The billionaire philanthropist George Soros has slammed the Narendra Modi-led BJP government while addressing an annual event at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in which he also addressed an array of global, political and technological issues.

george soros

The American billionaire said: "Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback came in India where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship."

Geroge Soros slams Facebook

The billionaire investor also accused Facebook of helping to re-elect Donald Trump in the 2020 US election. "Facebook will work to re-elect Trump and Trump will protect Facebook," the 89-year-old said during a speech at a dinner hosted by his non-profit Open Society Foundation at Davos on Thursday, reports Politico.

"It makes me very concerned about the outcome of 2020," Soros said.

A Facebook spokesperson reacted to his outburst and said: "This is just plain wrong".

At the dinner speech, Soros called Trump "the ultimate narcissist", and Xi Jinping a "dictator", while praising Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Soros also announced he will launch "the most important project of my life" -- a $1 billion investment in "critical thinking" via a new network of colleges.

Facebook also announced it will show fewer political ads to people on its platform and Instagram, starting with the United States which faces Presidential elections in 2020, but won't ban or limit those as Twitter has already done and Google to some extent.

(With IANS inputs)