cross-posted from: https://lemmy.run/post/19302

Author: Pragya Bakshi Sharma

NYT writes, “A public scolding from the White House, especially when the United States is wrestling with its own threats to democracy, would serve little purpose except to anger the Indian public.”

On Friday, PM Narendra Modi became the only Indian Prime Minister and third global leader to address the Joint Session of the US Congress twice. “It is always a great honour to address the United States Congress. It is an exceptional privilege to do so twice. For this honour, I extend my deepest gratitude on behalf of 1.4 billion people of India,” PM Modi said.

He jestfully added, “Mr. Speaker, you have a tough job. (Congress erupts in laughter). I can relate to the battles of passion, persuasion, and policy. I can understand the debate of ideas and ideology. But I am delighted to see you come together to celebrate the bond between world’s two great democracies – India and the United States (Congress standing ovation). I am happy to help out whenever you need a strong bipartisan consensus (Congress erupts in laughter).”

In just 100 words, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inadvertently incarcerated The New York Times’s latest 1376-word rant.

Titled “The India Quandary”, NYT’s op-ed on Thursday was uncommonly politically correct. Of course, the article didn’t fall short of its traditional anti-Modi, anti-India, anti-Hindu bigotry, but seems to have preached a rather introspective gospel to the Biden administration instead of its general habit of preaching to India.

Keeping in line with its convoluted style of writing so as to leave an escape route open, the New York Times op-ed begins with an outright hypocritical stand as it questions the applicability of the ideals of the very liberal democracy it has been preaching to India.

“…but that chimera soon gave way to the more complex world we inhabit today, in which the ideals of liberal democracy — often in otherwise well-functioning democracies — sometimes seem to be in conflict with the popularity of strongmen leaders, the desire for security or the forces of xenophobia or grievance,” it reads.

The op-ed further reads, “For American presidents and policymakers, this poses a challenge; it is no longer enough to champion the ideals of liberal democracy and count on the rest of the world to follow.”

This is the same New York Times that has demeaned India by calling it “an increasingly illiberal democracy“. And now, the change of heart is such that it is preaching, twice in 24 hours, the US govt to use measures that are more tolerant than the ideals of liberal democracy.

In another one of NYT’s opinion articles titled ‘Democracy and Reality,” the author says that “an alliance made up only of liberal democracies would probably weaken global democracy.” The article is written by NYT senior writer David Leonhardt.

So what is it that has made the already politically correct New York Times now also politically correct towards its own coterie? It is the 1.4 billion people of India. Yes, you read that right. Here’s another part from the op-ed to tell you how.

It reads, “A public scolding from the White House, especially when the United States is wrestling with its own threats to democracy, would serve little purpose except to anger the Indian public.” After 9 years of the Modi govt, 6th visit as PM, and the first official state visit, the New York Times seems to have finally grasped the pulse of the Indian electorate.

The Prime Minister’s consecutive victory and his popularity among the Indian masses both at home and abroad have trampled the toolkit gang’s daydreams of stripping India of its Hindu identity. Here’s an excerpt that proves the same: “…senior American officials believe that India’s views of the United States have fundamentally improved in recent years. This is partly through the work of the dynamic Indian diaspora…”

It is surprising to note that NYT somehow mustered the courage to speak the truth in saying that “India is a democracy in which the world’s biggest electorate openly and freely exercises the fundamental right to choose its leader”. The Hindu-hating “news” organisation has otherwise often written off the role of the Indian voter in consciously bringing Modi to power and has attributed his victory to what it deems an “anti-Muslim narrative”.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here for this is the notorious New York Times after all. In sugarcoated and seemingly intellectual words, the op-ed is basically suggesting that the Biden administration use more careful means of “engagement which can, at least sometimes, lead to further dialogue and space for diplomacy”. Why? Because “Mr. Modi, the prime minister since 2014, commands sky-high popularity ratings and a secure majority in his Parliament, and is in the enviable position of leading a country with a relatively young, growing population”.

The New York Times with this op-ed has sensationally elaborated that the United States of America should continue to meddle in India’s internal affairs while ensuring that Democrats remain in the good books of the Indian diaspora. An excerpt from the op-ed declares NYT’s fears in this regard:

“The administration also faces the problem that the United States’ democratic credentials have been tarnished by Donald Trump and the possibility that he may be back in the White House before long. Mr. Trump’s politics have been openly hailed as an inspiration by many an elected autocrat — including Mr. Modi, whose magnetism Mr. Trump likened to Elvis Presley’s at a rally in Houston on an official visit in 2019.”

The above excerpt also reveals the deep-seated fear among America’s left-liberal Democrats of losing power come the 2024 Presidential elections. “Hurry up! Quell the chorus for Trump among Indians” is the underlying desperate message.

For The New York Times to be so high-handed to think that it has any control over the Indian political and global sentiments is vainglorious, to say the least. From the pitch to “advance American ideals” at the beginning of the editorial to assuming that India gives two hoots about what “America admires” about us at the end of it, NYT itself is far from pragmatism; that America is no more the absolute and decisive world power.

At one point, the editorial quotes US govt officials as saying that “it’s far better to raise concerns (with Modi about Indian democracy) in private” because “India’s vital role on the global stage supersedes concerns about one leader”. As if Biden, of all people, who has made a faux pas on several occasions, has the skill to give a simple statement off the prompter, let alone raise concerns with Prime Minister Modi.

Exposé after exposé of the anti-India, Hindu-hating brigade has brought down the likes of NYT’s propaganda editors to conspire diplomatic means to push their narrative using their favorite jargons like “autocratic Modi!”, “fascist Modi!”, “anti-Muslim, Hindutva Modi”.

This New York Times op-ed is nothing but just another left-liberal whining about not being able to preach to India as India refuses to further their interests. Basically, when NYT has failed to preach to India, it is preaching its own govt on how to preach to India.