Indian right-wing commentator Anand Ranganathan stirred controversy by advocating for an Israel-like approach to resolving the Kashmir conflict.
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During The Samosa Caucus Podcast hosted by Smita Prakash on Sunday, Anand, joined by co-panelists Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, Sushant, and Tahseen Poonawala, Ranganathan made the provocative statement, suggesting that an Israeli-style solution was necessary.
Ranganathan asserted, “You need an Israel-like solution to Kashmir. The fact that Israel has not been able to ‘solve it’ is not because Israel is not acting to solve it, or Israel is not doing things that should be done. If, for example, seven lakh (700,000) Israelis were driven out of their homes, and Israel had not acted, you would have said ‘Yes, they didn’t solve it.’”
He further elaborated, highlighting Israel’s measures to address the grievances of its people and contrasting it with what he perceived as India’s failure to do so. Ranganathan’s comments, however, were not novel, as similar sentiments have been expressed by other right-wing Hindu nationalists in the past.
In 2019, a former Indian envoy to New York City had suggested a similar approach at a private gathering. Anand Ranganathan, known for his inflammatory Islamophobic rhetoric, is associated with the Hindu nationalist publication Swarajya and commands a significant following on social media platforms.
The podcast discussion also veered into dehumanizing commentary, with Abhijit Iyer-Mitra casually dismissing concerns over Kashmir’s fertility rates in the context of insurgency. Such discourse, rooted in Zionist and Hindu nationalist ideologies, portrays Muslims as “terrorists” or “demographic threats” rather than individuals.