If the right-wing ecosystem is so keen on drawing lessons from Europe, why does it selectively ignore examples from elsewhere in the world? Take Japan, where thousands of citizens have participated in peaceful demonstrations demanding the resignation of the PM, Sanae Takaichi. The protests are against the government's remilitarisation drive and its growing military alignment with the United States. Their protests reflect concerns about the efforts to revise the country's post-war pacifist framework. India may not have reached the same degree of military alignment with the US, but our own foreign policy towards Washington is hardly beyond scrutiny. Modi’s America fixation, in particular, deserves far greater public and political scrutiny. ❓So, why should we learn from Europe and not Japan? ❓Why doesn’t the rightwing media cite Japan as an example to push back the government on Modi’s America fascination? ❓Why doesn’t it use these protests to even pressure the political opposition in India into making India’s foreign policy, especially its relationship with the US, a central issue of public debate? Because Japan does not fit the narrative they are desperate to manufacture. The right-wing ecosystem wants to reduce protests in Europe to a “Muslim problem” so that protests in India are easier to brand as illegitimate. Japan’s example demolishes that caricature. It demonstrates that protests are not the preserve of any one religion, community or ideology. They are a universal democratic means through which citizens challenge the exercise of power. And that is precisely why Japan finds no place in their narrative. It serves no purpose in the right wing’s grossly oversimplified — and frankly, rather dumb — attempt to reduce complex political movements to a religious stereotype, all to prop up Modi’s fast-slipping chair. That this is not journalism but a bizarre form of sycophantic obsession hardly needs saying. Ciao!

Comparing India and Europe is comparing apples with oranges. one would expect better from senior journalists - even if they belong to the right-wing ecosystem. They are again recycling a tired, dangerous trope: caricaturing Muslims as inherently violent, militant, barbaric and uncivilised, and reducing protests in Europe to a “Muslim problem”. The insinuation is unmistakable: India, too, must beware of its own “Muslim problem”. This is not just about portraying Europe as a cautionary tale. We have seen this very playbook, this very toolkit deployed in India often. Even during recent protests in Delhi, individuals affiliated with the Sangh were seen posing as Muslims, attempting to provoke communal discord and resorting to violence. The objectives? To discredit peaceful, legitimate movements for education, electoral integrity, transparency and justice by branding them part of ‘Abdul’s’ so-called “anti-India agenda” and to villainise Indian Muslims. But here is the fundamental distinction this narrative deliberately obscures: in Europe, the protesters are the rioters. In India, it is the State and state sponsored non-state actors - the Sangh brigade. Modi-Shah’s police have repeatedly used brute force against peaceful protesters and so have right-wing ‘activists’ posing as police. These are fundamentally different situations. To conflate them is not analysis; it is propaganda. India is the land of Gandhi, whose enduring legacy places Ahimsa and Satya at the heart of our political consciousness. Instead of acknowledging the Opposition’s efforts to channel public anger and discontent through peaceful, Gandhian protest, the right-wing media has chosen to run their own vile fear mongering-campaign. Intellectually dishonest. Deeply disappointing.