[XiJInPaddington]

Modi reminds me a lot of Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan famously said democracy is like a train in that you get off once you've arrived at your destination. I see similar impulses from Modi and the BJP. I can very easily see Modi talking about how mandirs and shikharas are barracks and helmets. India is headed down a dangerous path and his perversion of Hinduism will not end well.

[64bittechie]

The Indian middle class has never been more prosperous under any other government. The current ruling government has undertaken fundamental reforms that _all_ political parties have had in their manifestos but nobody has had the political will to execute on it. In fact in the past 7 years there hasn't been an single legitimate instance of corruption or scandal. If this is the dangerous path, please sign me up for more.

[temp345675634]

Your point is exactly the things a lot of my Hindu friends say. Freedom and prosperity are two different things. China has/had a booming economy but look at the way they are treating Muslims or dissent.

Yes, for mainstream Hindu nationalists, this is a great time, the government is fully for them. But with all due respect spare a thought for the minorities, journalists and even comedians who are sent to jail for no reason. What about CAA etc.?

[hesarenu]

There has been demand for hindus to manage their own temples. This been a right winged party has done nothing on it for last 5 years. Not even in states they are ruling.

As for comedians there should be demand to remove the blasphemy laws. That would stop those hurting religious cases.

[ngcc_hk]

That is the danger china posted to the world. Totalitarian pays. Let us have more of it. Suppressed minority right is ok. Let us do more of it. With the largest two or 1/2 humanity ... whatever we think about human rights will be overtaken by this crazy reality. Power is might. Prosperity is what counts.

Sigh. And the top judge is either a joke as in china or ask the rapist to continue raping the kids he raped (by marrying her).

Sigh. Can we have hope.

[quantummkv]

It's interesting and disappointing that the CAA is bought up all the time on India related threads in HN for being something that is anti-minority, but explicitly helps persecuted minorities in neighborhood countries, like these Sikhs that faced terror attacks in Afghanistan [1].

Isn't supporting persecuted minorities with no other homeland than India something that the government of India should do? Israel does it by giving citizenship to all persecuted incoming Jews and there seem to be no complains about that so not sure why India is demonized for doing the same.

Also, most of the mentions of CAA never explain exactly what is discriminatory in the law[2]. It only accelerates the citizenship process for religions that originate in India. Not sure what is discriminatory about that?

[1] - https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-first-batch-of-facilit...

[2] - http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214646.pdf

[temp345675634]

Your question contains your answer - "It only accelerates the citizenship process for religions that originate in India. Not sure what is discriminatory about that?"

You pick and choose which religions get an "accelerated" citizenship process (whatever that means). Also India has millions of muslims (or christians) whom you can deny citizenship because it is a "foreign" religion :)

[ra7]

> Also India has millions of muslims (or christians) whom you can deny citizenship because it is a "foreign" religion

This sounds made up. What laws in India let them deny citizenship for minorities because it’s a “foreign” religion? Care to source one?

[aravindet]

> What laws in India let them deny citizenship for minorities because it’s a “foreign” religion?

The National Register of Citizens (NRC). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Citizen...

The CAA and NRC are designed to work together to strip citizenship from Indian muslims who do not have documents to comprehensively prove citizenship.

The NRC is terrible but not overtly discriminatory on religious grounds. The CAA essentially protects people from the NRC, but does so in a blatantly discriminatory manner.

How it works: You might have a passport or driving license or Aadhaar, but none of these prove you are a citizen; you need a document issued before the 1970 wave of immigration from Bangladesh, and if you are younger than that you need to prove an ancestor's citizenship using such a document and then prove your descent from that person using birth certificates.

Needles to say, many people (of all religions) would not be able to do that.

This is where the CAA comes in, saying people in the country illegally have a fast-track to citizenship if they happen to be from a list of 'persecuted minorities' in neighboring countries. The list excludes persecuted muslim groups, most conspicuously the Rohingya of Myanmar who face the most horrifying persecution.

Sidenote: while I said the NRC isn't discriminatory in it's framing, it was in practice in Assam, the only state where it has been enforced. Officers have broad discretion over choosing whom to challenge (to prove citizenship), and some were caught admitting they challenged people based on how hey dressed and in what neighborhood they lived.

[srean]

Not officially. There are other means - holding back approvals indefinitely, using clerical errors as an excuse selectively

[quantummkv]

I would recommend you to read this FAQ[1]. It answers all you points.

> Also India has millions of muslims (or christians) whom you can deny citizenship because it is a "foreign" religion :)

This is blatantly false. The CAA only applies to new immigrants that apply for citizenship. No where in the CAA law it is mentioned that existing citizens can be stripped of their citizenship due to their religion or any other reason.

This is not twitter or reddit. Please stop spreading lies, FUD and conjecture here.

[1] -https://hcikl.gov.in/pdf/press/CAA_2019_dec.pdf

[wornohaulus]

where did you get the "deny citizenship to muslims" from ? they are still part of the process and will take the same time they do today .. nothing changes for them.. which is the cases for hindus/sikh/jains/muslims/chrstn from any other country apart from these 3 bordering india ..

[nkskalyan]

"The Indian middle class has never been more prosperous under any other government." -> Do you have any proof for this? I have been for greater part of the 1st Modi regime. It was mostly a shitshow with Demonetisation.

[noobermin]

If you know about the history of fascism it has always had a base in a certain section of the middle class of a country aligned with some elites (as opposed to one rooted in the working class).

[ecnerwala]

"The Indian middle class has never been more prosperous under any other government." - Based on what metrics?

[random314]

India's GDP growth rate is not negative. Hence...

Talking about middle class incomes is a total red herring. These are fairly typical diversionary tactics, to move the conversation from an uncomfortable topic such as fascism and human rights violations to more mundane discussions about economic metrics.

If you have been in a couple of these discussions you will learn to avoid these diversionary traps :)

[sifar]

>> The Indian middle class has never been more prosperous under any other government

Have you looked at the interest rates ? The government is crushing the very same middle class savers/pensioners who have supported them ardently. And the funny thing is they still continue to do so.

This irony is lost on everybody.

[random314]

This is another way of saying that India does not have a negative GDP growth rate (covid19 excepted).

Independent India has actually never had a negative growth rate ever, until 2020.

This also ignores 3 fundamental facts

1. The middle class of India is a minority. The majority of India is lower class.

2. The growth rate has been declining ever since Modi has assumed power.

3. The current discussion is about fascism, suspension of habeas corpud, human rights violations and the usurpation of power from independent branches like the judiciary, election commission, enforcement directorate etc. - not the middle class income profile.

Germany was also prosperous under Hitler.

[vijaybritto]

Can you please cite with examples of growth in the past 7 years with comparison to the previous govt? This govt has been a failure in an astounding scale and the numbers confirm them. I'm not getting what you mean by "never been more prosperous"

[postingawayonhn]

> The Indian middle class has never been more prosperous under any other government.

It would be pretty worrying if they weren't.