How is every HN thread about India/Modi such a crapshoot ?

Is no one willing to entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe, Modi is par-for-the-course among leaders in the sub-continent ?

Modi seems to be called an authoritarian more often than actual authoritarians. It is fair to criticize Modi for divisive politics & hard nationalism, but he is very much a democratic leader. The party has accepted any defeat graciously and within the bounds of what's permissible within the system. If anything, compared to the Gandhi family leaders that came before him, Modi has been remarkably non-authoritarian. (Doesn't mean that he meets the requirement for an ideal ethnical democratic leader, but then who does?)

Multiple things can be true at the same time. Modi's response to the Gujarat riots was incompetent enough that it will remain a black mark on his legacy irrespective of what he achieves afterwards. At the same time, the BBC seems to have timed this documentary curiously close to the Sunak's rise as the new conversative leader, and therefore the new target of the UK's left leaning media houses. Especially because the documentary does not seem to bring any new facts to light.

I personally find the documentary and the west's general approach to Hindus (and right wing politicians everywhere) to be a little hypocritical.

Hindus (and Indic peoples) have been persecuted for a good few decades in every neighboring Muslim country. Indian law privileges minorities more than any other country in the world. Modi's policies plus statistics seem to indicate no particular deviation in terms of treatment of minorities as compared to prior govts. If anything, his poor-first effective socialism policies help the poorest in society first, and Muslims being the most underprivileged, benefit immensely. India is a better country to be a Shia Muslim in than the neighboring Muslim nations, and that speaks volumes about the tolerance and freedom that underlies Indian and Hindu-majority society.

The criticism of Modi is welcome, but it does seem especially slanted. Modi has the distinction of being one of the only major world leaders to be banned [1] from the US, all while people with proven-genocide records continued to welcomed in this country. Modi gets called a right winger despite being more socialist than most anglo-phone leaders. Policies widely supported by the west are considered authoritarian (ex: farm bill) the second any group protests against Modi.

The most annoying thing is that Modi has a lot of problems. His economics involves too many freebies. He has no spine, and will recall great policies the second any small group in India complains. He relies too much on the infamous Indian bureaucracy & he has yet to find spiritual successors to close confidants that have passed away due to unfortunate situations (Swaraj, Jaitley)

The English-media continues polarizing Modi on elite-urban-left vs Hindu-nationalist grounds, and he keeps playing into those tropes. That's because Indians are nationalists [2] irrespective of religion & Hindus still perceive themselves as 2nd class citizens in their own nation. The removal of article 370 was a massively popular move. Making fun of his English, religiousness and lack of elite-manners only feeds into his humble everyman image. You are feeding him easy wins.

If only the Indian opposition was competent enough put forth a competent leader.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_people_banned_...

[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/nationalism-...