Modi and his bandwagon barged into power using a combination of fearmongering and divisive hatred. The populace tired of many a scandal under the UPA government was looking for any or all options to change. The coalition of parties that were in the government was contributing to the mess heavily since the party that was leading the coalition was unable to control them and therefore effectively govern. BJP seized the moment, to drive the fear into the large middle-class that their misfortune was clearly linked to the corruption by the then government. Once in power, they have conveniently begun marking any and all dissenters as “anti-national” or being funded and influenced by a foreign-hand.

The “foreign-hand” is not new to India politics, having been effectively used by Congress themselves during the 70s and 80s. It inched to a slow death as it started losing its sheen, and economy and development slowly gained momentum. But it never fully disappeared. Pakistan was a lovely place to keep bashing. And Pakistan for its part loved to be a part of this equation, by constantly sending terrorists into Indian territory. But the power of foreign-hand to win or convert election dissipated. Well, that is until Modi and his BJP came to power in 2014.

The farmers have been protesting at the outskirts of the capital, New Delhi, for over 6 months now. They are protesting against three farm laws that were improperly pushed through the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The passing of these bills was in itself almost illegal and done so only because the government didn’t have any other mechanism to make it law. Why this hurry, you must ask? The answer to this question is possibly another hand, foreign or domestic, but is surely not a friend of the farmer or the ordinary people. Modi has shown that his government favours a very specific set of industrialists, probably the biggest financiers to his party and feeds his hunger to stay in power. And therefore found it very convenient to deflect the ire of the general populace. He quickly invented the foreign-hand yet again, gives it a new lease of life in Indian politics. All this because Rihanna tweeted in support of the farmers.

History repeats itself, they say. Joseph Goebbels is alive and well in democratic India.