Gaurav Gogoi pulls up PM Modi on racism against Chinese — and North-East India’s citizens

In a clip shared from his New Delhi press conference on 28 May, Wednesday, Congress leader from Assam Gaurav Gogoi — also the deputy leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha — is heard taking prime minister Narendra Modi to task for his racist comments.

The remark in question — that the "small-eyed Ganesha comes from abroad" — was an apparent allusion to Chinese goods in the Indian market, which the prime minister at a speech in Gujarat called on Indian citizens to boycott in favour of ‘Make in India’ products.

In his response, Gogoi seeks to educate the "honourable prime minister" on the implications of his remark for the people of North-East India — the young "men and women, boys and girls" who come to the so-called 'mainland' for education and employment, and are "often teased" for the very same physical features they share with China's citizens (and indeed, much of South-East Asia and the Far East, really).

"Eyes that don't even open" is how PM Modi saw fit to put it. As Gogoi put it, he made light of the shape and size of the physical features of the people of China.

At the press conference, Gogoi yesterday spoke of the grief of students from the Seven Sisters going to study elsewhere in India.

"This kind of language only perpetuates the harassment and the language that is used to taunt and tease the people of the North-East," he said.

He added, "My all means, the prime minister has the right to focus on various problems between India and China with respect to the trade deficit and the border situation."

"But I must ask him to be also sensitive to these matters, because these matters have caused a lot of trauma for people — young people of the North-East, who often talk to me and complain to me about how they feel when they come to Delhi, Bombay (Mumbai), Pune for their studies," he continued.

Of course, the elephant-headed god is even in Indian art frequently depicted with small eyes in a large head — as befits the species he borrowed his mien from. So there is some doubt as to the practical applicability of the prime minister's advice as well.

Meanwhile, it is perhaps best that Indians don't consider too deeply the implications of buying Buddha idols* with distinctly East Asian features — as is only right for a prince born in the northernmost reaches of the Subcontinent, in present-day Nepal.

*Note: This is not only for Buddhists and feng shui believers, of course, for in a revisionist version of the Hindu dasavatara line-up, the Buddha is now the ninth avatar of Vishnu, displacing the 'big brother' Balaram many of us grew up counting as the eighth (with Krishna himself the ninth and last before Kalki emerges).

And of course, many an Asian Buddhist too worships Ganesha.