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Modi's Hindutva: Has BJP's Politics Hurt India's International Image?
The Indian cricket team's crass behavior after defeating the Pakistani team at the Asia Cup 2025 group encounter has raised eyebrows among sports fans around the world. Not only did Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian team captain, refuse to do the customary handshake before and after the match in Dubai but he also made controversial statements linking the match with the recent India-Pakistan conflict. “A few things in life are above sportsman’s spirit ......We stand with all the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and with their families, and dedicate this win to our brave armed forces who took part in Operation Sindoor”, he said.
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| Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi |
This latest incident in the UAE illustrates one of the reasons why there is a growing backlash against the Indian diaspora in Australia, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. All of these countries and regions have seen very public expressions of disgust at the behavior of Indians in these countries. This is in part attributed to the politics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proclaimed his country as "Vishwaguru", meaning the world's guru. It is often seen as an expression of Hindu Supremacy and denigration of all others.
The arrogance of the Indian diaspora was highlighted last year when Vivek Ramaswamy, then a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, said Americans don't have a good enough work ethic as American culture "venerated mediocrity over excellence." He offered it as a key justification to bring in more Indians to work in the United States. The backlash in the United States was immediate and strong. The essence of the response to the Hindu supremacist criticism of the US culture went like this: People from India, a "shit-hole" country, are jealous of America. Earlier, Professor Amy Wax of University of Pennsylvania, told Tucker Carlsen that “the role of envy and shame in the way the third world [sic] regards the first world […] creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind.” She also said that ‘Brahmin women’ of India are taught that they are better than everybody.
American social media, particularly Trump's MAGA base, have turned against India and Indians, making them the most hated diaspora in the United States. They are getting a taste of the kind of hate that the BJP, India's ruling party, has been promoting against Muslims. Anti-Indian slurs like "pajeet", "dirty Indian" and "coolie" have become common.
Ashley Tellis, a strongly pro-India analyst in the United States, recently published an essay for Foreign Affairs magazine titled "India's Great Power Delusions" in which he wrote that "the country (India) is shedding one of its main sources of strength—its liberal democracy—by embracing Hindu nationalism. This evolution could undermine India’s rise by intensifying communal tensions and exacerbating problems with its neighbors, forcing it to redirect security resources inward to the detriment of outward power projection. The country’s illiberal pivot further undermines the rules-based international order that has served it so well".
In recent years, India has emerged as a major hub for global scams. The US government has alleged in court documents that a large enterprise originating from India was involved in stealing nearly $1.5 billion from elderly Americans. Recently, two Indian nationals, Pranay Mamindi and Kishan Patel, were found guilty of participating in a money laundering conspiracy, concealing the source of the money, and using the illegally gained money to further promote a criminal enterprise. Six other defendants from India also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
These global scams appear to have started amid widespread unemployment in India. Many of the scammers previously worked in call centers where they learned to use computers and telecommunications networks to reach out and talk to Americans. In 2022, U.S. citizens fell victim to a massive loss of over $10 billion from phishing calls orchestrated by illegal Indian call centers, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Indian-Americans, too, have been found guilty in a number of high-profile scams. A federal jury convicted former Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, an Indian-American entrepreneur, on all 12 counts of fraud in 2022. Balwani was born in 1965 in Pakistan to a Sindhi Hindu family. His one-time girlfriend and partner Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, was convicted on similar charges earlier that year. Both face up to 20 years in prison.
Last year, a federal judge sentenced former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah, an Indian-American, to 7½ years in prison for a massive fraud scheme that prosecutors say enabled a “jet-set lifestyle” featuring private aircraft, yachts and a tony Chicago home.
In 2020, Dr. John Nath Kapoor, Indian-American CEO of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of conspiring to recklessly and illegally boost profits from the opioid painkiller Subsys, a fentanyl spray designed to be absorbed under the tongue, according to multiple media reports.
Rajat Gupta, an Indian-American former global head of McKinsey & Company, was convicted of insider trading in 2012. He was charged with passing on confidential business information about Goldman Sachs to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Gupta was found guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy and securities fraud and served a two-year prison sentence.
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| India Ranks Number One For Misinformation and Disinformation |
Beyond the hub of scams and frauds, it seems that India has earned a reputation as the epicenter of misinformation and disinformation. According to experts surveyed for the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risk Report, India was ranked highest for the risk of misinformation and disinformation. This was on full display during the recent conflict with Pakistan.
After the recent Pahalgam militant attack in Kashmir, the Indian government immediately blamed it on Pakistan without any investigation or evidence. More than a month later, the perpetrators have neither been clearly identified nor apprehended. And yet, the government of Prime Minister Modi proceeded with air strikes inside Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated and shot down several Indian fighter jets, including its most advanced French Rafales. The conflict began to quickly escalate with strikes and counter-strikes, with the world fearing a nuclear exchange. This prompted the United States and several other countries to intervene and force a ceasefire in less than 4 days of armed conflict.
During this short 4-day period, the Indian mainstream media was filled with lies. Here's how the Washington Post reported this: "Times Now Navbharat reported that Indian forces had entered Pakistan; TV9 Bharatvarsh told viewers that Pakistan’s prime minister had surrendered; Bharat Samachar said he was hiding in a bunker. All of them, along with some of the country’s largest channels — including Zee News, ABP News and NDTV — repeatedly proclaimed that major Pakistani cities had been destroyed".
It is unfortunate but true: Fraud and falsehood have become endemic in the Indian society. Part of the blame falls squarely on the ruling BJP party which promotes falsehoods. In 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-hand man and home minister Amit Shah told his party's volunteers commonly known as Modi Bhakts: "We can keep making messages go viral, whether they are real or fake, sweet or sour". "Keep making messages go viral. We have already made a WhatsApp group with 32 lakh people in Uttar Pradesh; every morning they are sent a message at 8 am", Shah added, according to a report in Dainik Bhaskar, an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper.
Related Links:
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Indian-American Operator Charged With Fraud By US Federal Prosecutors
Lying Indian Media Caught Red Handed
India's Firehose of Falsehoods
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H1-B Visa Abuse By Indian-American Body Shops
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Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel
Riaz Haq
Pakistan, F-1 student visas granted in fiscal year 2023 were 3,322. The number of F-1 visas issued in the first half of fiscal year 2025 was 1,928, an increase of 44.3% compared to the same period in the previous year.
https://www.applyboard.com/applyinsights-article/us-student-visa-is...
Total Number of F-1 Visas Issued During H1 Dips
Across most major destinations, new student visa numbers fell in 2024 compared to all-time highs set in 2023. While the US remained the most resilient, this overall slowdown is expected to continue to impact student flows in 2025. Looking at mid-year 2025 data, US government data shows that almost 89,000 international students were issued an F-1 student visa during H1 2025.
The number of F-1 student visas issued to Indian students dropped by 44% year-over-year to 14,700, continuing a downward trend that started in H1 2024. Notably, Indian student demand has softened among most other major Anglophone study destinations. Visa demand from Indian students dropped by nearly 20% between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years in Australia, and that trend is expected to persist in 2024/25 based on H1 fiscal year data. Meanwhile, Indian students were issued 57% fewer Canadian study permits in calendar year 2024 versus 2023.
Over the full 2024 fiscal year, 86,000 US student visas were issued to Indian students, versus 83,000 to Chinese students. If current trends continue, it’s possible Chinese students will become the largest incoming international student population in the US for the first time in four years. In H1 2025, US student visa issuances to Chinese students dropped 24% year-over-year to just over 11,000. However, the H1 2025 total is similar to 2022 and 2023 totals over the same period, suggesting a return to more stable levels of demand.
Over the 2024 fiscal year, 42% of new international students in the US were from India or China. While a sizable proportion of the international student body, this percentage is shifting: in the previous fiscal year, India and China received 49% of all issued F-1 visas.
Oct 14
Riaz Haq
Dr. Audrey Truschke
@AudreyTruschke
Usha Vance is an enabler and victim of far-right intolerance.
And that's one big lesson here -- When minoritized individuals and groups support the American far-right, they don't become accepted and validated; they are tolerated in a second-class way.
https://newrepublic.com/post/202493/jd-vance-questioned-wife-usha-c...
https://x.com/AudreyTruschke/status/1984604098373550252
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Dr. Audrey Truschke
@AudreyTruschke
The same dynamic is playing out with Hindu far-right groups in America who follow Hindutva.
They've been beyond mealy-mouthed in their responses, knowing that they must accept public humiliation to maintain their political alliances.
That emboldens the intolerance further.
https://x.com/AudreyTruschke/status/1984604684309447091
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Dr. Audrey Truschke
@AudreyTruschke
Hindu far-right groups don't represent American Hindus; they only speak for a subset who follow a specific political ideology.
But in so doing, they're throwing everybody else under the bus.
This story is a bellwether for religious pluralism in America. It's not going well.
https://x.com/AudreyTruschke/status/1984605248736874681
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JD Vance Seems to Think His Wife Is Going to Hell
https://newrepublic.com/post/202493/jd-vance-questioned-wife-usha-c...
At a Turning Point USA town hall Wednesday at the University of Mississippi, in honor of the late right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, Vance was questioned about the contradictions between his public statements on race, immigration, and religion, and his personal relationship with his Hindu, Indian American wife, Usha Vance. “You are married to a woman who is not Christian.… She still calls herself Hindu. You are raising three kids in interracial, cultural, racial religious household. How are you maintaining, how are you teaching your kids not to keep your religion ahead of their mother’s religion?” a young South Asian woman asked Vance.
“Yes, my wife did not grow up Christian, I think it’s fair to say that she grew up in a Hindu family, but not a particularly religious family in either direction,” Vance replied, before stating that the two were both “agnostic or an atheist” when they met. “Everybody has to come to their own arrangement here. The way that we’ve come to our arrangement is she’s my best friend and we talk to each other about this stuff. So we decided to raise our kids Christian.… That’s the way that we have come to our arrangement.”
The crowd erupted with applause.
“You just gotta talk to the person that God has put you with,” Vance continued, as his answer became more strange. “Most Sundays, Usha will come with me to church. As I’ve told her, and I’ve said publicly, and I’ll say now in front of 10,000 of my closest friends: Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I do wish that. Because I believe in the Christian gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”
Many rightfully saw this as Vance rejecting his wife’s own religion and culture.
“Watch as Vance denies his wife’s religious identity as Hindu. Instead, he labels her as currently without a religion and a future Christian,” South Asian history professor Dr. Audrey Trushcke wrote on X. “Folks, believe the far-right when they say Christian is the only legitimate religious identity. They mean it.”
“When JD Vance had hit his lowest, it was his ‘Hindu’ wife and her Hindu upbringing that had helped him navigate through the tough times,” Indian author Monica Verma wrote. “Today in a position of power, her religion has become a liability. What a fall. What an epic fall for the man.”
For the record, Usha Vance has described her Hindu upbringing as something that helped make her parents “good people.”
Nov 1
Riaz Haq
JD Vance Seems to Think His Wife Is Going to Hell
At a Turning Point USA event, JD Vance was questioned about his brown, Hindu wife. His answer was disgusting.
https://newrepublic.com/post/202493/jd-vance-questioned-wife-usha-c...
For the record, Usha Vance has described her Hindu upbringing as something that helped make her parents “good people.”
“I did grow up in a religious household, my parents are Hindu, and I think that was one of the things that made them such good parents, that make them really very good people,” she said in an interview with Fox News last year.
“When you convert to Catholicism it comes with several important obligations, like to raise your child in the faith and all that,” she said in a more recent interview with Meghan McCain. “We had to have a lot of real conversations about how do you do that, when I’m not Catholic, and I’m not intending to convert or anything like that.… The kids know that I’m not Catholic, and they have plenty of access to the Hindu tradition from books that we give them, to things that we show them, to the recent trip to India, and some of the religious elements of that visit.”
This “arrangement” does not sound like a compromise, especially when Usha’s husband is proudly proclaiming that he hopes she’ll abandon the religion she grew up with.
Vance also faced questions by the same woman about his vehemently anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric.
“You sold us a dream. You don’t owe us anything, we have worked hard for it. Then how can you as a vice president stand there and say that we have too many [immigrants] now, and we are going to take them out?”
“I’m talking about people who came in in violation of the laws of the United States of America, and I’m talking about, in the future, reducing the number [of immigrants].”
“You just said you are not stopping with the people who came here legally, right?” the woman replied. “But you are pushing out policies that hurt us. And these policies are not even solving the problems. These problems are just creating chaos.”
“I can believe that the United States should lower its levels of immigration in the future, while also respecting that there are people who have come here through lawful immigration patterns that have contributed to the country,” Vance said. “Just because one person or 10 people or 100 people came in legally and contributed to the United States of America, does that mean we are thereby committed to let in a million, or 10 million, or 100 million? … My job is not to look out for the interests of the whole world. It’s to look out for the people of the United States.”
Nov 1