Trump Courts Hindu Sena Right-Wing Nationalists In NJ As They Burn Hillary Posters In India

Hindus for Trump Slate

The benefit inside the New Jersey Exposition and Convention Center on Saturday October 15 had all the trapping of a Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Terminator' movie.  

Keynote speaker Donald Trump was there to benefit the Hindu victims of Islamic terror in Kashmir and Bangladesh. 

Two men wearing thobes, a traditional Arab garment, suddenly burst in carrying laser-beam guns and begin spraying imaginary bullets. A troop of prancing men in SWAT vests emerges, cartwheeling, shooting, and pummeling until the “terrorists” fall. Then, the soldiers and their freed hostages line up, hands on their hearts, and adopt solemn expressions as “The Star-Spangled Banner” begins to play.

Striding onto the stage, Donald Trump spoke in his repetitive, love, love, love cadence. One of the most divisive voice in American politics ever only wants love with this audience. “I am a big fan of Hindu,” he says. What does he mean 'Hindu?' Does he mean the religion Hinduism? Does he mean the Hindu people? “And I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan.”

“Indians see firsthand the brutality of terrorism and cross-border violence, including the attacks in Bombay—and I mean, look, Mumbai is a place that I love,” Trump declares. “It’s a place that I understand. So, for all of the people in Mumbai, the attack on Indian parliament—absolutely outrageous and terrible,” he says, apparently conflating the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai with a 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament that actually took place in New Delhi, India’s capital.

Thankfully in America, protesters helped to clarify that Donald Trump doesn't love ALL Hindus. “Those Hindus who support Donald Trump are actually a tiny percentage of all Hindus, but they have a loud and despicable message,” Sunita Viswanath, a board member of Sadhana, a coalition of progressive Hindus, says from a podium erected by a sidewalk. “To the Republican Hindu Coalition we say—not in our name.”

Fired Up & Ready To Go!

Reality is that Donald Trump is aligned with Hindu nationalists, the Hindu Sena (aka Shiv Sena) in India. They love him, so much so that supporters led by Vishnu Gupta held protests against US Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Monday in Delhi. Condemning Clinton for attacking and damaging her Republican opponent Donald Trump’s image, the protesters burnt Clinton posters.

University of Southern California's Religion Dispatches says it wasn't only Hillary Clinton who was demeaned as a horned demon on a "witch hunt" to get India's current Prime Minister Modi for alleged past involvement in the 2002 riots in Gujarat that killed more than 1,000 people -- mostly Muslims. Sonia Gandi, President of the current opposition party in India, the Indian National Congress party, was equally demonized. Hindu Nationalists have very strict views around female emancipation, including the demand that married women bear four children minimum to maintain a large Hindu majority in the country. 

In fact, the Hindu nationalists who support Trump are easy to rile up and they typically like burning things -- from posters to wives. It's very easy to insult these ultra-nationalists as swimwear designer Lisa Blue discovered in 2011 when she used an image of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi in a runway show during Australian fashion week. 

Hindu nationalists were calling for Lisa Blue’s death.

As for bride burning, this is a horrific and typically dowry-related scam in India with women paying the ultimate price. Links to my writing on bride burning, which is feared to be increasing in India, appear at end of article. 

'He's our hero': Hindu nationalists rally for Donald Trump in India The Guardian

Activists of Hindu Sena in India were praying for a Donald Trump victory in the 2016 election as early as May. So dedicated to a Trump victory is Hindu Sena, that its leader Vishnu Gupta arranged a 'havan puja' ceremony of worship, one in which Trump's face received the thumbed vermillion marking on his forehead. Trump must be supremely honored.

Gupta’s motives for supporting Trump were simple: “He’s the only man who can put an end to Islamic terrorism.”

Trump’s hardline stance on Muslim immigration to the US and his rhetoric against Isis and other terror organisations seem to have caught the imagination of the young Hindu fringe leader, who has grown up in a political climate where communal strife between Hindus and the Muslim minority has led to violent clashes on both sides.

The right-wing group has held other rallies and demonstrations outside the US embassy in Delhi in an effort to promote a Trump win in November. "He's our hero," says Gupta: "He's the only man who can put an end to Islamic terrorism."

India burning brides and ancient practice is on the rise SMH