[Reader-list] Europe and Modi (Marianne)

[Patrice Riemens]

Excerpt, Q&D translated, from the editorial of the French opinion weekly
'Marianne' (left wing, kind of 'Outlook'), dated May 30, 2014. The
interesting part is not the Modi bashing (mainstream by now), but the
total ignorance/indifference of Europe for what happens outside its
borders (& inside too, btw).



"Just like in China or the United States, we, in Europe, believe we are
the center of the world (in French: its belly-button -PR ;-) The electoral
earthquake, registering 7 on the political Richter scale we have just gone
through (EU wide Eu-parliamentary elections, last week -PR) which saw,
save in Italy and Germany, the triumph of nationalist, 'populist', and
xenophobic parties, has made us totally oblivious of the fact that a
completely nationalist, demagogic, and 'identitary' power has just
appeared at the real centre of the planet. We should of course be worried
about the decay of our political life and the disintegration of our
political programs and ideals, but all this does not weight much compared
to what has taken place a few weeks ago in India. There, it is not about a
radical and xenophobic party winning a substantial number of parliamentary
seats. It is a whole nation that has given executive power to a leader,
Narendra Modi, who makes Marine Le Pen look like a primary school pupil.
Modi has hands as red as Kali, since it was on his watch that scores of
Muslims were slaughtered in Gujarat. But the fact that a man, whom Putin
admires, and who was compared to Hitler by his political opponent, now has
the nuclear option at his fingertips does not even register with
Europeans. But then, the embers of the Gandhi family electoral pyre were
still glowing when a smart alec whispered to our ears: "aaah yes, but
xenophobia dressed up in sari - is that xenophobia still?"