Why did the assassination of Charlie Kirk in the USA alarm and outrage the Indian Right?

Charlie Kirk, a Christian nationalist, MAGA activist and one of the prominent voices of American conservative movement was shot dead during one of his college tours in University of Utah. As per the initial reports, he was murdered simply because of difference in political beliefs by Tyler Robinson last week. Kirk got popular for his debate with college students regarding various contentious issues in the US. The debated topics typically included abortion rights, LGBTQ (availability of puberty blockers before the age of consent, ie 18 and school curriculum’s inclusion of gender fluidity), CRT (Critical race Theory) first amendment of free speech, Christian family values, border security and immigration. With his high social media presence, the impact of the unfortunate incident was not only limited to his home country but at many corners of the globe.

Countries like the UK where there is a surge in right wing popularity and support like many other western nations reacted on the incident at the highest level including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, Canadian PM Mark Carney apart from US president Trump. There was a clear divide in reaction on social media of west based on political ideology. The Indian social media also reacted largely sympathetic and mostly from Indian right, but reactions are mixed on how Indians should perceive this tragic incident. Indian right seems unsure whether it should support America’s conservative movement and fight with woke-left propaganda collectively or the differences are too high to be aligned.

How does the Indian Right Wing differ from the US Conservatives?

Indian right is not a homogeneous group but a loose amalgamation of nationalist, Hindu nationalist, cultural revivalist, conservatives, traditionalist and somewhat non-left. But why an assassination of American influencer mattered for India’s right at all? One of the factors for this phenomenon is due to global reach of content and sympathetic outlook towards western conservatives from Indian conservatives as they found common enemy in form of ‘left-liberal/woke’. Left’s advocacy for gender-fluidity, propagation of victimhood mentality among minorities (racial minorities in US and religion or cast based in India), support for illegal migration, opposition on national security issues, spreading a sense of anarchy and unholy alliance of ‘Red & Green’ are few issues where alignment between Indian right and conservatives of US might be possible which can be seen in form of invitation to senior leaders from BJP to ‘national conservativism’ conference in DC last year.

Similar efforts are observed in the form of head of states like Melony, Trump, Victor Obran, Johnson and even in the form of support to Bolsonaro (now ex-President of Brazil) on his judicial fight. Up to some degree, PM Modi also enjoyed the chemistry with his counterparts with other ‘conservative’ leaders. But can long-term alignment with Western conservatives be possible? Is it beneficial for Indian Right? These questions need to be discussed. 

This is very critical to understand that Indian Right doesn’t agree and find itself on different end of the rope on various issues. The very first difference is caused due to the basic theological difference. The western religions or ‘Abrahamic’ religions’ worldview is very much binary in nature, like Christian vs. infidel; Muslim vs. kaafir/kuffar or believer vs. non-believer just like famous speech of Bush Jr., “either you are with us or against us”. With a set of clear rules about dos and don’ts. This is contrast to Hinduism or other Indic religions where the focus is on seeking rather than believing with a flexibility to question and introspect. American conservatives based on their Christian value system tends to portray Hindu beliefs ‘Satanic’ which may be rooted into the lack of knowledge, simply ignorance or even possible hate for non ‘Judeo-Christian’ religious values. This leads to dehumanization and disrespect of Indian and Indian cultural/religious values.

Second discontent arises on legal immigration of Indians. Indians are one of the most successful groups. With just 1.6%, Indians contribute significantly in terms of tax, having one of the highest per capita income and have important roles in corporate and tech leadership. This also results into a sense of insecurity about job loss to the ‘actual’ Americans and narrative is peddled by vocal conservative voices including Kirk who opposed it. Though they simply forget about a large number of Indian students who contributes to US universities in form of large tuition fees, living expenses and other expanses. These differences are aggravated by the lack of sympathy for Indians in case of misfortune incident like recent murder of Indian businessman. The reaction by American politician and system was very much late compared to other incident where a Ukrainian migrant woman was murdered and every important conservative voice reacted promptly.

So, what attracts Indian Right about American or broadly Western Rght influencers like Chalie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, Peter Jordan, Tommy Robinson or others? What causes interest without being a stakeholder in politics of western nations? The answer lies in their shear commitment towards their beliefs and capability to speak up their mind with conviction and without being politically correct against the woke-left. This creates a situation where left is not able to set ‘new normal’ and unable to shift the Overton window which is not a case in India. For example, in case of BJP’s spokesperson Nupur Sharma, whole political class including most of the commentators and politicians mummed themselves though she quoted what is written in authentic Hadith and repeatedly mentioned as well as accepted by all major Islamic preachers publicly.

It is also important to mention that she reacted on live tv debate after one other Muslim panellist mocked Hindu beliefs. In this scenario Indian Right expected that political class sympathetic to the cause will stand up to the occasion but who stood up? A far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders and even few commentators of American right. Whereas she was expelled by her party immediately after the controversy erupted from the party of ‘extreme right-wing Hindutva’. Did this so-called political correctness brought any good or harmony, the answer is NO. It just gave radical elements more confidence. Since than STSJ, a provocative slogan adopted from Pakistan became more common and two separate incidents of murders occurred just for supporting Nupur’s stand (Kanhaiya Kumar Teli, a tailor in Udaipur, Rajasthan and Umesh Kolhe, a chemist in Amravati, Maharashtra). On the other hand, American right sticks to their choices and opinions, no matter how politically incorrect they sound. President Trump himself announced, ‘Medal of Freedom’, can you expect the same in India? Perhaps NO.  In west, conservatives even perform sacrilege on religious book unlike India where even most of the ex-Muslims don’t show their faces out of fear for their life in the world’s largest democracy with 80% Hindu population.

The other major reason for support or sympathy, is common animosity against ‘Red Green’ alliance. The famous or infamous tweet of Kirk “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America’, circulating in social media after his death, showcases this phenomenon. In India, even small incidents where any muslin seems in trouble, it is peddled by cabal of left-liberal commentators that democracy is ending, or Hindu extremism is causing hatred without even getting into the details of the incident and eventually the matters generally resulted into a personal issue including fight over train seat or simply in one other case the perpetrators belonged to Muslim community itself (fight over financial fraud over tabiz). Meanwhile whole left eco-system falsely propagated the narrative of ‘Saffron Terrorism’ based on false cases. Other example is ‘Shaheen Bagh’ protest over CAA. The bill proposed the easy citizenship process for oppressed minority from neighbouring declared Islamic nations without any clause about terminating citizenship for anyone. But the protest continued resulting into riots based on cover fire of intellectual dishonesty from eco system of Left with its far-reaching capacity to internalize the narrative. 

The issue of illegal immigration

Another common ground for alignment of Right of West and India is illegal immigration. Both in India and US, the Left is systematically supporting the illegal immigration without caring the concerns of domestic population, cultural differences, resources limitation or even chances of rise in criminal activities. In case of India, flux of Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants not clearly visible in any tier-1 and 2 cities showing a pattern of systematic help, increases an anxiety of demographic change which will certainly help a particular set of political parties. Similarly in US or European countries, with rise of immigrants from West Asia and Latin America (in case of U.S. only), crime rate, drug availability, grooming gang, women safety are becoming topics of debate among conservatives. Specially in political systems with two-party system like US or UK, there is a great chance that demographic change can tilt the balance permanently towards democrats in US, Labour in UK and leftist socialist parties in other European nations. In many cases call of demand for Sharia law is getting common day by day. The ‘no-go-zone’ are becoming a common phenomenon. It is just like a certain section of people criticizing Hindu possession going through some ‘particular’ community dominated areas when questioned about stone pelting (or in some cases firing or damaging the idols). 

What attracts the Indian Right to Western Conservatives?

These similarity in battle of ideas and Western Conservatives’ ability to calling a spade a spade attracts Indian Right to admire and aspire. The woke propaganda seeping into Indian universities is also one of red line for the Indian Right, giving sense of unity with Western Right. These circumstances forced various sect within Indian right to look towards the western conservatives with a hope to collaborate against the common foe. Most of the serious minds of India’s right understand that American or western conservatives can’t be friends, but a tactical collaboration is a must. Today’s woke reality of US will surely be tomorrow’s propaganda of Indian left. So why don’t learn something from other’s experiences. 

After the assassination, a celebration erupted among woke, Left, and Islamic extremists, and also ignited the hope for the assassination of famous or influential Right-Wing voices in India, causing alarm. It is evidently very clear to the Indian Right that Charlie was neither the first nor going to be the last, and tragedy can occur anywhere. So, the rising voice by the Indian Right is not for any distant US-based influencer but for their own future, clearly acknowledging that future may not be very far.