 So, Bernie Sanders was one of two presidential candidates that attended this year's ISNACON. And I wanted to share a brief clip from his appearance because he actually spoke out about Narendra Modi's authoritarian crackdown in Kashmir. And this is incredibly important. American leaders should be speaking out if they do, in fact, care about democracy. Few of them have said anything, but Bernie Sanders did. And I want to share his remarks because this is incredibly, incredibly crucial at this time. I am also deeply concerned about the situation in Kashmir, where the Indian government has revoked Kashmiri autonomy, crackdown on dissent, and instituted a communications blackout. The crackdown in the name of security is also denying the Kashmiri people access to medical care. Even many respected doctors in India have acknowledged that the Indian government imposed restrictions on travel or threatening the life-saving care that patients need. India's action is unacceptable. The communications blockade must be lifted immediately, and the United States government must speak out boldly in support of international humanitarian law and in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution that respects the will of the Kashmiri people. So that was great, and I really commend Bernie for speaking out, because to call out an ally to the United States, that isn't going to always be the most politically expedient course of action, especially if you are the president. But what Bernie Sanders tells me is that no matter what, he will remain principled and he will speak out if it means that this could potentially bring light to a particular issue and help people, or if it means defending democracy. Now the situation in Kashmir, it doesn't bode well for democracy in India, and at a time when you see all of these pseudo-populist right-wing demagogues popping up in countries across the world, it really is important that American leaders, especially individuals with lots of name recognition with a huge platform like Bernie Sanders, speak up. Because if we don't speak up, it could be too late. When I say that what's happening in India is bad for democracy in India, that's not being hyperbolic, because when we see these types of dictatorial leaders pop up and they try to consolidate power, most of the time that ends up leading to a decline in democracy. I mean, look at Turkey. Turkey has been a NATO ally, but when Tayyip Erdogan came to power, what happened? He consolidated power. Now he is in a situation where he is essentially a pseudo-dictator of Turkey. It's also happening in Brazil. Donald Trump has not put any pressure on Jair Bolsonaro when it comes to protecting the Amazon rainforest, and now when it comes to India with Narendra Modi, even if Modi came to power before Donald Trump, this is an individual who is a nationalist. He is a right-wing demagogue, and the things that he is doing could ultimately facilitate the decline of democracy in India, and if you care about democracy, then you speak out in defense of democracy, and that's exactly what Bernie Sanders is doing. Nobody is under this impression that we should invade Kashmir in order to protect the residents of Kashmir from Modi. Nobody is saying that on the American Left, but what we are saying is that lawmakers should call out Narendra Modi and draw attention to this issue, because international pressure works. Now the thing is that India is an ally to the United States, so it does make it difficult. If you're president, you never really want to ruffle too many feathers, although Donald Trump has done that time and again, but ideally speaking, you want to allow allies the room, you want to show them respect, because that's part of diplomacy. You want a really big international coalition, and you want to make sure that the United States using our hegemony, it doesn't seem like we're throwing our dick around, to put that in the least eloquent way I possibly can, but the point is we need leaders in America to be bold, and Bernie Sanders, to his credit, is one of the few lawmakers that actually calls out Benjamin Netanyahu's racism, because that's exactly what it is. Now I'm not under the illusion that Bernie Sanders is phenomenal when it comes to Israel-Palestine, but he's still better than most politicians, in fact almost all of them, with the exception of Ilhana Omar and Rashida Tlaib. But Bernie Sanders, time and again, has stood up for people. He stood up for democracy, and he does this by drawing attention to these issues, and now that he has this large platform, and he's a large figure internationally, speaking what he says, the words that he uses holds weight. So that is incredibly important. Now I originally was not going to talk about this. I watched Kyle Kalinsky's segment on this, where when he initially talked about Narendra Modi's crackdown on Kazimir, he was accused of being Hinduphobic. Now I tend to not watch other commentators' videos on subjects that I am going to cover myself, but I originally was not going to cover this until Kyle said something that really stood out to me, that made me want to do this video. It's that charge of Hinduphobia, because I noticed that when I called this out, I was called Hinduphobic as well. If you criticize Narendra Modi and the government, the BJP party, and Hindu nationalist government of India, you are called Hinduphobic. And it is the same exact tactic that individuals who are proponents of Israel use. If you criticize the government of Israel, you are anti-Semitic, and similarly if you criticize the government of India, then of course you are Hinduphobic. And this is so laughable because intellectually speaking, this is the laziest argument you can possibly make. Rather than defending the individual actions of Narendra Modi to simply relegate this entire conversation to Hinduphobia is an absolute joke. So I want to basically speak out as well, because I'm not afraid of these false claims of bigotry, because this is a neoliberal and neo-conservative tactic. Lawmakers like to use this in proponents of certain, you know, ideologies. They like to use this because it shields them. Crying bigotry, essentially weaponizing identity politics at the international level, it works really well. It's a great way to stifle criticism, shut down your opponents. But here's the thing, if we care about people, then we have to remain firmly committed to protecting people. And the problem with Narendra Modi is that he benefits from widespread ignorance in the United States. Very few people know that he is a Hindu nationalist that believes in basically a Hindu ethno-state to the exclusion of Muslims. And the way that he has basically fired up his base, it's been disgusting. It has led to increased violence against Muslim citizens in the same way that Donald Trump's fear mongering has led to increased violence against Muslims here in the United States, hate crimes, as well as, you know, hate crimes against immigrants. But the problem is that people want to pretend that if you call out Narendra Modi, you're singling out Hindus when his rhetoric has also led to the incitement of violence and hatred against lower caste Hindus and Christians as well. So you have to look at power dynamics. Whenever you have a marginalized minority in a country, the majority oftentimes can weaponize that minority in order to, you know, to fire up their base for purposes of political expediency. And then it's incumbent on all of us when that happens, when we see that to speak out. Because if you're a right-wing demagogue, then your ideology doesn't really work if you're a nationalist unless you demonize one particular group. We need to stop allowing people who are disingenuous to cry Hindu phobia or Islamophobia whenever we call out a government. Because when I say that what Narendra Modi is doing is harmful to say the least, I'm not saying all Hindus are like this. When I call out Benjamin Netanyahu, I'm not saying that the Jewish people are guilty of the crimes of the Israeli government. What we are saying is there's a difference between government and people and individuals who try to muddy the waters in order to shield their preferred government or political figure from criticism is absolutely being disingenuous to say the least. So to everyone who saw Kyle's segment in my segment and cried Hindu phobia and claimed that we're being Hindu phobic. No, we're looking out for people and we're speaking out in order to preserve democracy in India because India is the largest democracy. And if you don't want to see India go the way of Turkey with Erdogan, then I suggest you speak out as well because democracy is something that is absolutely fragile. It's not going to last forever in any given country. Democracies absolutely have shelf lives. So if you don't fight to protect them, they die. And that's as simple as it gets. So we care about people in Kashmir and we're speaking out because we care about people and that's that end of story. We can easily flip this and say, well, you're Islamophobic. If you don't condemn what Modi is doing or you're Islamophobic, if you agree with the actions of the Israeli government, but we actually don't need to make that argument because we can argue on the merits of our position and actually point to real-world examples of the harm that these right-wing demagogic governments are causing. So it's as simple as that. We have to speak out and I absolutely commend Bernie Sanders for being a leader on this issue and really taking a stand when that's not necessarily the easiest thing to do in this day and age.