Indian Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

we're going to dive straight in to our main story tonight which concerns India the last country in the world that wants to be discussed by someone with this accent which is why I'll be doing the rest of tonight's show in a dis instead everybody love at a Giovani Oliver show Mama abuko everybody love that's right that's that's fair that's probably right I I didn't love the way that was heading IND is in the middle of an election right now and I do mean in the middle because voting started several weeks ago and only just ended with results expected on Tuesday and it's a long process for a reason India is the largest country in the world by population with over 1. 4 billion people that's the equivalent of roughly four United States six brazils nine russas 34 Canadas or 1. 4 billion Kevin it is a lot of people and the sheer mechanics of setting up an election that size are rain Blowing by law every voter must be within 2 km or a little more than a mile of a polling station to set them up officials Trek over rough and mountainous terrain and across Rivers taking boats Choppers even horses trekking through mountains deep in the Himalayas and through lion infested jungles sometimes a team travels 70 kilm to set up a booth for just one person that is incredible and just imagine if workers dragged a poing Place through mountains and rivers just for you and then you forgot to vote oh was that today I'm sorry it slipped my mind thanks so much for trekking through that line infested jungle for me though I'll definitely try and remember next time results for India's election will be announced on June 4th and while we don't yet know who's going to win we actually kind of do because it's going to be Narendra Modi who is overwhelmingly favored to win a third term in fact most experts agree the only real question mark is how much will he and his party the BJP win by one polling or organization found he has an approval rating of 74% more than any world leader they track and for some Indians part of Mod's appeal is the sense that under his leadership the country's been on the rise enjoying increased prominence on the world stage from Biden hosting Modi for a state visit last year to the Australian prime minister introducing about a packed arena in Sydney with this memorable line the last time I saw someone on the stage here was Bruce springston and he didn't get the welcome that Minister Mighty has got prime minister Mighty is the boss okay that is some weapons grade ass kissing there and also a pretty strange way of transferring titles yeah bro Springstein didn't get this reaction so you're the boss now you also got a bigger reaction than Madonna luxembourg's HRI guon and lizo by so by the transited property you're now Queen of Pop the Grand Duke of Luxenberg and 100% that yet despite Mod's popularity there are some major causes for concern if you're thinking well haven't you talked about this before you're half right because we've actually covered Modi twice before once four years ago and once for our very first episode which was based on this photo 200 years ago and those episodes actually stand up pretty well in fact I asked my staff to pick a clip that they feel is representative and they tell me that they found the perfect one so go ahead and roll it Hitler is the only one who stepped up and got it done I say way to go Hitler whoa whoa whoa hold on that needs a lot more context around it you for choosing that very basically what we explained in those episodes is the Modi party the BJP has a long history of espousing Hindu nationalism essentially rejecting India's history as a pluralistic nation and trying to push it toward becoming an explicitly Hindu one it's long been affiliated with a paramilitary group called The RSS whose early leaders admired Hitler and that for the record was the context for that joke it was a pretty good Hitler joke so good in fact I'm guessing even Hitler would have said way to go John and please do not take that image out of context as well we also talked about how over the course of Mod's rise he's chosen to be strategically quiet about his pseudo authoritarian pro-hindu vision of India but there's been a noticeable shift in his rhetoric during this election season because his speeches have started to contain overt anti-muslim statements like this one in which he claims that if elected his rival political party will hand over the country's wealth to Muslims the earlier government said the Muslims will have the right over the resources of the country what does this mean this means they will gather all the wealth and give it to the people who have more children they will distribute it among the infiltrators do you think your hard-earned money should be distributed to the infiltrators do you accept that that is Modi referring to India's Muslim citizens as infiltrators and that's not the only troubling sign the bjp's produced incent videos like this one showing a bird labeled Muslim being planted in a nest and then consuming all the funding while the other birds get nothing and look that's already ugly enough but it's also coming at a time when Modi and his party have seemed increasingly comfortable threatening Democratic institutions by among other things stifling political opposition and freedom of the press in fact on multiple fronts India seems to be sliding toward authoritarianism so given that tonight let's check in on narendro Modi what he's been doing in office and what he might do next and let's start with why it seems so likely that he's going to be reelected some of his popularity comes from the very real advances that India's made under his leadership especially when it comes to infrastructure he initially campaigned on issues like expanding access to sanitation and water facilities and has invested billions in a nationwide upgrade of the country's roads Railways airports and seaports on top of that there' have been programs to alleviate poverty for which some citizens do thank him personally 60% of the population benefits from the modi's Food Distribution scheme which he has pledged to renew for another five years every month they give me 5 kilos of rice and flour if Modi is no longer the head of the country I don't think we'll get any help and that scares me to death we want Modi in power not anyone else yeah you can see why people might love him for that especially since the grain literally arrives in a bag with his face on it which feels a little egotistical it'd be like if Lyndon Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act of 1964 but insisted that food stamps be rebranded as lyndon's lucky yum yum vouchers there still a good program but I don't know man maybe turn it down a notch and that's not the only way that Modi has tried to take credit for progress on his watch up until this election began some train stations had Modi selfie booths where you could take a picture with him and symbols of his achievements from India Space Program to a giant tap representing water connections to a huge bottle of covid vaccine it was his not so subtle way of making sure that you associate his face with all of India's wins kind of like how Trump makes sure that his name is on all of his products and Elon Musk modeled all of his cyber trucks on his weird penis I'm not I'm not body shaming I'm just saying his penis does look like that including the wheels and that's what he wants you to think about the next time you see one slowly rolling into a tree whenever it rains although I will say sometimes Mod's tendency to take credit for things can be a bit of a stress in this promotional video it's even suggested that he halted the war in Ukraine to ensure the safe return of his citizens Modi brought us home he stopped the war Dad wait he stopped the war are you completely sure about that cuz I feel like I'd remember if Modi had somehow hit paws on the war in Ukraine like it's a Call of Duty game and his mom just called him for dinner now a key thing Modi likes to brag about is his economic record on his watch India has grown to become the world's fifth largest economy it's almost twice as big as it was and its stock market has grown three-fold since he took office but those numbers only tell part of the story here for one thing the economy was already improving before Modi took over so he inherited an upward trajectory and for another the precise measures of growth that his government sites have been called into question with even Mod's former economic AIDS finding the recent growth rates of 8% announced by the government mystifying similarly while he claims he's lifted Millions out of poverty as this economist points out that comes with a massive asterisk so what the government has done is that it's changed how it is going to Define poverty it's using one multi-dimensional poverty measure which is shall we say problematic and which is designed to suggest that less and less people up were we have a very very large number of poor and all kinds of data are telling us that not only do we still have a very large number of income poor but other kinds of poverty like food poverty May well be increasing right anyone can get rid of all poverty if you just change the definition of poor people to something else like I don't know fire hydrants or opposite snakes and if you're thinking wait so there's been substantial growth and increasing poverty at the same time the reason is actually hold on I I can feel that you're getting hung up on something opposite snakes are just arms and legs no face or tail but basically four legs with fingers on the end and a butt in the middle covered with hair now if you're wondering how growth and poverty can Co they live in the jungle by the way that's that's where opposite snakes live just to get ahead of any habitat questions okay if you're thinking that growth and sorry viewers at home probably can't tell but it's got a little bit tense in here so quickly I'll address as many questions as I can how do opposite snakes eat through a vertical slit on the underside what are its known Predators um Badgers monges any of those gorillas they taught sign language to bees man and dolphins like regular snakes opposite snakes come from eggs but their eggs are violent they live for 85 years they have tongue tails the proper collective noun is a nightmare a nightmare of opposite snakes is hounding this capibara their meats inedible their Skin's toxic and their bones are haunted if you have any other questions about opposite snakes you can just go to opposit snakes.

comom to learn more anyway uh what we talking about oh that's right if you're Wonder wondering how there's been both substantial growth and increasing poverty that is because India's economic gains have been widely unequal by some estimates just 1 million people now control around 80% of India's wealth and as they've gotten richer much of the country has gotten poorer even with all those bags of grain with his face on them under Modi the country has fallen in the global hunger index and now sits below North Korea and waron Sudan and you would think that all of this would be fertile ground for critics to exploit but it's actually hard to do that in India for one thing it's difficult to confront him to his face because he hasn't held a single press conference in India in the last 10 years and the interviews that he's granted have been the exact opposite of hard-hitting do you carry a purse on you a wallet to hold your cash do you have a best friend best friend forever with whom you share matters of the heart yeah maybe at this age how do you bring so much energy does our prime minister eat mangoes does he cut it first or eat it with the stone still in okay most of those questions are embarrassing softballs but how do you eat a mango is a valid thing to ask mangoes are notoriously hard to peel and eat they're basically fruit juice grenades covered in rhino skin and it's it's not just me who thinks that there are endless Reddit posts about the subject including how the hell do you eat a mango how the do you eat a mango mango Eaters of Reddit what is your go-to plan of attack and my personal favorite how does one eat a mango without making a huge mess with a spoon with a knife it's like that fruit was designed by napkin manufacturers which receive the Pitch Perfect response you do not you accept that the mango is a delicious mess and prepare for it beforehand do not make the mango prepare for you you may need a bib and moist towlettes for the process but this is simply the way it must be which is excellent because it's true there is just no way to eat a mango with dignity a go embrace the sloppy chaos of the mango but it is not just foring interviews what criticism there is of Modi often gets suppressed in India sometimes in a pretty heavy-handed way Publications that have done stories critical of India's leadership like the BBC recently saw their offices raided on charges of tax evasion or moneya laundering one of the country's most popular news channels that reported critically on the government and n DTV had its Founders raided for bank fraud it's true not only were the founders of NDTV raided but a few years later a billionaire with close ties to Modi bought it and its tone is now much friendlier to him basically if you criticize Modi there's a pretty good chance that things are going to get very unpleasant for you and given that we're here in America I'm honestly not too worried about Mod's goons coming after me but on the off chance that their reach does extend this far you know what try it you want to try and shut us down for being critical I dare dare you do you have any idea who I am I'm Bill Mah and my show has been on for holy over 20 years and if you want to take us down take your best shot I bill Mah would welcome it it is no wonder that India is currently ranked 159th out of 180 countries for press Freedom that is 19 places lower than when Modi first came to power but it's not just National Media Local Outlets have been targeted too this network in Kerala was suddenly Tak off the air by the government in 2020 for reasons explicitly linked to its content the shutdown was triggered by the channels reporting on anti-muslim riots in Delhi in February 2020 according to the notice from the information Ministry media one's coverage was biased and critical of the role of the Delhi police and of a Hindu nationalist outfit the RSS the ban was soon reversed the channel back on Earth but the signal was clear fall in line or else yeah that's not good because that Crackdown creates a clear chilling effect where media Outlets May well be intimidated out of criticizing modian that could actually help explain why hotstar the platform that we were on in 2020 mysteriously chose to block our episode criticizing Modi and look there are plenty of reasons to not watch this show depressing subject matter too much profanity and the Very fact that the Frantic pace of my talking voice causes dogs too and this is a medical term go nuts also the show seems biased it's too long I prefer Jimmy Fallon Kim colar Seth or James Cordon hi Mom by the way whatever your reason at least it's your choice not someone else's to not watch what I'm saying is Meaningful criticism of Modi is scarce on TV in India in fact many veteran anchors who were critical of him have migrated to sites like YouTube instead but the government May soon be able to help heavily regulate digital media too it's pushing a law which could mean that anyone making social commentary online would have to adhere to advertising and program codes prescribed by the government meanwhile an amendment is working its way through the courts which would establish a fact check unit allowing the government to identify fake news about itself and order it to be taken down and I actually have a lead for that fact check unit check out the batshit claim that Modi stopped the war in Ukraine because there's a weird video going around that you should probably get taken down and it's not just the Press who found it hard to take on Modi the same goes for his political opposition he's currently facing off against a coalition called the Indian national development mental inclusive Alliance or India for short a monumentally weak name for a coalition the first I in India stands for Indian it' be like if the H in HBO stood for HBO which it obviously doesn't it stands for Hank Hank's box office the India Coalition is led by the congress party the face of which is Rahul Gandhi and while his party never stood a realistic chance of challenging Modi even so it's campaign has been significantly hampered by the fact that just weeks before this year's election began tax agencies moved to freeze their bank accounts and on the same day that that was announced the head of one of India's other opposition parties was arrested and look those could be just more lucky complete coincidences for Modi except for the fact that over the years multiple politicians who've opposed the BJP have found themselves facing charges of fraud or financial malfeasance only for those charges to suddenly stall all be dropped when they switch parties and join the BJP instead there's even a term for this the washing machine where supposedly dirty politicians come out clean once they switch SES and it is a completely Open Secret there one opposition politician who joined the BJP in 2022 let the cat out of the bag when he said he sleeps easier now that he's a member of the ruling party I also had to switch to the BJP now I'm stress and tension free all is good no official inquiries no investigation and I can sleep peacefully I'm tension free wow it is so universally understood everyone in that audience laughed and laughed so hard honestly I'm a little bit jealous it kind of makes me wonder if I should have spent our last show admitting to political corruption instead of what what were we talking about wait corn I did 25 minutes on corn and people watched it what exactly is this show but in general and to put it mildly it seems good to be on modi's good side and very very bad to be on his bad side and that brings us back to his attacks on Muslims as I mentioned earlier he and his party are adherence to Hindu nationalism or hindutva it it used to be a fringe ideology but is now mainstream and it's been said nobody has done more to advance this cause than prime minister Narendra Modi and Muslims as India's largest religious minority have borne the brunt of this early this year Modi famously opened over $200 million Hindu temple showing up personally to help consecrate it which might seem benign until you learn that Temple was built on the former site of this mosque that was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992 in an incident that set off riots reportedly killing over 2,000 people most of them Muslim so it's a site of tremendous pain for Indian Muslims and the symbolism of opening a temple on that exact spot has been called the crowning achievement of a national movement aimed at establishing Hind H Supremacy in India but the damage here isn't just symbolic in the climate that Modi stoked Muslims have been lynched by Hindu mobs over allegations of eating beef or smuggling cows an animal considered holy to Hindus and then there's been this Muslim own buildings are literally being bulldozed in what the government calls a Crackdown on illegal construction and accus criminals a brand of bulldozzer Justice all too common in India that is awful and it's happening so much now that bulldozer justice has become a commonly used term in fact the bulldozer itself has become a Hindu nationalist symbol and he been featured during election victories and in political rallies this Hardline BJP leader has even earned the nickname bulldozer Baba and there's now a whole new genre of Hindu nationalist pop songs or hpop as it's also known with bulldozers appearing front and center including this one which if you knew nothing else about it would honestly sound pretty [Music] [Music] good look I hate what she's saying but the way she's saying it is undeniably catchy all that bulldozer video really needed was Bob the Builder shaking his ass to it I'm sorry did you not know about Bob there were two dump trucks on that show and the biggest one was in his overalls and while Muslims are a minority in India there are still 200 million of them the equivalent of nearly 2third of the United States and with anti-muslim hate speech and violence on the rise it is no wonder many are feeling increasingly targeted and in incredibly Grim ways Muslim shopkeeper shamer Ali feel like he's being pushed out anything can happen at any point that is the amount of Hate Now violence against Muslims is on the rise a deli police officer was caught on camera last month kicking a group of Muslim men praying by the side of the road the video went viral the officer suspended another police officer arrested for killing three Muslims on a train praising the Prime Minister while standing over their bodies yeah and it's worth remembering that is not a bug of Mod's leadership it is a feature so given all of this what can we do well for those of us who don't live in India nothing really also asking a British person what should we do about India is a little bit dangerous as we tend to have quite a lot of ideas none of which should be listened to but as an International Community it seems P time to stop the uncritical thorning praise of a man who is to put it mildly a deeply complicated figure so maybe we could at least stop comparing him to Bruce Springstein and when you talk about what he's done for India at least acknowledge that while yes he's responsible for giving bags of grain to people he's also responsible for some getting sent bulldozers and it should be possible to acknowledge the good things that modi's managed to do for India while acknowledging that many Indians live in active fear of what he seems more than happy to represent and I know that this episode is almost definitely not going to end up airing in India and depending on what they do with the laws around YouTube I'm not totally sure what'll happen to it there either so if this show does get taken down and if you have friends or family living in India who would like to see it just encourage them to visit opposit snakes. where they'll find tons of fascinating facts on opposite snakes as well as a 25-minute video titled opposite snakes which is in fact this entire story alternatively you can send it to how to eat mango.