Hindu nationalist group says ‘only Donald Trump can save humanity’
Annie Gowen, Washington Post
Donald Trump may have made fun of India’s call center workers and accused the country ofstealing U.S. jobs, but he still has fans in India.
About a dozen members of a right-wing Hindu group gathered on New Delhi’s “protest lane” Wednesday to pray that Trump will win the U.S. presidential election, according to the Associated Press.
The group chanted in Sanskrit and made offerings around a small ritual fire and before a picture of the billionaire politician adorned with the sacred mark worn by devout Hindus on the forehead.
Trump’s call for temporarily banning Muslims from the United States “until we can figure out what’s going on” apparently hit a positive chord with some in India’s Hindu nationalist movement, the report said.
“The whole world is screaming against Islamic terrorism, and even India is not safe from it,” said Vishnu Gupta, founder of the Hindu Sena nationalist group. “Only Donald Trump can save humanity.”
Indian activists from the right-wing organization Hindu Sena perform Hindu fire rituals in support of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New Delhi, India, on May 11. (Rajat Gupta/European Pressphoto Agency)
A separate movement of “Hindus for Trump” has been gaining speed on Twitter and Facebook in recent days.
In months on the campaign trail, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has made several positive and negative statements about India. He described the country as a necessary check to nuclear-armed Pakistan but also mentioned India as being among several countries he thinks are stealing jobs from the United States.
“We’re being ripped off with China, ripped off with Japan, ripped off with Mexico at the border and then trade, ripped off by Vietnam, and by India, and by every country,” Trump said at a rally in February.
In a speech in Delaware last month, he mimicked the accent of an Indian call center worker in a speech about the trade imbalance and the job market, later adding, “India is a great place.”
In a speech in Delaware last month, he mimicked the accent of an Indian call center worker in a speech about the trade imbalance and the job market, later adding, “India is a great place.”
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