If New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern does not withdraw from the Gates Foundation award ceremony honoring Modi, it would not be an anomaly in her politics. It would of a piece with her call for censorship of free speech on social media rather than denouncing Islamophobic war mongering in media but especially with the deployment of NZ troops in the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’.
NZ has a long history of involvement in wars, including as an ally of the US in the Vietnam War. Currently, according to the NZ army, the country has forces deployed under the guise of the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Mali, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Korea, Sinai, South Sudan, Timor-Leste. In honoring the fascist Modi, is Ardern going to maintain that he is, as he claims, fighting terrorism in Kashmir?