Merkel to Modi: ‘Shocking Spike in Attacks on Muslims and Christians by Hindu Nationalists After You Took Office

During her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned in her recently published book Freedom: Memoirs 1951-2021 that since he took office, “an increasing number of members of other religions, predominantly Muslims and Christians, were being attacked by Hindu nationalists” in India. According to Merkel, Modi “vehemently denied it and emphasised that India was and would remain a country of religious tolerance” when she brought up the topic with him.

After denying it, the former German leader vehemently disputes it, saying, “Unfortunately, the facts said otherwise.” Her concerns “remained – religious freedom is, after all, a key component of every democracy,” she continues. During her initial encounter with Modi in Germany in April 2015, Merkel recalls that “Modi loved visual effects.” She was then informed by Modi about his “election campaigns in which he’d spoken in a studio and had his image projected as a hologram to more than 50 different locations, where thousands of people were listening to him in each.” During his 2014 general election campaign, Modi made use of the hologram.

The former German chancellor also talks about her encounter with Dr. Manmohan Singh, the former prime minister. She notes that Singh was “the first non-Hindu premier” of the nation and that his “primary aim was to improve living standards for the two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion population who lived in the country.” Singh was a qualified economist with extensive international experience. This was equivalent to 800 million individuals, which is ten times the total population of Germany.

Through our discussions, I gained a deeper understanding of the growing nations’ concerns about us wealthy nations. According to him, we thought they would be very interested in our issues, but we weren’t ready to show them the same consideration,” she says. “I understood his point and started learning more about the difficulties emerging nations face.” Singh also reminded Merkel “about the cultural diversity of his country, a sub-continent with more than five thousand years of history. Twenty-two official languages are recognized by the Indian constitution alone. Its diversity contributes to the nation’s togetherness. India is more comparable to the European Union overall in this regard.