CW: Article contains images depicting the anti-Semetic puppeteer trope
The BJP’s social media campaign showing billionaire-philanthropist George Soros as a puppeteer with strings to the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi came under sharp attack for invoking an established and dangerous ‘anti-Semitic’ trope.
New Delhi: Global commentators have taken note of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) poster of billionaire philanthropist, George Soros as a puppeteer, with purported strings controlling Congress leader and MP, Rahul Gandhi.
The poster was noted and attacked as downright anti-Semitic. Editor-in-chief of the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, Esther Solomon, termed the poster as “fascinating, repulsive, grotesque”. She wrote in a post, “Modi’s BJP, the biggest political party in the world, using an image of Soros the puppeteer, a key viral far-right antisemitic meme. Fascinating, repulsive, grotesque. And no, don’t expect Israel’s far-right government to object. Netanyahu’s ministers love this stuff.”
Solomon is probably referring to meetings that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu held with Elon Musk last month, who has been criticised for adopting several slogans and tropes from the White supremacist playbook. Netanyahu is also regarded as amongst Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friends, with both leaders often making a point to display personal ties.
In a sharp comment, Professor of International Relations in Brisbane’s Griffith Asia Institute and also Honorary Fellow, Australia India Institute, Dr. Ian Hall said on X, “This might play well in India (and perhaps also on this platform) but elsewhere this looks really ugly and straightforwardly antisemitic.”
Gideon Rachman, author and chief foreign affairs commentator for London-based The Financial Times chimed in with Hall and said, it was “depressing how they adopt some of the ugliest and nastiest aspects of the West with such enthusiasm.”
The response has been sharp and the BJP’s social media efforts have drawn attention to a well-known anti-Semitic symbol deployed to insult the Congress leader.
Puppeteer as anti-Semitic signalling
This is for a reason, which came to the fore when in 2021, Fox News removed the George Soros as puppet meme, which was posted on its social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram, as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) complained that it “conjures up long-standing antisemitic tropes”. ADL is a New York-based NGO that defines itself as one that works “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and secure justice and fair treatment to all”.
read more: https://thewire.in/politics/international-commentators-slam-modis-bjp-for-anti-semitic-poster
archive: https://archive.ph/wZ91E
I thought it was something more subtle but this could as well be a poster made by the Nazis - wtf
subtlelity and religious extremeism?
Hindu extremeism is the religious extremeism of India’s majoritarian religion fuelling hate & fear of Muslims & Christians.
This stuff is tame compared to what Modi’s IT cell (modi and his political party’s army of paid social media trolls) usually puts up on social media, and that stuff is tame compared to the violent hatespeeches publicly given by Hindu extremeist leaders, including Modi, targetting Muslims and Christians.
India has national elections next year, and the corrupt Hindu extremeist dictator Modi and his political party are terrified of losing, so all India is braced not just for an uptick in violent images & hatespeeches but for actual genocide of Indian Muslims & Christians. The ethnic & communal genocide of Indian Kuki-Zo tribes (mostly Christians) by Hindu Meiteis in Manipur that started on May 3rd’23 has been transformed into a bloody civil war which India’s Modi govt has taken no steps to stop.
Right-wing ideologies have a pattern of shifting narratives, moving from targeting migrants to trans individuals and, historically, escalating to scapegoating Jews. It’s a repetition of history, infiltrating our tolerant societies with intolerance.
Stop supporting these ideologies at the polls. Speak out online. Don’t stay silent. The right appears stronger than it is when a few vocal individuals and bots freely spread their views online.
So much slamming in news headlines these days
This is the best summary I could come up with:
New Delhi: Global commentators have taken note of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) poster of billionaire philanthropist, George Soros as a puppeteer, with purported strings controlling Congress leader and MP, Rahul Gandhi.
She wrote in a post, “Modi’s BJP, the biggest political party in the world, using an image of Soros the puppeteer, a key viral far-right antisemitic meme.
Netanyahu is also regarded as amongst Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friends, with both leaders often making a point to display personal ties.
In a sharp comment, Professor of International Relations in Brisbane’s Griffith Asia Institute and also Honorary Fellow, Australia India Institute, Dr. Ian Hall said on X, “This might play well in India (and perhaps also on this platform) but elsewhere this looks really ugly and straightforwardly antisemitic.” Gideon Rachman, author and chief foreign affairs commentator for London-based The Financial Times chimed in with Hall and said, it was “depressing how they adopt some of the ugliest and nastiest aspects of the West with such enthusiasm.” The response has been sharp and the BJP’s social media efforts have drawn attention to a well-known anti-Semitic symbol deployed to insult the Congress leader.
ADL is a New York-based NGO that defines itself as one that works “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and secure justice and fair treatment to all”.
The meme portrayed the 92-year-old Jewish financier, who is often the subject of far-right conspiracy theories, as pulling the strings of two donkeys representing the Democratic Party, efforts that were stoking lawlessness and chaos, according to the cartoon.
The original article contains 576 words, the summary contains 257 words. Saved 55%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
