A Trump presidency and Modi’s Hindutva dream

On November 5^th 2024, the US collectively spoke, loudly. There are different interpretations of what they said but I think the overarching message was plain: we do not have faith in the Democratic Party and its stewardship of this country.  Those who fervently supported a Trump administration were always going to vote for him. His felony convictions, sexual assault charges, and racist and xenophobic rhetoric against immigrant, the Latinx and Muslim/Arab communities were not going to deter them. Nor was his stance on abortion and reproductive rights. 

What indicates to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Trump has managed to strike a potent nerve with most US citizens, is that in Dearborn, Michigan, a former Democratic stronghold, where Kamala Harris badly needed support to get ahead, Arabs and Muslims threw their support behind Trump. A man who wanted to install a “Muslim ban” on immigration to this country and may still do that. A man who recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A man who has illegally occupied Palestinian land named after him. A man who told Netanyahu to “finish the job” in Gaza. I am not convinced Arab and Muslim Americans truly believe Trump will be better for Gaza. I personally, am not at all convinced. Any administration except for one where Jimmy Carter is magically President is bad for Palestine. 

Watching children being dismembered in real time on social media and seeing Biden aid and abet this for one year (and counting) with impunity and then having Harris step on to the stage only to parrot his sentiments, made it impossible for many Muslims and Arabs to support her. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, who was clear in her messaging of her unequivocal support of the Palestinians, did not have the monetary juice to be a contender and was operating outside the party duopoly. They knew she had no chance of winning. She still got 18 percent of the vote there.

They wanted to send a clear message to Biden, Harris and the Zionists in DC. Muslim and Arab voters saw that Harris didn’t feel she needed them to win the election, that she and the Democrats took Dearborn for granted. They punished her for it. And rightly so. 

As a result, some could say that a Trump vote was essentially a protest vote.  The truth is, I am scared that I will be put in an internment camp and/or deported because I am Muslim. Under Trump, I always was. I am scared that my Medicare and social security will be taken away. I am scared that my hijabi relatives and associates will be violently attacked by that venal section of Trump’s base, yet I wholly understand why Dearborn went the way they did and though I didn’t vote for Trump, I too looked beyond my personal safety and professional aspirations to vote my conscience. 

On a macro scale, Trump’s comeback will have deep reverberations across the world in a way it didn’t in 2016. In Bangladesh, which is in the tender stages of trying to rebuild after overthrowing their own venal, oppressive, autocratic regime, Trump’s win could spell serious challenges in relations. The issue – among other things – lies with Trump’s warm relationship with Modi, who is sheltering India’s ousted vassal, Sheikh Hasina. The Modi government’s official stance does not support the interim government and is said to be looking to reinstate the Awami League because Modi and Hasina are cut from the same fascist cloth, and had forged a mutually beneficial relationship whereby he protected her, and she allowed India to treat Bangladesh as a colony.  

It doesn’t help that US media continuously turns to Indian talking heads to analyse Bangladesh — because they clump us all together, one big, brown blob – because they are deeply biased. The Indians are more familiar as far as brown people go and have more of an economic presence in the US. Not to mention the Indians who support Modi are vociferous backers of Trump. Asking Indian pundits to analyse Bangladesh and make sense of what is unfolding there is like asking Israelis who support Netanyahu to explain why Hamas attacked them on October 7^th. It will be from an agenda that seeks to lay blame on and vilify those who rose up to protest a regime that had stripped them of their human rights. The victims, not the oppressors. A cursory look at Indian media’s coverage of Bangladesh and India’s lobbying efforts in the US prove this deeply troubling reality. 

Modi is fashioning India as the Israel of the subcontinent, anti-Muslim and -minorities, a simulation of a democracy masking an imperial power – and Trump supports Israel wholeheartedly. Modi’s draconian ways make sense to Trump. When his attention turns to Bangladesh — albeit fleetingly because it is after all, one of those “shithole countries” in his lofty opinion, Modi and Hasina will slide right in and explain why the US needs to withdraw support from Yunus and the interim government and will use Islamic fundamentalists as the reason. If you don’t support reinstating the Awami League, then the terrorist Muslims they have been trying to keep at bay, will take over. Trump may buy this. It is a simple reasoning and we all know that all Muslims are bad, bad people. Except for the ones who voted for him in the election. And this might be a saving grace, though probably an unlikely one. 

There is much to be concerned about for Bangladesh with a Trump presidency and much less with a Harris one had she won because Trump has a proclivity for going off-script and taking matters into his own hands. Yet, there are Bangladeshis who support Trump as we are seeing the past few days. And, though I don’t support him I wholly understand why some do. Aggrieved Hasina supporters have few shelters left. But seizing pro-Trump banners and arresting the supporters is a huge mistake. It is a violation of freedom of expression, and is reminiscent of Hasina’s brutal crackdown on free speech. It negates the spirit of the new world that Muhammad Yunus and his supporters are trying to build, and is sending the wrong message to the incoming US administration. But most importantly, it is undemocratic. Bangladesh cannot afford to alienate Trump. If the Trump supporters become violent or destructive that is another story, but they should not be shut down if they are peacefully showing support. It is a step backwards.●

Sharbari Z. Ahmed is a Bangladeshi-American author and screenwriter.