Nitasha Kaul, Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies at the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), was invited to an interview which ran for over ten minutes on Al Jazeera's UpFront programme about what has caused Prime Minister Modi to realign India’s historic position on Israel and Palestine in recent years. The programme aired on 22 November 2023 and has received over 31,000 views within a week.
In the interview, Professor Kaul argues that Islamophobia is the motive behind Prime Minister Modi and his right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) support for Israel rather than it being a policy accepted more widely in Indian politics.
She also speaks about the role of IT cells in spreading disinformation online about the Israel-Palestine conflict and why given the upcoming general elections in 2024, dissent is repressed across India, sometimes even in states where opposition parties are in power.
Speaking about Islamophobia as the motive for the rejection of the Palestinian cause by the BJP, Professor Kaul said: “The Israel-Palestine issue in the Indian context has become extremely simplified for the followers of the Hindutva project into something that is about religion and about the repression of Muslims by non-Muslims. This is simply, for them, about the fact that Muslims are a threat and Islamophobia is something that appeals to them because of how it has resonated with what we have seen in India especially over the last 9-10 years.”
Watch the full interview on Al Jazeera English’s YouTube channel.
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