Modi & Trump: Some identical threads

November 15, 2017

Modi & Trump: Some identical threads

November 8, 2017, marked one year of Mr Trump's election as the 45th President of America and Mr Modi has also completed half of his current term as the Prime Minister of India. Numerous articles have been written on the comparison between the two political leaders. I wish to put forth my perspective on the same. The intention of this exercise is to quench my thirst for some creative exploration of ideas.

I have a keen interest in understanding the dynamics of the world. I am very curious about the way the world works. I am on a journey to understand how major players of world politics try to influence our lives on earth. This journey has led me to read as much as possible on global politics and world history. With the same spirit, I have followed the 45th Presidential elections of the USA and the 16th Lok Sabha elections in India. During this period of time, I have encountered certain similarities between Mr Modi and Mr Trump. I would like to enlist them in this article.

For starters: the main political opponent of Mr Narendra Modi (a candidate from Bharatiya Janata Party) was Mr Rahul Gandhi from the Indian National Congress. And the main political opponent for Mr Donald Trump (Republican) was Ms Hillary Clinton (Democrat).

Anti-incumbency/Anti-establishment

One of the main political points scored by both the political leaders is on account of being outsiders. Neither of them belonged to any political family.

Unlike Mr Rahul Gandhi, Mr Modi pitched himself as the one who does not belong to any political dynasty. He said that INC and the Gandhi family (Nehru-Gandhi Family) were two of the main reasons why India had not been able to realise it's true potential since independence. Similarly, Mr Trump also pitched himself as an outsider. He said that it is actually Mr Bill Clinton who is seeking another term at the White House in the name of Ms Hillary Clinton and said that he will repeat the same mistakes he committed the last time.

Both the leaders were running against an incumbent government. In the case of Mr Modi, it was the UPA-II (United Progressive Alliance) which was running for its 2nd term. Whereas, Mr Trump was running against the Democratic party which was running for its third consecutive term. Both the leaders held the incumbent governments responsible for two things; the pathetic state of the respective economies and complete lack of efficiency on the jobs front.

Mr Modi blamed the UPA for the miserable condition of Indian economy and held the UPA responsible for being a harbinger of scams in India. A picture was painted of Mr Modi as the one who does not have any immediate family, unlike Mr Gandhi, and 'hence' he might not have any interest in consolidation of personal wealth. This argument was significant on the backdrop of numerous corruption scams unearthed during the UPA-II rule (2009-14). He criticised the UPA for not creating enough jobs for the Indian youth.

On similar lines, Mr Trump blamed the Obama administration for the pitiable state of the US economy. He also criticised the administration for not creating enough jobs. He criticised the administration for not doing enough about the loss of American jobs in the name of "offshoring of work". He said that, unlike Ms Clinton, funding his own campaign saves him from being at the mercy of donors. He asserted that Ms Clinton would succumb to the demands of her donors and hence the US economy would work on the whims and fancies of the Clinton campaign contributors.

Criticised dynasty politics

Both the leaders criticised the political legacy of their respective opponents. The opponents of both Mr Modi and Mr Trump belonged to renowned political families. Mr Rahul Gandhi's father, grandmother and great-grandfather have all served as Prime Ministers of India. And Ms Hillary Clinton is the wife of Mr Bill Clinton who served as the President of USA for two consecutive terms.

Mr Modi criticised the Gandhi family for problems in Kashmir, for resorting to the appeasement politics among other things. He blamed the Gandhi-Vadra family for looting nation's wealth. On the same lines, Mr Trump criticised the Clintons for the North Korean nuclear problem etc. Mr Trump also blamed Ms Clinton that in spite of being in politics for so long, that too as the First lady for one whole decade, she did not do anything remarkable. He condemned Mr Bill Clinton's involvement in the Monica Lewinsky case and also brought out other alleged sexual harassment cases. In short, he meant that the Clintons had nothing new to offer to the country.

Similar opinions

I think this is one of the most striking similarities between the two leaders. I found some kind of homogeneity between the opinions of these leaders on many issues eg India/America First policy, homosexuality, immigration among others. The important point to be noted here is that the opinions of both of these leaders cater mainly to the conservative masses of their respective countries.

Nationalism has garnered a front seat in many aspects of their governance. For example, in the economy. Mr Modi’s flagship economic initiative is Make in India. It is an initiative to make India one of the top manufacturing hubs in the world. Similarly, Mr Trump has pulled out the USA from some of the historic pacts like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Paris Climate deal. He believes that these deals are not fair for the USA on the economic front. Not to forget his campaign slogan Make America Great Again.

Both the leaders have criticised their opponent’s policies on religious/racial minorities. Mr Modi criticised the Congress for propagating hatred towards the Hindu majority and for being the cradle of communal distress in the country. He condemned the Congress for appeasing to Muslims just for the sake of ‘vote-bank politics’. The BJP says that the Congress is not secular but pseudo-secular, meaning that it only shows that it respects all the religions but in reality, it pursues policies that are anti-Hindu.
On similar lines, Mr Trump has criticised Ms Clinton’s policies on accepting immigrants from Muslim majority countries. He also banned Muslims from 6 countries from entering the USA citing reasons of national security. He is very popular with the Ultra-Nationalist groups in the USA. These groups hold the vision of ‘White’ America with the dominance of White race over all the other races. Some of his actions during the campaign have established his image as that of a racist president who is not much concerned about African Americans, Hispanics and others.

Both the leaders are sceptical about immigration and have refused to take in immigrants from some of their neighbouring countries. Mr Modi’s government refused to take in the Rohingyas, the minority Muslim community, who fled from Myanmar because of ethnic violence. However, the government said that the India will always welcome Hindus from all over the world who feel insecure in the country they live in.

Mr Trump is also not happy about the Mexicans entering the USA and hence he proposed a wall along the border. He believes that the Mexicans entering the USA are ‘rapists, drug dealers and criminals’. He also voiced his disapproval of accepting any immigrants emanating from the Syrian refugee crisis citing reasons of a threat to national security.

Homosexuality. Mr Modi might not have officially spoken on this issue but the BJP does not want to take any step in the direction of decriminalising homosexuality (sec 377 of the IPC). Same is true for Mr Trump, who might have spoken in support of the LGBTQ community during his campaign but, the Republican party per se is against the idea of gay marriage.

Experience of handling the highest political office

Another common thread between the two leaders is that they have never served a public office the national level. Neither of them has ever been a legislator at their respective national levels.

Mr Modi has served as the Chief Minister of Gujrat for more than a decade. This means that he has served a lawmaker in the State Legislative Assembly. But, he was never a Parliamentarian. This meant that he never served even as a minister in the national government before getting elected for the first time in 2014.

Same goes for Mr Trump who was never elected to even a single political office before getting elected as the President of the United States. Although, unlike Mr Modi, he was never even a governor of any of the states of the USA.

Paid media houses/ Fake News

Both Mr Modi and Mr Trump have spoken about paid media houses/fake news.

Mr Modi, in his election campaign, spoke criticised some of the media houses of the country for being pro-Congress and blamed some of them for the propagation of biased and one-sided news eg. NDTV. He also blamed 'these' media houses for spreading false news about the BJP and for trying to disrupt the social harmony in the country. However, after getting elected as the PM he has refrained from making any such comments.

Mr Trump on the other side criticised the media during his campaign and he continues to do so even after getting elected as the President. He blames the media for not being fair to him. He has blamed media houses for being biased against him. Eg. CNN and The Washington Post. He criticised 'these' media houses for spreading 'fake news' and for maligning his image.

Even with the above similarities, both Mr Modi and Mr Trump are leaders separated not just by two gigantic oceans but also by the very different politico-cultural dynamics of their respective countries. Hence, above similarities need to be studied in the context of this dynamics.

It would be an injustice if I do not mention one significant difference. There is a peculiar contrast between the way both of these leaders were elected to their respective political offices. While Mr Modi was elected with an overwhelming majority, on the other hand, Mr Trump won by a very thin margin. Ironically, it was predicted by many political pundits that Mr Trump is most likely to lose the election. However, the political horoscopes in India had a consensus on Mr Modi winning the election and the discussion was only on the number of seats with which he would lead his party to victory.

There could be many more similarities between the two leaders and there could be numerous differences too. The only objective of my exercise here is, as noted in the beginning, to quench my thirst for the creative exploration of ideas.