{"id":21414,"date":"2020-08-06T20:17:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T11:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2020\/aug\/06\/modi-india-muslims-times-square-hindu-temple"},"modified":"2020-08-06T20:17:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T11:17:45","slug":"modis-acolytes-have-reminded-indias-muslims-just-what-he-thinks-of-them-siddhartha-deb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=21414","title":{"rendered":"Modi&#8217;s acolytes have reminded India&#8217;s Muslims just what he thinks of them | Siddhartha Deb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An image in Times Square celebrated not only the construction of a Hindu temple but the destruction of a mosque<\/p>\n<p>Mussolini confided in his son that one of his nightmares was that he would be put on trial at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, in case of capture by the Allies. Narendra Modi\u2019s fantasy was to hold <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-india-29403546\">his victory rally<\/a> there, as he did in September 2014, soon after being elected prime minister of India. Returning triumphantly to the heart of the very empire that denied him a diplomatic visa and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/U.S.-holds-firm-on-Modi-visa-denial\/article12979018.ece\">revoked his tourist visa<\/a> for an anti-Muslim pogrom carried out while he was chief minister in Gujarat in 2002, Modi\u2019s presence at Madison Square Garden sparked off the rapturous belligerence of 20,000 supporters. Since then, through events like \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/sep\/23\/modi-defends-removing-kashmirs-autonomy-at-trump-rally\">Howdy Modi<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/feb\/24\/namaste-donald-trump-india-welcomes-us-president-narendra-modi-rally\">Namaste Trump<\/a>\u201d, Modi appears to have made America his second home and Donald Trump a buddy, a coming together of civilisations ancient and modern as well as a merger of two failed states with among the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/jul\/17\/global-report-coronavirus-infections-india-pass-1m-mark\">highest rates<\/a> of Covid-19 infection in the world. <\/p>\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2020\/aug\/05\/ayodhya-narendra-modi-temple-foundation-stone-ceremony\">Ayodhya: Modi hails &#8216;dawn of new era&#8217; as work on controversial temple begins<\/a> <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2020\/aug\/06\/modi-india-muslims-times-square-hindu-temple\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image in Times Square celebrated not only the construction of a Hindu temple but the destruction of a mosqueMussolini confided in his son that one of his nightmares was that he would be put on trial at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, in case of ca&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1494,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[415,516,62,447,433,1298,371,61,47,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump","category-hinduism","category-india","category-islam","category-narendra-modi","category-new-york","category-religion","category-south-and-central-asia","category-us-news","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21415,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21414\/revisions\/21415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}