The left lobby is notorious for shedding away any semblance of shame, intellectual honesty, journalistic ethics, and righteousness. While they keep preaching these virtuous traits to “uncivilised people” like us, they continue to be driven by cynicism and hatred for Indian culture and continue to pipe the anti-Modi bandwagon. Now, in a glaring display of hypocrisy, Journalist Fareed Zakaria has come out publicly to heap praises on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Before moving further, let’s take a look at the profile of Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Zakaria is an Indian-born US “journalist”. He is the son of former Congress leader Rafiq Zakaria. Before the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, Zakaria was one of those who were calling for “foreign interference” in the Indian elections. The clear-cut aim was to defeat the Nationalist leader, PM Modi. Interestingly, the usual suspects and the Soros gang only ended up egging their faces as the BJP stalwart, Modi scripted history by securing a third term.
Now, interestingly, Zakaria who was actively making efforts to see that PM Modi loses the Lok Sabha election, has come out to “redeem” his credentials as a “neutral journalist” and “election analyst”. For this, he decided to encash the success of his adversary whom he wanted to see lose from the core of his heart.
Nonetheless, here are the key highlights of what Fareed Zakaria said and why it becomes important to highlight the context of his changed rhetoric and whether is it even sincere.
In an interview with India Today’s Rahul Kanwal, Fareed Zakaria highlighted how PM Modi defied the global anti-incumbency wave to secure a historic third term.
Zakaria said, “Pretty much every incumbent party throughout the world suffered significant setbacks or was voted out of office. Modi is probably the most important exception.”
However, being a Modi cynic, Zakaria then went on to downplay PM Modi’s success claiming that the BJP leader scraped through as India ‘sadly’ has multi-party democracy. Despite the historic win, Zakaria left no stone unturned in painting the majority of Indians as “Anti-Modi”.
He lamented that if India were not a multi-party democracy, PM Modi wouldn’t have been winning this big as the majority of the voters are against him. He, however, fell short of saying that for him India has a flawed democratic system as it should be judged in binaries, black and white, Pro-Modi and Anti-Modi, nothing in between.
Zakaria said, “The first thing, fundamentally, is India does not have a two-party system. And if there had been a two-party system where every BJP person was up against one non-BJP MP, it is likely that the BJP would have lost power. Because what happened in India is the anti-incumbency vote often got divided between two or three major parties.”
Let’s move ahead. Zakaria, however, grudgingly conceded in admitting that PM Modi is extremely popular which plays a major role in his electoral success. Praising PM Modi, he noted that despite being in power for ten years, PM Modi is very popular as he is still seen as someone who doesn’t belong to the elite political class.
Zakaria said, “Modi has bucked the trend because I think he is personally very popular.” After citing opposition’s playbook that things are awful in India, he continued saying, “PM Modi has somehow managed to maintain the sense of trust and connection with the Indian people. And it’s because, at the end of the day, Modi is still seen by Indians as something of an outsider. He’s seen as somebody who came from outside the world of political elites.”
Zakaria added, “It’s a testament to his skill that despite being Prime Minister for 10 years, he’s still viewed that way.”
Fareed further claimed, that although the NDA secured a third term, a reduced mandate has forced PM Modi to recalibrate his approach.
Zakaria highlighted the party’s renewed focus on campaign strategy and development policies, saying, “BJP campaigns became more organized and resource-intensive. Modi also doubled down on growth and infrastructure, rather than resorting to populist giveaways.”
It is pertinent to note that Zakaria has been notorious for peddling anti-India agenda and painting the country as “unsafe” for minorities and “poor on democratic principles”.
Last year, in October, Zakaria came up with a show on CNN where he addressed the India-Canada diplomatic row. In his program, he watered down India’s concerns over Khalistani terrorism as “exaggerated political rhetoric”.
He also downplayed Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s crimes, portraying him as a mere activist, despite his criminal record and Interpol warrants.
Zakaria also dismissed India’s national security concerns, labeling them as politically convenient for Prime Minister Modi ahead of elections. He suggested that PM Modi leverages issues like separatism and Western criticism to rally domestic support, likening Canada’s stance to Pakistan’s past actions.
Having said that, there is no denying the fact that PM Modi is blessed with the art of turning his biggest foe into a closet admirer. While the Leftists are no hope, they too sometimes feel compelled to say the obvious.
