Mohammad Ali’s Report, “The Influencer,” in Wired Magazine is a gripping narrative about India’s headlong descent into a right-wing, racist and lawless government that would make Mahätmä Gandhi, a strong advocate of religious pluralism, turn over in his grave. Some of the elements of this descent, past and present, are quite familiar in our own country, making them something we could easily see develop in the US, given current leadership both in the White House and on the Republican side in both Houses of Congress.

But it’s not just the Republican Party that is troubling, it’s the whole sick culture fostered by a crony capitalist movement, a furtively silent coup which was kicked off by one Lawrence Powell in the early 1970s.

It began with fear of a growing egalitarian movement in the US after the close of WWII and into the 1960s. The movement was holding corporations accountable for environmental deterioration, was friendly to unionism, and increasingly used government sway to push an equal-opportunity democracy. Such happenings struck fear in the breasts of corporate chieftains.

Accordingly, the corporate power structure mobilized, marshalling money and resources to counter the egalitarian tide, curtail the power of unions and demonize a government that was demonstrating a “we the people” attitude, and make media profit-driven.

The corporate capitalist movement has helped usher in a tide of polarization, kindled by Republican demagoguery, and supported and bolstered by media propaganda. Such a tide of polarization serves the corporate mission of dominating with their agenda of low taxes, a weak civil-rights government, killing unions, and squashing any opposition, especially the Democratic Party and progressivism. But it had to be gently and gradually accomplished.

Riding a tide of nativism and nationalism somewhat similar to our own, one of the largest and oldest democracies was successfully steered toward authoritarianism in 2014. Like all dictators, his policy centers on total control by dividing and conquering, his scapegoat being Muslims.

Since his election as India’s prime minister in 2014, Narendra Modi is single-mindedly focused on vanquishing all traces of Islam in India, though it constitutes only about 12% of religious affiliation, compared to Hinduism which accounts for 82%. Nevertheless, especially since Modi’s political arrival, India’s media force of propaganda characterizes Moslems as diseased and overbreeding hordes in much the same way as Trump and Fox News demonize immigrants.

Overall, India will soon be the most populated country. Its population now totals almost 1.4 billion. Much of its Muslim population is conveniently centered in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Of a total population of 220 million, Muslims constitute only 43 million, but the burgeoning propaganda din in now Modi-controlled media more than rivals Trump TV’s pounding the drums of invasion and even garrisoning troops on our southern borders.

Of course, Modi’s media control is nearly complete now, even The Hindu where author Mohammad Ali used to work. Trump only has Fox News and other conservative media arms talking in concert with Trump’s aims. Mainstream media, though having a corporate for-profit flavor, is still independent.

Modi’s youth was defined by far-right Hindu nationalism, wearing the uniform of the RSS youth corps, a movement he joined when eight years old. Spawned at the same time as European fascist groups, then only a small vestige of a thriving democracy, the RSS name sounds eerily like Hitler’s SS organization. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), now a large majority, was launched with a platform of nativism and communal resentment.

Vigilante killings and mob violence, fomented by a constant din of hate over cell phones, targets especially young Muslim men who dare to mix with Hindu women or those selling cattle for slaughter. Since Modi, the term lynching has become part of the Indian vernacular. The parallels with American society are haunting, though now much more severe.

Modi’s landslide victory in May 2014 and his re-election in May 2019 – both came with a wave of nativism and verbal scourging of Muslims with a media wiped clean of independent news. Perhaps Trump’s ignorance of government and governing did not include the propaganda lessons coming out of India preceding Modi’s first victory in 2014. An equivocating India media handled Modi like an egalitarian moderate, now reminiscent of Trump-handling by American media in 2016.

One grandiose propaganda finale steeping hatred in 2014 was prominent in the Hindi-language press. In the town of Meerut, a group of Muslim men had allegedly kidnapped a young Hindu woman, gang-raped her, and forced her to convert to Islam, carrying all points of Hindu loathing. Later found to be totally untrue, most of the Hindu press was not interested. As we know from experience lie-detraction stories gain low-profile.

The author of the Wired article, Mohammed Ali is a writer based in New York and New Delhi is working on a book about India under Narendra Modi. His family are part of the 200 million Muslims living in all parts of India. He is now fearful that his family will be herded into a detention camp as part of an effort to purge what Modi consider non-citizens, excluded from his National Citizens Register.

The detention center is under construction and covers about 288,000 square feet and is planned to have about 15 stories. Can they squeeze 200 million Muslims in it, perhaps in waves to be deported?

After deportation, perhaps he plans to build a wall to keep them out. Then perchance, as Indians find their civil rights are being curtailed, he could consult with Republican state leaders – Kemp in Georgia, for one — on how to best purge unfriendly voters.