‘Hitler — Ascent 1889- 1939’ Asia’s New Hitler

If Hitler was a fanatic ‘Jew hater’, PM Modi of India has no love lost for Muslims — at least his actions prove that — Muslims were persecuted and killed in Gujarat while he was the Chief Minister of the State and now they are being brutally murdered in Kashmir while he is the PM of India. Hitlerism is a phenomenon and practising Hitlerism is a ‘condition of mind’. PM Modi of India is reconstructing the myth of ‘Hitlerism’ In Asia. Is he Asia’s new Hitler?

Hitler had a very humble and modest beginning. He was a private in World War-1 who was never allowed to hold a position of an officer. The beginning of PM Modi is also not very different — a tea boy who even cleaned his boss’s car to earn a living. But to their credit both Hitler and Modi worked their way out of anonymity and from being nobody became the Fuehrer and prime minister of a country, respectively. If Hitler maintained a consistent worldview that was ‘extreme, uncompromising, dangerous and insane’ the worldview today held by Modi is also no different and his actions prove that he also suffers from similar ‘ideological fixations’ from which once Hitler suffered.

In a biography published in 2016 and written by Volker Ullrich and translated by Jefferson Chase ‘Hitler — Ascent 1889- 1939’ the author states how the ‘missing tender element from his life’ drove him to develop his murderous aims. Hitler, like Modi, had no private life, never got married and was considered incapable of developing any emotional bond with any woman.

An anti-Jew to the core — Hitler never considered Jews as a religious entity but a race. He considered that ‘races and not classes were the motors of the events’ and is believed to have once said that ‘a goose, fox or a tiger would remain a goose, fox and a tiger’. From his racial beliefs stemmed the idea of ‘Germany for the Germans alone’. Looking at the troubles of the Muslim community currently living under the Modi government and administration one is reminded of the deep-set racial beliefs that Hitler had and if the Jews were persecuted in Hitler’s Germany, the Muslims of India especially those living in India-occupied Kashmir also have little or no life to themselves.

Living in the 21^st century one is forced to wonder if is it possible for leader of a state — that too the biggest democracy in the world to demonstrate ‘Hitler’s intents’ and execute ‘Hitler’s horrors’ yet survive and not even be condemned by the international community? The response by the International community during the ‘2002 Gujrat riots’ was much in line with the international norms and ethics when Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat was placed under 10 years’ diplomatic boycott and banned from travelling abroad for the role he played in the violence committed against the Muslims in Gujarat. That ban was only lifted in 2012. What stops the international community from taking a similar view now? An unprincipled opportunist and an ‘exploiter of situations,’ PM Modi’s ‘Hitlerist condition’ is going unnoticed with the West only because the Western world has deep economic interests in the Indian markets. If it was ‘Germany for only Germans’ in Hitler’s time then India is fast descending towards a domestic environment that vividly spells ‘ Hindustan for Hindus only’. Modi is not a leader but a ‘condition’ that is fast deteriorating the Indian secular outlook.

In the current India-Pakistan standoff also PM Modi of India demonstrates some of the qualities for which Hitler was also renowned. Whenever faced with tough choices it is said that Hitler always procrastinated. He was popularly known as a ‘hesitator and a procrastinator’. PM Imran Khan has now reached out to him a number of times — the latest being his attempts to reach out to him directly on the phone and inform him about the release of the Indian pilot but the Indian PM ducked and buckled away. His consistent approach to avoid, evade and not accept the call for dialogue from Pakistan only highlights that as a leader ‘political profiteering’ and ‘exploitation of Indian resentments and prejudices’ and creation of divide and division is more dear to him than pursing peace and harmony which is the hallmark of any leadership.

Unfortunately, like in Hitler’s Germany the military in India has also become an accomplice to Modi’s policies. It is a known fact that without the willingness of many people and institutions to work for him Hitler would never have been able to execute the devastation that he did and would never have achieved his murderous aims. The complicity of Hitler’s team and his institutions made them equally responsible for the murder and mayhem that the world witnessed during World War II in which millions of people died. With the standoff between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear armed states, continuing and with PM Modi at the helm in India should the world not be extremely concerned?

If war is a means to the political end then what end PM Modi had in mind when he sent the Indian MiGs to violate Pakistan’s airspace and engage a target inside Pakistan? Means are chosen and employed only with the end in sight. What end PM Modi has on his political cross hairs? The bloody nose that the Indian Air Force carries, and as a consequence Modi’s ‘way of politics’ also carries now, should only raise concerns all over the world. An ‘unprincipled opportunist’ and a ‘poor reader of the ends’ like Hitler, PM Modi is as dangerous a political threat as once Hitler was. The world has once failed to combat in time with the phenomenon of Hitler and suffered the worst consequences. Can the world afford to do the same once again?

When the cure the nations offer (Hitler’s and Modi’s) are worse than the disease with which the nations suffer they usually cure the symptoms and not the actual causes of the disease.

It’s time that the world realised that a Hitler has been reincarnated and it is extremely dangerous to leave him unrestrained and unchained to execute his plans.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2019.

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