28/03/14

Side effects of 'Modi'fication

    
       Hero-starving Indians have a  new hero in Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi. He is hailed as if  a God and is prescribed as a panacea for all the disease of India. I think Bhratiya Janata Party must be renamed as Modi Janata Party considering the enthusiasm of his bhakts(devotees) and the carefully created aura surrounding him. Modi bhakt are working tirelessly on online forums to elevate his image and ridicule/threaten anyone who even criticize him slightly. I am not surprised as Modi himself is resorted to personal attacks and use abusive languages and lies to silence opponents instead of addressing issues or having a meaningful debate.

 Another disturbing trend among this online soldiers of Modi is constant Minority community bashing, and rooting for extreme 'patriotism' even at the cost of humanity. Those who oppose Modi is termed as traitors,Pakistan-agents etc and minorities have to prove their 'patriotism' as Hindus(many who endorse Modi) consider themselves as patriotic by birth. This mindless patriotic feeling just reminds me the words  of Tagore that 'Why the world has been broken up into narrow domestic walls?' Extreme nationalism is as dangerous as extreme religionism.


     I am not for or against Modi and do not have much idea of  his so called ‘development’ in Gujarat. But I remember once a friend sarcastically  pointed out about Gujarat development, ‘If you want to see the development in Gujarat, look out from the train while it passing through Surat, you could see girls waiting for the train to pass to attend the call of nature’.Gujaratis are into business and that state is  always prosperous comparing to other large Indian states, of course business people like Ambani and Adani are more benefitted by his regime than common people. Improving infra structure without improving the lives of the people cannot be called a real development, though I credit him for the good things that he had done. Smaller states like Kerala,Goa etc are ahead of Gujarat when it comes to the standard of living of the poor.

     The things that work in favour of  Modi is that he could market himself as a strong leader when India  is steeped in corruption, Inflation and price rise, besides  his Hindutva image definitely adds momentum where over 80%  of population are Hindus. Many Hindus do not care about  whether he is involved or not in the Gujarat riots, in fact some Hindu’s even support the riot in their personal conversation saying that ‘it was necessary’ to ‘teach a lesson’ to Muslims. Whenever I tried to reason with them about the difference between some religious fanatics’ crime and the crime perpetrated by the state, which is supposed to protect its citizens, on certain community, it fell on deaf ears.

Modi is considered an efficient administrator, but I wonder why he couldn't stop Gujarat riot If he is that efficient. Let us assume that he was not involved in the riot, but what stops him asking apology to those who are affected by this worst communal riot, as the Chief minister , it was his responsibility to protect its citizens.

      Though people think that  Modi would ‘save’ India, I have not heard from him how he is going to fight inflation, price rise,corruption etc.BJP itself has many corrupt and criminal candidates contesting in the election. Besides what is his stand on the gas price rise recommendation that is to benefit Mukesh Ambani. It was during one press conference former petroleum minister of India said that  neither himself nor the press can do anything even though they all knew that it is Mukesh Ambani who controls the Government’.It is a known fact that Ambani changes the Petrolum Minister who does not listen to him. I do not think Modi can do anything about this as Congress and BJP are the two aspects of the same coin.


     If Modi is a good administrator,he would not try to intimidate a political rival by violence as it happened during the road show of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in Gujarat, it shows his intolerance towards criticism. It was one Gujarati(Mahatma Gandhi) who kindled the imagination of Indians during freedom struggle with his selfless karma, now it is another Gujarati  who is on his way to be a mass leader, unfortunately they are a poles apart.

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