 So internationally speaking fascism is unquestionably on the rise and it's just so depressing to see the rise of all of these pseudo populist Right-wing demagogues across the world, you know, we have Donald Trump obviously in the United States We have Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and of course we have Narendra Modi in India Now for those of you who don't know much about Narendra Modi. He is basically the India equivalent of Donald Trump He's very Trumpian, but I would actually argue that he's far worse than Donald Trump because he is explicitly a Hindu nationalist Like that is the ideology of his party BJP They believe in a Hindu only state to the exclusion of Muslims and the rhetoric that he uses Has led to increased violence against marginalized communities. So hate crimes against Muslims, for example It spiked since Narendra Modi came to power in the same way that that has happened with Donald Trump Now what he often does is he fear mongers like all demagogues do he fear mongers about Muslims And he says that they are disrespecting cows And this obviously Directly leads to increased violence against Muslims and it doesn't just affect Muslims It affects lower caste Hindus as well So what he does is absolutely morally reprehensible and despicable But this is exactly what he knows he needs to do to fire up the base You know whenever there's an election Donald Trump talks about caravans that are coming to the country Well, this is basically what Narendra Modi does in order to increase his popularity. Well, he Does things he uses rhetoric that leads to marginalized communities Muslims lower caste Hindus Being harmed and it's it's so disgusting to watch because India it's the biggest democracy in the world So to see this to see what he's done It's despicable and the thing about Narendra Modi is if you don't necessarily follow Indian politics You wouldn't know that he is this bad because he actually is a populist like Donald Trump He has a very solid and vocal base of support who love everything that he's doing Hindu nationalism unfortunately is Somewhat popular because he is the prime minister his party does promote that so it's difficult to push back against that now The thing with all of these right-wing demagogues these fascists that we see across the world is that even if they exist within Democratic systems, even if democracy is what got them to power the actions that they take are Absolutely detrimental to democracy and for those of you who have been following the news lately You already know that what Narendra Modi did in cashmere is Absolutely antithetical to democracy now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Indian and Pakistani politics Cashmere is disputed territory when you look at this map here both India and Pakistan Claim cashmere as their own even China occupies a portion and India claims that portion of theirs But what we're really looking at is the territory that's in dispute between Pakistan and India now In the territory that India currently controls That's what we're going to be looking at for the duration of this story now just looking at this map It's an absolute mess But the good news is that there's been relative stability because cashmere has been able to operate with a degree of autonomy So even if there's this territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since they have that autonomy things have remained relatively peaceful Until now when Narendra Modi decided to crack down on the portion of cashmere that India controls and as Al Jazeera reports India's government on Monday said it was scrapping article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to Jammu and cashmere Including the state's right to its own constitution and decision-making process for all matters except defense Communications and foreign affairs. It also split the region into two federal territories The moves came after the Indian government deployed about 10,000 additional troops to the disputed region Followed by the unprecedented order asking tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the valley It also imposed a curfew on parts of the territory Shutdown telecommunications and arrested political leaders Journalists working for both local and international media have also been affected by the movement restrictions and Unavailability of the internet local newspapers such as greater cashmere rising cashmere cashmere monitor cashmere life and cashmere reader Have not updated their websites over the past three days Fearing backlash from Indian authorities. This does not sound like democracy to me. This is textbook authoritarianism and it's so sad to see all of this unfold now the area is now being heavily patrolled by Indian security forces There's a curfew as the article stated nobody can leave There's been more than 500 people who have been arrested now when it comes to those who have been arrested Al Jazeera reports University professors business leaders and activists are among the 560 people rounded up by authorities and taken to makeshift detention centers some during midnight raids in the cities of Srinagar Baramula and Guresh the press trust of India and the Indian Express reported now Here's the thing if you think that this story isn't important because this is another country and you know Ostensibly it may not affect you personally think again because India and Pakistan have been at war three different times and Two of the times that they went to war. Can you guess what that war was waged over? the disputed territory of Kashmir and Let me remind you these are both nuclear armed countries So obviously this led to an escalation between India and Pakistan and as Al Jazeera explains New Delhi's move has heightened tensions with Pakistan Which has expelled the Indian envoy in Islamabad halted the cross-border train service and banned Indian films and protests against what it called an illegal move So this is such a troubling situation and it's akin to the situation that we see with Israel Palestine You know, there's a lockdown on Gaza. It's the world's largest open-air prison You can get in or out without Israel say so in Gaza It's also similar to the situation that we see in the Western Sahara with the Moroccan government Controlling everything about the Western Sahara. They have no autonomy. They're heavily oppressed. So all around this is just incredibly disgusting and the sad part is that Modi has a relatively large base of support that absolutely loved this move, but unfortunately for Modi Internationally speaking, this does not make him look good. It makes him look absolutely horrible so even if his base may be fired up because of this well, he still had to respond to criticism and This is what he said. This is a clip from CNN This will make things better for Kashmiris that Hala in a nutshell was the message from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday night days after his government moved to tighten its grip on Indian controlled Kashmir on Monday Modi's government took away the region's special status under the Indian Constitution thereby stripping it of the power to set many of its own laws It also downgraded Jammu and Kashmir state which includes Indian control Kashmir to a union territory This means that it will effectively be run directly by New Delhi Indian states have much more power to direct their internal affairs Speaking in Hindi, Modi defended all this by claiming that the downgrade was only temporary He said local elections would be held quote soon and said the changes would bring about development and help and terrorism Even made a direct appeal to Bollywood asking filmmakers to consider the mountains and valleys of what is one of the world's most heavily militarized regions as settings for future projects. Here's the thing even as he spoke to justify these steps We're still waiting to get a full picture of what ordinary Kashmiris think of all this The reason the Modi government has placed the territory under a massive security crackdown for days Communications have been down and prominent local politicians have been arrested now Kashmir is always on a finely balanced knife edge The territory is divided between Indian and Pakistani controlled sections both countries claim it in its entirety And Pakistan has been very critical of India's decision Islamabad has scaled back its diplomatic ties with New Delhi Pakistan's army has also said it was willing to quote Go to any extent to fight the new Indian policies It's all raised the geopolitical temperature here in South Asia Hala as people fear that New Delhi's moves could ultimately lead to Another confrontation between these two nuclear armed rivals. So, I mean, what a laughable response It's exactly what you would expect from a Trumpian figure This move isn't bad for Kashmir. It's actually really good for them Is that so I'm sure that they love having this curfew imposed on them I'm sure that they absolutely love the fact that they're losing their autonomy But don't worry. He's super merciful because there's gonna be an election soon and it'll all be over soon guys. I Mean, this is absolutely morally reprehensible. It's disgusting and this is authoritarianism That's what this is. So it's gross and you know, if we had a competent government that wasn't in Control by a fascist here, I would say, you know, maybe the United States can try to talk India out of doing this Maybe get them to back off But of course not, you know birds of a feather flock together And there's a reason why Donald Trump gets along with Narendra Modi Jagir Bolsonaro because they all are very Trumpian they all are far-right Demagogues who know what they have to do to fire up their respective bases and that oftentimes involves Harming people directly and indirectly. So it's such a disgusting sad story But I absolutely will be following it because again, this isn't just about India This has broader international implications because these are two nuclear-powered countries now butting heads because India just did something that drastically escalates the situation when tensions have already been high and you know I don't know what to say. This is just tiring to see this Happen, you know in country after country Increasing authoritarianism is just the norm now with Trump in figures are popping up everywhere. It's not just the United States It's not just India. It's not just Brazil. We're seeing this everywhere and to be fair in Narendra Modi existed before Donald Trump You know, so I don't know if Donald Trump knew who Narendra Modi was but they absolutely have the same tactics They're certainly the same types of political figures and it's just gross We have to call out their disgusting Demagogic tactics when we see it because this cannot stand in a democracy people are supposed to be guaranteed certain rights and privileges and We're just seeing that being eroded in country after country because of these fascists