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Response to Sadanand Dhume's opinion piece on PM Modi in Wall Street Journal
This is a letter written to the Wall Street Journal regarding an opinion piece titled “India’s Election Humbles Narendra Modi” published on June.5, 2024.
Dear Editor:
Regarding Sadanand Dhume's article India’s Election Humbles Narendra Modi (East is East, June 5, 2024), the parameters to judge a political party or a leader's "underperformance" against exit poll predictions are inherently flawed. It is the failure of the pollsters who failed to gauge the mood of the electorate.
Mr Dhume may be right to claim that the BJP mistakenly projected 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament. However, Mr Dhume's criticism that Modi “claimed” he has been "sent by God to serve India" fails to see it in an appropriate cultural context. In Hinduism, every element of the cosmology is part of the Supreme Divinity. Hindus also believe that they are mere 'nimitt' (Sanskrit, meaning agent/instrument) in God's work on this Earth.
Dhume does not define what "Hindu nationalism" is and what are its "excesses”. He also does not discuss the effects of Islamic and Khalistani radicalization, as well as the coercive evangelism of the Christian missionaries on native peaceful non-proselytizing majority Hindus of India.
While Dhume is entitled to his opinion, as a resident Indian American scholar of reputation, he must provide a nuanced contextualized exposition of his views so that the valued Journal readers are informed and not misled.
Avatans Kumar
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