Comedian John Oliver, In his show Last Week Tonight, not only used a wrong map of India with part of Kashmir illegally occupied by Pakistan cut off, he even went on a misinformed and motivated tirade against India. Three minutes into the programme, he claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a “controversial” figure in India due to the “steadily escalating” persecution of religious minorities.
Nothing possibly can be further from the truth. The Modi government has taken to modernizing “madrasa” education so economically weaker Muslim children are better equipped for better jobs. There are financial incentives for Muslim girls; legal reforms on “triple talaq” and air-tickets for Hajj travel have been reduced from Rs 97,000 to Rs 20,000. It’s helping stranded Muslims in Pakistan to return home safely (case in point: Uzma Ahmad and Mohammedi Begum).
In an attempt to whitewash the Anti-CAA rioters fuelled by Islamic Supremacy, he claimed that the motivated protests were a result of the “persecution.”
John Oliver further talks about about RSS and claims that the second RSS Sarsangchalak, Golwalkar, was inspired by Adolf Hitler. This is the same lie that has been repeatedly peddled in India and has now found takers in international circles.
Read: The ‘Golwalkar was a fascist who drew inspiration from Nazism’ propaganda must be exposed
In his profuse writings, letters, articles, statements, and interviews, there doesn’t seem to be a single sentence that declares Golwalkar’s admiration for Hitler. Not one. Yet libraries of articles and books repeat the lie to run down the world’s biggest mass organization.
This ocean of lies floats on a mere two paragraphs which appeared in Golwalkar’s maiden book in 1938, “We, Our Nationhood Defined”. The book has never been reprinted since 1947. It’s been over 70 years but these two paragraphs alone are the edifice around which an entire cottage industry of RSS-bashing, Hindu-mocking has flourished.
As has often been the case with outsiders observers, John Oliver highlighted the Gujarat riots of 2002 and pointed out how Narendra Modi was denied a visa by the United Kingdom and the United States.
Displaying his brazen intellectual dishonesty, Oliver avoided mention of the clean chit given by the independent SIT constituted by the Supreme Court of India. He also failed to mention that the United States revoked its visa ban following which the Indian Prime Minister addressed the Congress after he was exonerated by the apex Court.
The host also stressed on the flawed argument surrounding NRC and CAA often peddled by the so-called liberals in India to scare the minorities. Oliver cast aspersions that a combination of NRC and CAA would make the “poor” and “illiterate” Muslims Stateless.
Nothing can possibly be further from the truth. Citizenship Amendment Act is aimed to fast-track the citizenship process of persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who had entered India illegally before December 31, 2014. It has no provisions to strip anyone of their citizenship. As for the Nationwide NRC, the draft has not yet been laid out by the Government.
Since the CAA is specifically directed towards persecuted religious minorities from the neighbouring Islamic Republics, it does not provide automatic immunity to Hindus who are not from these countries and living in India. The fake narrative of “rising cases against minorities” is often cited in India on the basis of manipulated statistics peddled by fake hate trackers such as IndiaSpend.
It is unfortunate that international commentators often misguide their audience about India with distorted facts and fabricated stories. This is what happens when British-American comedians write their jokes based on ill-informed material procured from Indian propagandists masquerading as ‘comedians’.
