Modi the great ?

I have been hearing a whole lot of crap about Narinder Modi these days. The whole story about how Gujarat has endorsed development. Modi’s modal of development etc.  A whole bunch of industry leaders proclaiming Modi would be an ideal Prime Ministerial candidate. Well you can not blame them for kissing ass, as they need to get their work done.

I was sitting in a seminar organized by a MBA entrance coaching institute in Trivandrum. I was listening and all of a sudden I hear about Modi. How the custodian of Hindutwa demolished many temples for the development of the state. That was the last straw! When such statements come from people in authority definitely it will have an impact on the innocent minds sitting and hearing it.

Let’s get things straight. In Gujarat the BJP is ruling with a huge majority. So it’s much easier to get things done. Hence they don’t have to worry about staying in power. Next comes the temple demolitions. When any thing related to the Hindu religion comes up, like the demolition of temples, the main organizations that take up the cause are the VHP, RSS and the Bajarang Dal (BJP too ). Now we all know what relation do these organizations share with the BJP. The whole temple demolition was pure politics.

The BJP wanted to be seen as a pro development party before the general elections. They also wanted to send a message that they are willing to do what ever it takes for the sake of development. So they came up with an agreement with these organizations that a certain number of temples will be demolished, after that these organizations can start raising their voice, get a little melodramatic, and then a few more temples will be demolished, then a few meetings will take place and in the end the demolition drive will be stopped. It’s a win-win situation. The BJP will be seen as a pro development party and the other organizations can take pride in that fact that they intervened in the matter.

Had it been any other party, I guarantee you that even before the first temple was demolished, these organizations would have created mayhem there. So let’s not give undue credit to people. I am by no means saying that BJP is the only party which does similar stuff. The same is true with the left in Kerala. When they are in power, the number of strikes is less and when they are not, strikes will be called for no apparent reason. For gods sake we had a strike when Sadman was hanged.

The problem with us is that we have a short term memory. Narinder Modi was responsible for the carnage in Gujarat. I do not care about the various state sponsored reports that give a clean chit to him. As the Chief Minister of the state he has to be held accountable for what had happened. Just because a few years have passed, it doesn’t mean that every thing is forgiven.

I do agree that a lot of work is being done in Gujrath. Let’s not blow things out of proportion. The reason why work cant be done in other parts of India is because of the opposition of various political parties. They oppose just because they are not the one who is implement it. Just take the example of the Ram Sethu project. The projected was initiated by the BJP and when they present government went forward with they, they had to face all kind of opposition.

The real problem is, various right wing and left wing organizations oppose everything that is not done by them and when they oppose they don’t hesitate in using any means that they can. So lets all have a reality check and think before jumping to conclusions. 

Irresponsible politics

Recently Sushma Swaraj of the BJP said that the terrorist attacks that happened were part of a conspiracy of the congress to shift the attention of the people from the "cash for vote" scandal. That was an absolutely irresponsible and uncalled for statement from a relatively senior politician. That was a kind of statement that could create communal violence.

Well I am not going to question the validity of her accusation. It may or may not be right, but come on, give me a break. I don’t think any political party in India would put the citizens of the country at harms way for such an insignificant matter. With only a few months left for the parliament to conclude the chances of that scam to be solved/settled were very less. The reason why I felt that the comment was so outrageous was that, the logic behind that was so stupid and ridiculous. If she had said that the congress is behind the attacks because it wants to undermine the BJP lead state governments so that it can win the upcoming elections, it would have looked a bit more viable.

I am pretty sure that she didn’t mean to start any communal riots with the statement of hers. It was just plane old dirty politics to get more votes. People from the BJP have been making similar volatile comments in the past and party had faced a lot of criticism and embarrassment. I remember either Venkayya Naidu or Arun Jaitley saying in a press conference that the population of Muslims have increased a lot and the Hindu population has not increased correspondingly and hence Hindus should try to increase there population so that normalcy can be maintained. Similar outrageous statements were made by L K Advani on the Babri Masjid, and how can one forget Narendra Modi. The one positive that I found among these people were, even though they had done crimes for which they can never be forgiven, they have learned from their mistakes and have refrained from making statements that could lead to riots.(not included Sushma Swaraj). Even if Muslims still face a hard time in Gujrat, Modi is doing all that he can to clear his name and ensure that he is taking a comparatively more secular stand.

The antics of the BJP is nothing compared that to what Raj Thackery and the Shiva Sena do in Maharashtra. They have this obsession with the word "Mumbai" and everything Marata. They take up insignificant issues such as valentines day or westernization of the state and act as its moral police. Right now Raj Thackery is over shadowing the Shiva Sena in terms of violence caused. His aim is simple, to get more and more marata votes and for that he will use any means necessary, including violating the basic human rights and the Indian constitution. To a certain extend I can understand his point about Mumbai getting overcrowded with non Maratis, but Mumbai is what it is now because of such a culture. Not quite sure why he doesn’t have much of a problem with outsiders occupying other parts of Maharastra. Him being adamant over the word "Mumbai", ordering all films not to use the word "Bombay" and asking Bombay dieing to change its name to Mumbai dieing is quite outrageous and unconstitutional. The kind of hate he is spreading misguides his supporters. Even though i agree that the "marata" cause is important, to cause violence in that name is not acceptable. Raj Thackery is trying to eat into the Shiva Sena vote bank and for that he is creating all this havoc.

Getting voters on its side is what all political parties should do, but to adopt any means to do so is not right. Just like business ethics is given a lot of importance these days, lot of emphasis should be given to political ethics. I believe that the Indian voter get more mature and reject all unethical, immoral ways political parties use to come into power. Its quite sad that in the land of the Mahatma people find that only violence is the answer to any problem.