Washington must respect the histories of all nations
By Mazher Mir
Abstractly, could a comparison between Donald Trump and Martin Luther King be viewed as contradictory with moral honesty or flat-out whitewashing black history? Racial matters are incessantly sensitive, and drawing such a contrast should deserve outrages from those who impede some understanding in history.
Trump’s popularity swept across America for his commitment to conservatism. He never pretended to be a civil rights proponent, and thus a hypothetical comparison with MLK would be a total distortion of facts. Trump has always represented the wealthy sector in the USA who wanted a tax cut, restricted immigration, and less subsidized healthcare for the general population, similar to Indian Prime Minister Modi’s campaign in India in 2014, even though unlike Trump Modi grew up poor.
Modi was compared to Mahatma Gandhi in 2015 at a State Department luncheon, a preposterous disdain to the legacy of the great leader and his billions of admirers. Modi became the prime minister of India in 2014 as a leader of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party. He was denied a U.S. visa in 2005 by the Bush administration for his involvement in riots that killed over 1,000 people in Gujarat, mostly Muslims. Washington’s humanitarian solidarity with affected people in India was rooted in the very constitution of the USA. This critical foreign policy message could have been missed if Kerry had won the White House bid in 2004, considering his high regards for Modi in 2015 wasn’t impulsive.
MLK, the most famous civil rights leader and a Baptist priest from America, had tremendous respect for Gandhi. A leader from a different culture and religion, he preached his nonviolence protest against racism. Gandhi started his racial justice and fairness activism for black people against the white rulers in South Africa, for which he was sentenced to six years in prison. MLK was also sentenced for his peaceful procession in 1960. It’s inextricably connected that as a white supremacist and segregationist supporter killed MLK in 1968, 20 years after Gandhi was assassinated by an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member in 1948.
Gandhi’s spiritual awakening towards dignity for all humans brought peace and unity in the Hindu majority India as MLK fought for racial equality in America. Just like Trump has nothing in common with MLK, Modi also has nothing in common with Mahatma Gandhi, and his core strengths are rooted in the polar opposites of Gandhi preaching. Modi came in power due to the right-wing uprising, a common phenomenon in global politics now. The GDP growth that Modi brags about didn’t change the fortune of 20 percent of their 1.3 billion population who are living under the poverty level. The index that should matter to these people, the Human Development Index, shows India at the 130th place in the global rankings, a message to his fanatics.
In 2015, Modi joined a lunch party where Secretary of State John Kerry compared him with Mahatma Gandhi, undermining the values of one of the most regarded humans in many centuries. Observant eyes couldn’t miss the former Secretary of State Dr. Kissinger and lobbyist Paul Manafort who also joined this event, a reflection of relevant stakeholders and gratitude to Modi, who defeated Indira Gandhi’s party, Indian National Congress, which Kissinger once worked hard to oust. In 1971, in a Nixon-recorded call that the CIA released in 2016, Kissinger apoplectically called the then Indian PM Indira Gandhi “a bitch” and said that “Indians are bastards.” Journalist Seymour Hersh argued in his book, “The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House,” that Kissinger influenced senior politicians in India for decades against PM Gandhi, who was also assassinated in 1984 by her own bodyguard.
The current paradigm of pointing fingers to foreign governments meddling in the USA’s election should open dialogue around these practices of our own, regardless of the political affiliations. Belittling the reputation of Gandhi, the founding father of India, while giving a pat on the back of Modi, an alleged human rights violator, is profoundly concerning. New Delhi isn’t throwing dirt on American civil rights leaders, nor should we. As a tribute to Black History Month, Washington must rise above politics and respect the histories of all nations and their great leaders while we observe our own.
Mazher Mir is investment director for Roybi Robots in Silicon Valley.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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