The president of India Narendra Modi is a very popular figure in India and has done some excellent things for the people of his nation, but his policies toward the Muslim minority of India are controversial at best. Modi defines himself as a “Hindu Nationalist”, which means he believes that India is a strictly Hindu nation and Muslims should not be a part of the Indian nation. Religious tensions have been part of Indian life for decades, and Modi has been at the head of state for many violent acts against Muslims and has done nothing to stop it, and has barely made temped apologies when he was asked if he regretted that the violence/killings happened. Modi himself has not directly used anti-Muslim sentiments in his public speeches, but what he has done is appoint other “Hindu Nationalists” and far more vocal anti-Muslim people in his government, and Modi has done nothing to stop them, even taking steps to put laws in place to hurt and even get rid of the Muslims in India. For example, he is planning on releasing a new citizenship test for the Indian people, a nationwide registry. Those who cannot provide documents for their citizenship will be considered illegal aliens, and only non-Muslims will be protected under this act. This would likely strip millions of Indian Muslims of their citizenship. In a nation with millions of Muslims, this can have some devastating effects.
I’m sure that all of this information is shocking and they may have people asking where I got my information. I got all of it from an episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which can be found here: Last Week Tonight: Narendra Modi