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Modi’s Dalit Parivar

Courtesy The Hindu

Narendra Modi, India’s possible future Prime Minister, was in Kerala yesterday.  According to a front page report in today’s Malayala Manorama (the widest circulated paper among all the regional languages in India – leaving out a Hindi paper), Modi proclaimed in Kerala that his family meant the Dalits, the oppressed, the Adivasis and the backward communities in India.  He didn’t mention Muslims, of course.  Please understand his constraints.

Vote for Modi so that all the backward communities in India will be liberated.

Don’t ask which backward community of Gujarat he liberated so far in spite of being the Chief Minister of that state for three consecutive terms.

He brought development to the state.  At what cost?  And what kind of development?

According to the Raghuram Rajan panel conclusions, Gujarat does not even figure in the list of developed states.  The hunger rates in Modi’s Gujarat are higher than those in the Yadavs’ UP.  The Shiv Sena’s Maharashtra is preferred by Amreeka for FDI.  There are more malnourished children in Modi’s Gujarat than in most states of India...  What has Modi done?  Except play politics for the sake of becoming the Prime Minister?  Rags to riches ambition?

I loved Modi’s joining hands with the failing politicians of Kerala.  Because it has made me understand Indian politics better.  Modi teaches me that politics is the best refuge for the most useless scoundrels on the earth.   

Modi spoke the most divisive politics in Kerala.  He made it appear the most uniting.  Such people can never  be trusted.  Should not be trusted.  They can change their stance at any time.  They can join hands with the businesspeople when that suits them.  They can join hands with the lowest castes when it suits them.  [The person raising hands with Modi on the left is Vellapally Natesan, a man who has been trying to promote caste politics of a different kind in Kerala, the same kind that Modi succeeded with against Muslims in Gujarat].
Modi and Natesan can be a good team.  Both belong to the same category by their roots. 


I love India with its infinite variety.  I hope Modi won’t be its Prime Minister. 
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Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 10, 2014 at 9:51 PM

    Sir! If not Modi then who?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 10, 2014 at 9:59 PM

      Shaleen, I don't know the answer. But I can give a hint
      http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/eminent-gandhians-extend-conditional-support-to-aap/article5672084.ece

      Delete
  2. SidFebruary 10, 2014 at 10:32 PM

    Your hopes are are as good as done and dusted - not going to happen. I could, if I cared enough about a Marxist criticism of Modi, give a point by point rebuttal of your rant above. But the thing is that both Communism and its narrative have lost their relevance in the modern time. If stunts like these serve as the last ditch effort to prevent the inevitable, then I must extend my sympathies.

    As for your avowed support to the AAP, I hope you have read this excellently written piece:
    http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/national-interest-arvind-chitra-katha/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 11, 2014 at 9:13 AM

      Sid, your link leads to a review of Kejriwal's book, which I had reviewed myself. Read my review, 'A Utopian Dream', at
      http://matheikal.blogspot.in/2013/10/a-utopian-dream.html

      You are free to interpret my hopes in anywhichway you like. Your labelling it as "ranting" shows your own attitude of vulgar intolerance of differing views. I pity you for such straitjacketed ideas.

      I know the kind of politics going on in Kerala played by the very people with whom Modi shared platform in the picture given in this blog. I know the kind of divisiveness they are bringing to Kerala, a state which was famous for its religious tolerance.

      Delete
  3. Khoty MathurFebruary 11, 2014 at 2:53 AM

    The two responses above are from a Modi supporter and an AAP non-supporter. Both Modi and Arvind Kejriwal have their strengths and weaknesses. Their rhetoric (and the noise from supporters) is to get ordinary Indians to gloss over the latter. I hope, for India's sake, that never happens. It won't if ordinary Indians ACTIVELY ensure our public servants are on the job, attending to the many issues that have beleaguered our nation - especially corruption, collusion with the criminal elements of society and an utter disregard for the law from our politicians and the police.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 11, 2014 at 9:17 AM

      Thanks, KM, for your mature response to the blog.

      The problem with people anywhere in the world is that religion sways them too easily. Modi plays with religious sentiments which is the most stupid thing that a public figure can do. Because religious sentiments inevitably create Leviathans. Modi has nothing to offer to India: neither development nor any profound vision or even a useful strategy for the country's progress. He is a good public speaker who can foment sentiments, nothing more.

      Delete
  4. UnknownFebruary 11, 2014 at 10:21 AM

    If we discuss over Politics, then it's not going to end, and May take fierce route. We have different view points and our society is associated with Politics, in one or many forms.
    We have one support, that is vote.. Use it wisely..!

    I am looking forward for change this time, want someone who can at least speak something and made some decision on his own. Hence, I am going to support.. You know, about whom I am talking about.. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 11, 2014 at 12:54 PM

      Definitely, Saurabh, we all must use our vote wisely to choose the leader we think is good for us. I too am strongly inclined towards a particular party now, a kind of inclination which I never felt toward any political party so far.

      Delete
  5. Amrita SabatFebruary 11, 2014 at 1:05 PM

    The colors of Indian Politics are too varied. The thing is-there is no alternative now. We r short of leaders- the only possibility is to settle down for a good administrator albeit wid dictatorial tendencies as leader. And as stated above, we need to use our vote wisely. We mst not elect a khichdi govt coz it destabilises & pulls our country back many decades. Unfortunately, there are alliances like U write above but then it's jst that- plain politics, plain games to acquire the gaddi. Once that is got, decisive changes are to be driven & policies r not supposed to be sat over for a decade.
    Route taken to capture the helm maybe bad, yet after coming to the helm, it is pure decision-making for development. Every politicial party hopes for a vote, yet we vote for a hope. That India will progress to her max potential.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 11, 2014 at 1:15 PM

      India's progress - that's what I too want, Amrita. It is not the progress of any particular section, but that of India as a nation. A strong nation without fissiparous tendencies... a nation which need not think of religion at all as a public affair or determining factor...

      Delete
  6. Anupam KarnFebruary 11, 2014 at 11:20 PM

    Very true...It simply reminds me of Orwell's Animal Farm. How true it was! What achievement and who will raise..... when all the hands are pretty filthy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 12, 2014 at 8:49 AM

      We have, in fact, created a kind of Animal Farm, Anupam. The basic ideologies have been forgotten and alliances of convenience are being forged.

      Delete
  7. UnknownFebruary 12, 2014 at 5:36 PM

    Ambition is for politicians and traders. It is not for persons of Constructive Creative Vocations.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownFebruary 14, 2014 at 5:47 PM

    I don't think Modi is without faults but I believe we have to choose the best from the worst! It doesn't mean that it's the best option unconditionally.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 14, 2014 at 7:30 PM

      TINA factor, Pankti... Well, a group of my young students of class XI said the same thing yesterday while discussing politics after dinner. I told them that I would accept Modi only if he acknowledges his error and promises to look after the welfare of all communities in this country which has too much variety for a man like Modi to understand and appreciate. Majoritarianism is something that I won't ever accept.

      Delete

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