Modi & Trump: Twins in Tyranny, Allies in Oppression
Ranjani Srinivasan, an anti-genocide protester in the USA, returned to India, narrowly escaping the clutches of Trump’s ICE. She escaped a regime hell-bent on punishing solidarity with Palestine. But in Modi’s India, does standing with Palestine fare any better? The Musk-Trump axis and Modi-Adani nexus are two sides of the same coin: bullies enforcing corporate fascism. While Modi grovels before USA’s demands, letting Indian workers deported by America in shackles, his domestic rule mirrors Trump’s playbook—repression, division, and loot.
Education: Crushing Dissent, Erasing Histories
In the U.S., the Trump administration exploited a 2023 Supreme Court ruling to crack down on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs and thereby outlaw race-based affirmative educational policies by February 2025, unleashing probes into over 50 universities—including Ivy League institutions such as Harvard—for alleged “racial discrimination”. Columbia University faced punitive measures, losing $400 million in grants under the pretext of “failing to protect Jewish students,” while even the Biden administration greenlit police brutality against Columbia’s pro-Palestine protests, branding them “anti-Jewish.” Meanwhile, in India, Modi’s regime has waged war on academic freedom, besieging institutions like JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia, where students face incarceration under draconian laws like the UAPA. The assault extends to curricula: Mughal history, caste oppression, and Darwin’s theory of evolution have been erased to ‘sanitise’ education for furthering the Hindutva agenda. Concurrently, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan—a lifeline for universal elementary education—saw its budget slashed from 31% (2016-17) to 29% (2017-18), suffocating access to equitable learning.
Media: Silencing Truth, Killing Journalism
In India, Modi’s regime has systematically targeted dissent, branding journalists critical of the Modi regime as “Lutyens media” and weaponising laws such as the UAPA to jail journalists like Siddique Kappan and Pankaj Srivastava, while voices like Gauri Lankesh were murdered for speaking the truth. Independent reporters such as Mukesh Chandrakar and Mandeep have met the might of the Sangh tirade against journalism. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Trump escalated his war on the press, labeling media “the enemy of the people,” dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM)—parent to Voice of America. Additionally, the Trump administration also stripped journalist Jim Acosta’s press credentials for daring to question his anti-immigrant policies in a press conference.
Corporate Plunder: War on Workers & Welfare
In India, Modi’s regime has unleashed a brutal assault on labor rights through draconian Labour Codes, reducing protections for workers while slashing funds for MGNREGA—a lifeline for rural employment—plunging millions into poverty and precarity. Meanwhile, in the US, Trump empowered corporate cronies like Elon Musk and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) to dismantle social security systems, even resorting to tactics like falsely labeling senior citizens as “deceased” to strip them of pensions, epitomising a regime of callous indifference to the vulnerable!
Inciting Violence: Hate as Statecraft
Trump’s legacy is steeped in incendiary rhetoric, epitomised by his 2020 tweet — “When the looting starts, the shooting starts”—a racist dog-whistle borrowed from 1960s segregationists, deployed to incite white supremacists against Black Lives Matter protests. Even after losing the 2020 election, he ranted about the “stolen mandate” lie, inciting his supporters to “fight like hell” and “stop the steal” leading to the January 6 Capitol riot. Mirroring this, Modi’s playbook hinges on coded bigotry: his 2002 Gujarat rally cry, “Kapda Dekh k Pahchano” (Recognise them by clothes), continues to instigate Hindutva goons, making minorities, especially Muslims, easy targets for mobs and cow vigilantes. Such rhetoric has contributed to a climate of fear and hostility against the minorities who are subject to violence under the guide of protecting cultural and religious values.
Targeting Opposition: Bigotry as Political Strategy
Modi’s has deployed racial and misogynistic slurs like “Jersey Cow” and “50 Crore Girlfriend” to degrade political rivals, while invoking “Aurangzeb Ki Aulad” (descendants of Aurangzeb) to stoke majoritarian ire and erase the legacy of opposition leaders. This isn’t mere incivility—it’s a deliberate strategy to undermine the character and legacy of opponent political figures, replacing debate with fearmongering. Mirroring this, Trump targeted four Congresswomen of colour—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley—with the racist demand to “go back and help fix totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”, despite three of four being US-born and the fourth a naturalised citizen. His remarks echoed the vile trope of non-white Americans as perpetual outsiders, entrenching divisions and normalizing xenophobic hatred.
Anti-Queer Policies: Erasure as State Policy
US President Trump has consistently deployed anti-trans and anti-queer rhetoric to appease his voter base – rhetoric that denied the very existence of LGBTQ+ individuals. He demonised gender-affirming care and attacked educational programs fostering inclusivity, while enforcing a military ban on transgender members from serving. While avoiding explicit terms like “queer” or “trans,” the new policy effectively bars anyone who does not identify strictly as male or female, reinforcing a rigid binary and excluding non-conforming individuals. Similarly, Modi’s government opposed same-sex marriage in India’s Supreme Court, asserting that such matters should be decided by the Parliament. However, more than a year has passed since the Court’s verdict and the Modi government has refused to initiate any discussion to recognize civil unions for queer and transgender people. This calculated inaction perpetuates legal invisibility, denying queer and transgender Indians recognition, protection, or dignity, and entrenches their marginalisation in a society already hostile to their existence.
Targeting Muslims: State-Sanctioned Islamophobia
Trump mainstreamed anti-Muslim hatred, demanding a “total shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.” after the 2015 San Bernardino attack and enforcing the 2017 “Muslim Ban” targeting Muslim-majority nations. In India, Modi’s regime fuels vigilante violence and legal persecution: Muslim men like Sharif are lynched for refusing Hindu rituals, while laws like the Waqf Board Amendment Bill strip Muslim communities of land rights. From time to time, we hear about economic sanctions against Muslims, denying them of livelihood.
Attacking Women: Patriarchy as Policy
Under Modi’s regime, crimes against women have skyrocketed, with BJP leaders like Brij Bhushan given complete impunity. From the brutal denial of justice in Hathras and Manipur to the remission of Bilkis Bano’s rapists, the state entrenches Brahmanical patriarchy. Labour Codes amplify exploitation, denying fair wages and safety to women workers, while the hijab ban and NEP 2020 deny education to women. Meanwhile, Trump slashed protections for women, scrapping Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order in 2017—a lifeline against workplace harassment and pay disparity. His legacy is stained by misogynistic rhetoric and policies targeting transgender women, redefining sex in rigid biological terms to exclude them from public life.
Two Regimes, One Blueprint
From campuses to newsrooms, welfare to queer rights, Modi and Trump embody corporate-backed fascism. Their tactics—jailing dissenters, inciting mobs, enriching cronies—expose a shared vision: a world where power silences the people.
The fight against this corporate-state nexus led by fascists such as Trump and Modi must be a shared struggle. Their regimes thrive on dividing the oppressed—students, workers, Muslims, Dalits, women, LGBTQ+ communities—while uniting the forces of capital, caste, and communal hatred. We must resist, uniting all the forces that they intend to divide. Only through transnational solidarity, rooted in anti-caste, anti-imperialist, and anti-fascist principles, can we reclaim democracy from the clutches of corporate fascism.
