India's conservative-populist President Narendra Modi won a big re-election victory this past week and the press is doing a number on him: Forecast correct, they're yelling racism.

A Modi Victory Puts India’s 200 Million Muslims in Danger -The Nation

Modi’s India is a living nightmare for Muslims -Op-Ed Washington Post

Now, I don't have facts and figures on how many Muslims voted for Modi, but those headlines set off a red flag. They have a familiar ring. Living nightmare? Stokes violence? Where have we read that sort of thing before?

Meanwhile, here's the sort of thing seen on Twitter - Muslims celebrating Modi's victory same as everyone else:

Ilhan Omar. True Divider in Chief.



“PM Modi's rule in India has corresponded with the spread of violent Hindu nationalism and hate crimes against Muslims. The USA should stand against him”



India’s peaceful Muslims celebrating Modi win:pic.twitter.com/BqYJyYGnK1 — Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) May 25, 2019

It squares with the Muslims I know from India. They're normal people who want a normal country, and like other Asians, have interest in economic growth, which is what Modi stands for. They have zero interest in terrorism or any of the destructive religio-political ideologies around Islam coming from the Middle East. And yes, I am not surprised to read that at least some of them voted for Modi, given the hideous socialist alternatives.

Let's look even further than the video. Here's what the Indian press is reporting:

Varanasi: Muslims’ happiness knew no bound and it was no less than that of the Hindu brothers in Varanasi’s Peeli Kothi on the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As reported by an Urdu Daily, after Iftar on Thursday, a procession was taken out by BJP Minority Morcha led by Haji Iqbal in Muslim dominated Peeli Kothi. The procession passed by Shakar Talab, Visheshwarganj, Adampur, Daranagar and culminated again at Peeli Kothi. The youth in the procession were so thrilled that they were congratulating every passerby. The passersby also joined the procession from wherever it passed. A large number of children also participated in the procession.

Are these Indian Muslims who voted for Modi hopelessly deluded? Did they elect a monstrous racist out to put them down, as the news reports claim?

Doesn't sound like it with this report coming from the same Indian press:

New Delhi: Days after BJP’s landslide victory in Lok Sabha Election 2019, the Ramadan greeting of Mr. Narendra Modi went viral on social media. Although the greeting was extended in 2018 during Mann Ki Baat program, it went viral after the declaration of the LS Poll Results. It may be mentioned that during the program, he had talked about the importance of the day and highlighted teachings of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). “The Prophet Mohammed believed that if you had anything more than you need, then you should give it to a needy person. Hence the donations in Ramadan are also of great importance”, PM Modi had said. Soon after he was elected the leader of BJP parliamentary party on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined a new slogan — “sabka sath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas (together with all, development for all, the trust of all)”. “Today I appeal to all that we have to break that deceit on minorities. We have to gain their trust. We have to move shoulder to shoulder without discriminating on the basis of caste, sect and religion. We are for 130 crore people. These should be our priorities and responsibility. ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas aur ab Sabka Vishwas (Everyone’s support, everyone’s development and now everyone’s trust). This is our mantra. I will leave no stone unturned and I will work for all citizens of India,” he said during his address to BJP MPs in the central hall of parliament.

So in other words, the guy hates identity politics and wants Indians to identify as Indian first on the political front, not Muslim, not Hindu, not Christian, just everyone sharing the same civic values for a unified nation focused on getting its house in order to ensure economic growth. Yet at the same time, he extends kind words to one of India's sizable religious minorities, celebrating common values all Indians can identify with.

Sound like the Indian version of Bull Connor?

Nope, sounds more like Trump - not just in his program but in the way he's portrayed in the fake-news press. For all the media's yelling about Trump being supposedly racist, his record tells us something different, and sure enough, he's winning far more votes from the minority voters he's supposedly against than the press narrative claims.

Like Modi, Trump has never rolled out the racism against entire ethnic groups and there are no pictures of Trump in his long-ago wearing blackface or a Klan hood. He's criticized illegal immigration, but it's the illegality and criminality he objects to, not the people. Yet Trump has been vilified in the press as a rank racist because the press wants to throw everything it can against him, as well as divide the world exclusively into ethnic group enclaves comprised of cookie cutter people.

It's stupid and neither the Latinos and Blacks Trump is accused of being racist against, nor the Muslims Modi is accused of being racist against, are fooled. All of these people have big supporters of the two leaders among their communities, celebrating with the rest of their country the victory of put-the-country-first leaders.

It's a global phenomenon. And increasingly, the panicked howls of the press crying racism - whether in India or America - in this easily verifiable Internet age - are ringing hollow.

Image credit:Twitter screen grab