ith the general elections just around the corner, opinions seem to be taking formidable shape and many with a liberal but opportunistic bent of mind appear to be trotting the middle path, neither vocally dissing Modi nor professing undying faith in him. While right wing-ers grow more and more aggressive by the second, those decidedly opposed to Modi are far too few and conspicuous by their absence in the public sphere.

Enter Namo Nazi — an anonymous group that "designs antifascist T-shirts" and sells them online "with the belief that while you can vote against Namo Nazi only once, your T-shirt speaks against him wash after wash after wash..." Over the past few weeks the group has been coming out with some outrageous and provocatively designed T-shirts that make one's stand against the Gujarat Chief Minister abundantly clear. A theme common to all of their designs is an insistence on Modi as a fascist politician much like Hitler in Nazi Germany.

While this comparison makes sense to many, to several others it seems too farfetched and erroneous. "We're comparing Modi with Hitler because they're joined at the hip in many ways. Modi shares a pathology with Hitler, of course, but his alma mater — the RSS — also upholds the same virulent notions of racial and cultural supremacy. So yes, it's a historically accurate comparison for people who remember their history and know the inadvisability of repeating it," the group said over email.

{ Judging by the kind of support they are receiving on Facebook as well as intense trolling from right wing-ers, they seem to have definitely created a space for some serious debate and discussion.

Choosing to remain nameless, Namo Nazi is run by a few very talented individuals scattered across the country and outside. "We're designers, writers, hacktivists, some with day jobs, and some who gave up day jobs to do this," they explain. Quitting jobs sounds like a serious commitment to an anti-fascist ideology. So, what was the agenda when starting out? "We do this because every generation has its tyrant to rage against. Our elders had Bush and Pinochet, we have Modi, and if we don't do this, if we just stand by and do nothing, then future generations will judge us very harshly," they asserted.Image 2nd

Judging by the kind of support they are receiving on their Facebook page as well as intense trolling from right wing-ers, they seem to have definitely created a space for some serious debate and discussion. "We didn't start out wanting to shape public opinion in any way, but yes, we did hope to provoke questions and start debates around people's ideas of memory, truth and justice. We believe such debates are already happening and are happy to be able to stoke them further with these T-shirts," they said.

But why sell T-shirts? "Voting happens in secret but you wear this T-shirt in public. You vote once and wash your hands off politics for the next five years — you can wash and wear this T-shirt over and over again, and make a fiercely political statement each time you do. Also, any idiot knows they're a darn lot more trustworthy, sane and sexy wearing a Namo Nazi T-shirt than if they weren't," they quipped.

With Modi's face printed on T-shirts alongside slogans like "The only chair he's fit for is electric" and "WTF. It's not like I personally murdered anyone", I for one surely wouldn't mind ordering a few.