One of the funniest campaign videos to emerge in the run-up to the U.K.’s general election Friday is one produced by the Conservative Friends of India group.

The video’s awkward Hindi lyrics and jingoistic melody (that will instantly remind South Asian readers of Zee TV commercials) urges voters to vote for Conservative Leader Boris Johnson — and claims opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is a liar:

“Wake up! We have to help Boris Johnson to win,” the lyrics urge. “He will help our businesses grow, and will create a good future for our children. He will increase our safety and security … Jeremy Corbyn lies straight to your face. We have to chase the rest away. Vote for Boris Johnson!”

Featured are images of Johnson wearing an orange turban and standing next to a smiling Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. But the kicker is its final parting message: “Your vote on Dec. 12 will deliver Brexit and unleash British powers globally.”

It’s enough to make even supporters of Johnson cringe. As British journalist Aisha Gani astutely noted on Twitter: “Indians know very well what happens when British powers are unleashed globally.”

The alignment of the British Conservative party with the Hindu-nationalist BJP party makes sense, especially with Johnson and Modi at the helm. Both have made their dislike for Muslims explicit: Johnson, through comments comparing veiled Muslim women to letterboxes, and Modi, through the Indian Parliament’s passing of the Citizenship Amendment Bill on Wednesday.

The bill, called “an all-out assault on the very idea of India” by the opposition Congress Party, offers a clear path to Indian citizenship for migrants from any faith background — except Muslims.

It’s a flabbergasting move for a democracy that is often held up as a bastion for cultural tolerance — not least because its founding leaders, Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru made an unequivocal decision in 1947 that India would not be an officially Hindu nation. Minorities, especially Muslims, would be treated equally.

Both the Conservative party and BJP have also made superficial attempts to appease critics over their treatment of minorities. As a Muslim, it’s hard to decide which is more mortifying: The sight of the Muslim Conservative chancellor Sajid Javid trying to defend yet another claim against the party’s blatant Islamophobia and racism, or the existence of Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), a social organization founded by the RSS, a BJP ally that supports Hindu nationalist objectives. According to the RSS, the MSM boasts 10 million members.

Aman Madan, a freelance journalist who covers South Asian politics, reported in May that MRM is nothing but a superficial “Muslim face” aimed at portraying “Hindu nationalist policies as inclusive, equitable and even secular — when they are nothing of the sort. By supporting these policies, the MRM situates itself as a “native informer,” an agent of power that serves the BJP’s ambitions while claiming Muslim identity.

The group’s approach is chillingly reminiscent of China’s attempt to “re-educate” Uighur Muslims, a minority concentrated in western China. In 2017, the Chinese government began a national campaign aimed at “teaching” Muslims about the Quran by replacing traditional interpretations of the text with new ones, including the notion that cow milk had “healing powers.”

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This claim aligned with Hindu nationalist organizations’ idolization of cows and criminalization of cow slaughter. The outcome? Violence against Indian Muslims rose.

Modi could also be taking a page out of China’s playbook when it comes to dealing with the consequences of the citizenship bill. According to “The New York Times,” the Indian government is already racing to build an enormous network of prisons to house thousands of migrants. Is there any doubt which migrants will be tossed into these detention camps? How will these be any different than the brutal Uighur indoctrination camps that China is facing sharp international criticism for?

But then, these are quite likely not the issues foremost in the minds of Conservative British-Indian voters. If we believe the campaign video, security and business prosperity are citizens’ key interests — just as they were for the millions of Indians who re-elected Modi in May. Clearly, a vote for Johnson is a vote for Modi.

Shenaz Kermalli is a Toronto-based journalist who specializes in geopolitics.

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