Time to give Narendra Modi and Indian Hindus a break

I write in response to “White nationalism finds a kindred spirit. In India” (March 23), by Soumya Shankar. I live in mainland China, but visit Hong Kong occasionally. I glanced through your Sunday features section when I was there few days back, and I still do not understand why you are so harsh on India and take such an anti-Hindu stance.

Not even China’s state-owned media is so brutal about my native land, when they have far more valid reasons to be. It would seem your paper simply hates Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

No country in the world is immune from crime, some less and some more. Racist xenophobic attacks, for example, have been seen in Indonesia, where the large Chinese community has been targeted. Muslims, repeatedly mentioned in Ms Shankar’s article, are not as safe as you believe, either in Europe or even in China where I live.

And finally, on the subject of cows: the levels of hypocrisy from non-Indians, especially Westerners, about this issue never fail to surprise me. When it comes to dogs, you treat them like family members, and will hold big demonstrations when some Asian countries eat dog meat. But when it comes to most Hindus’ veneration of cows, you will despise it.

Yes, some people do consume beef in India but, most of the time, that is beef from buffaloes, not cows. Besides, bans on cow slaughter were not started by Modi, but have been in place for decades.

Vikram Dravith, Yiwu

Why target India when there is more Islamophobia elsewhere?

Your article, “Calls for database of hate crimes ‘went unheeded for years’” (April 1), just shores up my view that India is the victim of an extremely wrong perception campaign. Just think about it: “One in 10 New Zealand adults have experienced hate speech online”, and these facts were available but routinely ignored by the government. Was New Zealand alone? Of course not. There is far more Islamophobia in any other country in Europe, not just the “bad boy” nations of Poland and Hungary. In so-called tolerant nations like France and Denmark, Muslim women are prohibited from wearing their traditional veils. In the US, their holy book has been burnt repeatedly.

Nothing remotely similar has ever happened in India, where Muslims and other minorities enjoy more than equal rights and absolute liberty. Yet, the land of my origin continues to be targeted, for instance, in Soumya Shankar’s March article. All wrongs deserve to be condemned, not just when they occur in India.

Haresh Khushi, Tsim Sha Tsui