#BeyondTheHeadlines: Modi, Trudeau and the Politics of Hate

The Canadian prime minister had to apologise for his racist acts, but why are politicians in India able to get away with much worse?

As photographs emerge of Justin Trudeau wearing what is called ‘brownface’ or ‘blackface’ as some sort of idiotic gag nearly two decades ago, ordinary Canadians of all races are justifiably upset that their prime minister could have acted in such a racist fashion. Trudeau has had to apologise but in this episode of #BeyondTheHeadlines, Siddharth Varadarajan looks at why political leaders in India, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are able to get away with worse.

mm

Author: Siddharth Varadarajan

Siddharth Varadarajan is a Founding Editor of The Wire. He was earlier the Editor of The Hindu and is a recipient of the Shorenstein Journalism Award and the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year. He taught Economics at New York University and Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, besides working at the Times of India.