Will India’s Modi follow the steps of Turkey’s Erdoğan?

India’s ambassador to Turkey preferred to abstain from this year’s commemoration ceremony organized each April 24 for the fallen soldiers of the Gallipoli battles that took place during World War I.

Sumita Gongulee Thomas was resentful to the fact that during last year’s ceremony, an imam prayed for all of the fallen soldiers of all monotheistic religions, whereas no such religious prayer was foreseen for hundreds of soldiers from India that lay in Gallipoli.

While her request, in her own words, for a more “secular” ceremony was taken into account this year, her compatriots back in India were busy voting to bring a man to power who is heading a party that has expressed disdain for the country’s secular traditions.

When it became official on May 16 that Narendra Modi’s BJP won the biggest victory out of any party for 30 years, gaining a majority in Parliament, I was preparing to travel to India. The Indians I have met in Istanbul were underlining the fact that India would be ruled by a majority after so many years. “After years of disastrous coalition governments, many in Turkey were very happy to see a majority government coming to power; they became even happier when the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) received a stronger mandate and thus acquired a stronger majority in Parliament,” I told them. “Yet, some among them are today very anxious to see the leader of the AKP started to show authoritarian tendencies after the stronger majority he received.”

The similarities between Modi and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are striking. Both come from modest backgrounds. Erdoğan was mayor of Istanbul, whereas Modi was chief minister of the state of...