Can Modi and his supporters permit criticism?

Between a career-defining speech at the UN General Assembly and photo-ops with X-Men star Hugh Jackman, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi enthralled American and Indian-American audiences. But right outside a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden, known more famously as the venue for Wrestlemania and the New York Knicks, a scuffle broke out that deserves some attention. Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was attacked by a group of unruly Modi supporters in an incident that emphatically brings the question over freedom of expression back to the centre of the Indian political discourse despite it happening on the other side of the world.

Sardesai was routinely asking attendees going to the event — their roles as non-resident Indian why they supported Modi, what they expected from his leadership — when a group of Modi supporters started heckling him, even telling him “to go to Pakistan” along with his family. Twitter inevitably exploded, starkly divided along the same fault lines that defined this year’s election: Modi’s supporters on side, his detractors on the other.

Video evidence suggests an incident slightly less divisive. The group of supporters evidently came looking for a fight, and were unprovoked. But in the context of a running debate over India’s future, context is key. Secular and liberal Indians have always complained about Modi’s authoritarian style of rule that crushes dissent, even within his own party. That Gujarat, Modi’s home state, has strict censorship laws, they fear for an India in which Modi’s critics are silenced. Modi supporters, on the other hand, see these fears as part of a larger, conspiratorial campaign to malign a man and a movement that has mass appeal and enduring popularity, denying, among others, the right of Hindus to act and speak as Hindus.

Liberals see the incident as part of a larger trend of an emboldened, dominating, even fascist group to silence anyone who opposes Hindutva; Modi supporters see it as yet another attempt to malign the prime minister under the guise of free speech. Modi, despite his Hindutva background, was keen to move on; he selected a close aide to call on Sardesai expressing his regrets. Modi must be aware that some of his supporters are creating a sectarian image of him that he was keen to distance himself from during the campaign. Despite his landslide victory, he needs to do far more to convince Indians otherwise.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2014.