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| 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.
Sir! If not Modi then who?
ReplyDeleteShaleen, I don't know the answer. But I can give a hint
Deletehttp://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/eminent-gandhians-extend-conditional-support-to-aap/article5672084.ece
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.
ReplyDeleteAs 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/
Sid, your link leads to a review of Kejriwal's book, which I had reviewed myself. Read my review, 'A Utopian Dream', at
Deletehttp://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.
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks, KM, for your mature response to the blog.
DeleteThe 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteWe 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.. :)
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.
DeleteThe 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.
ReplyDeleteRoute 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.
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...
DeleteVery 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!
ReplyDeleteWe have, in fact, created a kind of Animal Farm, Anupam. The basic ideologies have been forgotten and alliances of convenience are being forged.
DeleteAmbition is for politicians and traders. It is not for persons of Constructive Creative Vocations.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, Remi.
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteTINA 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