the poorest and most backward states in India-- think Mississippi-- in a country where over 2 million children under the age of five died in 2006 and where seven hundred million (700,000,000) people do not have access to sanitation. Muslims are Modi's and the BJP's scapegoats of choice; there are too few Jews left in India.Let me get back to the social problems the BJP exploits to win elections in a moment and move to the heart of the party's agenda: unbridled vulture capitalism. All of India's robber barons back Modi. It is claimed he has created a development-friendly climate that vulture capitalists just eat up. And he has delivered electricity-- for those rich enough to afford it. Most cannot. "Development" for Modi and his party means Raj-level opportunities for the already rich and powerful and a slim-- very slim-- chance that there might someday be some trickle down for everyone else. Not much has trickled down so far.Modi seemed intent to try fighting for reelection based on his development record, but most Gujaratis weren't buying it, because they aren't feeling it or seeing it. So like any right-winger worth his political salt, he turned to divisiveness and mud-slinging. (Headlines today were all about a Congress Party politician in Gujarat caught on tape in a compromising position with a woman he isn't married to. CDs were provided to all the media outlets in the state and in Delhi.)But playing the religionist card is Modi's time-tested specialty. "The Congress [Party] questioned Lord Ram's existence in an affidavit submitted in court," he brayed to a small crowd of tribal Gujaratis yesterday. But if Modi sounds even more like a reckless religionist crackpot than Mike Huckabee or Bishop Willard Romney, he's as slick a politico as either of them. After making his emotional appeal to defend the veracity of Lord Ram's existence, he didn't hesitate to remind the audience to get their butts to the polls. "Please don't think I will become chief minister if you set out on a padayatra to Ambaji temple," unconsciously showing his own hypocrisy and contempt for religion. "I will not come to power if you recite my name 108 times a day. It will only happen if you come out of your homes to cast your votes for the GOP BJP."
Yesterday, Philip Rucker reported for the Washington Post that "The foreign strategy of soothing tensions with the United States by stroking President Trump’s ego was put into vivid effect here Sunday when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lathered praise on his American counterpart at a massive rally celebrating the Indian diaspora. The leaders of the world’s two largest democracies took the stage together in Houston before a roaring crowd of tens of thousands of Indian Americans, where Modi delivered an unmistakable endorsement of Trump’s presidency and cast their joint appearance in historic terms. Said Modi: 'His name is familiar to every person on the planet. He was a household name and very popular even before he went on to occupy the highest office in this great country. From CEO to commander in chief. From boardrooms to the Oval Office. From studios to global stage.'" I wonder who wrote that!It was music to Trump's ears compared to what he heard on Morning Joe a few hours later, when former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, a fellow Republican, noted that "Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election. It couldn’t be clearer, and that’s not just undermining democratic institutions. That is treason. It’s treason, pure and simple, and the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That’s the only penalty. The penalty in the Constitution is removal from office and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal."These are heady days around the White House, as Trump pours gasoline on the impeachment fires. Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer noted for Politico early Monday that "Impeachment is becoming more and more likely. Some will tell you it’s approaching a certainty... Unlike the Byzantine Russiagate allegations, the latest charge-- that the president repeatedly tried to get a foreign leader seeking military aid to investigate a political opponent-- is not hard to understand. It’s about the actions of Trump himself, not his aides or former campaign nobodies. At this point, the facts are pretty much in the open and agreed to: The president has practically admitted he discussed Biden with Ukraine’s president, and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been open about pressing the Ukrainians to investigate Biden’s son Hunter. Now it’s up to Congress to figure out how to proceed."
Speaker Nancy Pelosi understands the caucus’ moods better than anyone, and her letter Sunday-- which said the president needs to hand over the whistleblower report now, or else-- was a rifle shot that should not be underestimated.Time is of the essence for the Trump White House. If they don’t produce the whistleblower report within days-- maybe a week-- Democrats are going to be under extreme pressure to move toward impeachment. Thursday will be an important day to watch: That’s when Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, is testifying in an open hearing.
But you know what's funny here? While the White House is fretting over what looks like a Trump washout in Michigan, some of his allies are more worried about Trump losing because of his opposition to vaping! No, really... forget treason and impeachment and emoluments. How funny would it be if one of the only good things Trump has ever tried to do in his whole miserable life, destroys his toxic presidency! "Conservative leaders are circulating data to White House staff that claims adults who vape will turn on President Trump if he follows through with his planned ban on flavored e-cigarettes... The data reveals that the number of adult vapers in key battleground states greatly outweighs the margins by which Trump won those states in 2016-- and they argue it could cost him reelection. 'While parents may be concerned about e-cigarettes, the people who genuinely care about vaping as a voting issue so far outweighs the number of people Trump needs to win in 2020 that they are royally screwing themselves by doing this,' Paul Blair, the director of strategic initiatives at Americans for Tax Reform, tells me... Florida, which Trump won by 113,000 voters, had about 873,000 adult vapers in 2016. They reason that if 1 in 8 vapers turn against Trump in 2020 because he foreclosed their vaping options, it could jeopardize the election.Trump has begun backing away from his anti-vaping stand and will probably soon be doing ads for the delicious flavors! This guy is so incredibly predictable! And pathetic.
