Why I support Narendra Modi I have long believed that the biggest problem India faces is that its people don’t have a strong sense of pride. There is so much division among people on the lines of class, caste and religion that we neither have an affinity towards our fellow citizens nor for our towns, cities and States, for that matter, not even for our elevators and stairwells where people litter, spit and even pee, with total disregard. Poverty doesn’t disturb us. Oppression doesn’t bother us. General lawlessness doesn’t alarm us. It doesn’t enrage us that we have been an independent country for more than 60 years and still we are a third world country. There are more deaths due to starvation in India than in the sub-Saharan region. You can be killed in your own country just because you’re from another part of your own country. We feel privileged if we get electricity every day and water twice a day for two hours. We don’t even like to smile at each other on the road. Whereas nationalism lacks glaringly, we are full of jingoism. We talk big but act small. We are crazy about a stupid game like cricket. We like to imitate rather than innovate or create. What’s the problem? Why do we have outsourcing companies but no big software development companies (just to give a small example). Why do most Indians excel abroad but not here in India? Why don’t heads roll when an entire cryogenic project is sabotaged and the career of a brilliant scientist is ruined? Why do we eagerly kill or die for a temple, a mosque, a church or a gurudwara but not for a hospital, a school or a playground? Legend has it that once in a town when there was a power cut during the telecast of the Ramayana serial the people of the town burned down the electricity board office. The same people never even raised a whimper when there were routine power cuts during the board exams and all the students had to study in darkness. Everything boils down to we’re not proud of ourselves. This is the void that Modi seems to fill. He exhorts people to work hard, excel in their respective fields and work for the collective betterment of the country. He doesn’t want to create ladders of communalism and casteism to rise. For once there is a political leader who wants people to work for excellence rather than depend on Government subsidies and doles. Finally, the country has a political leader who has the guts to show the middle finger to the world. I don’t know how much he really means to do, but when I begin to compare, he is the only leader who says things that I really want to hear. I don’t want to hear the same old secularism versus communalism diatribe not because I don’t want our country to be secular but because yes, without these diatribes our country is already secular (in fact it has remained the most secular country or region throughout millennia), and second, by continuously pandering to minority vote our political parties have developed a mindset that you only need to offer empty promises and raise doomsday scenarios in order to come to power. Development doesn’t work. Progress doesn’t excite its caste and religion. Minorities are under threat. Dalits are being marginalised and exploited. I’m not saying minorities shouldn’t be protected and the rights of the Dalits shouldn’t be protected. But the justice system should work for everybody not just for minorities and Dalits. If our justice system works, if our political system works, if our bureaucracy works, we don’t need affirmative action. We don’t need special status for minorities if development is inclusive and people are punished in a timely manner in case of communal bias. You cannot constantly blame the majority Hindu community for historical wrongs its forefathers may or may not have committed on certain sections. Historical wrongs were committed against the Hindus themselves, so then why the Muslims aren’t made to feel guilty about them (there, I just became an Islamophobe)? I’m not saying they should be, I’m just saying if the blame game needs to be perpetuated, why not create an equal playing field for every religion and every community? This is the mentality that Modi opposes, and so do his supporters. These people get angry when they are made to feel apologetic about their majority status, about their festivals, about their rituals, about their gods and goddesses, about their patriotism and nationalism and about their ‘the nation first’ approach. They’re fed up of the pervasive mediocrity in almost every field in the name of inclusion and tolerance. They want excellence. They want to compete with the world and when they talk about competition, they don’t mean competition with Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh or even Taiwan. They mean competition with the USA, with the European Union, with Japan and with China. They want to turn India into a global brand. Just as people respect ‘Made in Japan’ and ‘Made in Germany’, people should respect ‘Made in India’. No longer, we want to depend on our proverbial ‘jugaad’. There is also an underdog feeling. Another thing that makes me support him is the witch-hunt he has been subjected to for such a long time. The highest number of riots has happened under the Congress rule and its various offshoots. The Gujarat 2002 riots (well, how can something on Modi be complete without a reference to this particular period!) were contained within 2-3 days. There is documented evidence that Modi sought help from both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh that were both Congress-ruled States at that time, and both the States refused. There is documented evidence that many from within the BJP itself have been targeting Modi and the Gujarat riots were a part of the scheme. There is documented evidence that even the Congress Ministers were involved in the riots—the mob that set Ehsan Jafri ablaze also had member from the Congress party. Modi has been maligned so much, the onslaught has been going on for such a long time, unmitigated, that many have begun to feel, what the heck is going on! No politician, no matter how vile or incompetent he or she has been, has been targeted so much, both nationally and internationally. It can’t be just ‘divisiveness’ because in the name of religion everything goes in our country. What is it? Communal riots are unacceptable, but they have been happening in India since time immemorial and there have been very few, very few instances of them being contained within a few hours. Recently, Yagoendra Yadav of the Aam Aadmi Party said that the Muslims will need another country if Modi comes to power. How can he get away with such inflammatory utterances and not Modi? Manmohan Singh said that the Muslims have the first right to national resources. Sonia Gandhi cried for two terror suspects. The recent Muzaffarnagar riots aid was provided selectively to the Muslim community, if at all it was provided. Salman Khurshid, in his book, wrote that both the Sikhs and the Hindus deserved the blood bath that took place in the 80s. In a metro city like Delhi, Kejrichandra says corruption is India’s biggest problem but in front of the Muslims, he says the biggest problem the country faces is communalism. For Rahul Gandhi, the biggest threat to India is the Hindu organisations and not the Islamic terrorists or Naxalites and Maoists. Shinde says that the RSS runs terror camps. Why aren’t these people communal and divisive, and why Modi is? How does Modi destroy the ‘idea of India’ but not people like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Karunanidhi or even the infamous Owaisi brothers? Why aren’t the Communists taken to task by our intellectuals for totally destroying a progressive State like West Bengal? Why aren’t the then Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra demonised for not sending help to Gujarat during the 2002 riots? I’m not even going into the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom carried out by the Congress party. Why aren’t there inquiries set up for this dereliction of duty, this galling incompetence? Why does Modi become the all-encompassing evil, all ‘secular’ forces need to come together against? There has to be a reason. The reason is that the beneficiaries of the status quo don’t want it to change. The nexus between politicians, religious leaders, industrialists, scholars, artists and journalists has been working for them for decades. They prefer this deep divide between the haves and have-nots. Mediocrity is the name of the game. You have muscle, money or contacts? Great! You have none. Good. The best bet for a mediocre person is to curtail people from achieving excellence and this excellence can be in any field. They don’t want people to get educated. They want people to toil for even basic needs such as food, shelter, electricity, security, education, travel and health. They want to keep diverse population of the country perpetually divided because when you unite them, they can put up a united fight and this can jolt the status quo. One more problem with the unity is that there will be a collective dialogue without any conflict and this will become dangerous for people thriving on divisive and communal philosophies. Through doctored education and propaganda, we have been divided into tiny nations and islands. When you have to constantly put massive effort into caring for just basic needs, when do you get time to become socially, culturally or politically aware? When there is nothing to compare, there is no accountability. India is poor, well, with such a huge population, poverty is inevitable. Remember that a bureaucrat said that the Indian benchmark for cleanliness is different from other countries (during the preparation of the Commonwealth Games) when dog shit was found on the bed sheets. With such a big administrative structure, corruption is bound to happen. For everything there is an excuse. The current arrangement has been good for many people. You get plum postings without ever working. You get elected simply by pandering to a particular community. Intellectuals promote each other and don’t allow alternative voices to come forward. Remember how Wendy Doniger was repeatedly being called ‘authoritative’ by the same usual suspects. In the name of news channels, we have reality shows. In the name of sports, we have the colonial hangover of cricket destroying other games in the process. Modi’s approach is that quality life is one’s right, not a privilege. He doesn’t want to give you ‘poori roti’ (a whole piece of bread), he wants to nourish you with healthy food. He wants you to work hard and become self-dependent rather than expecting the Government to dole out goodies because of your caste or religion. When he speaks, he talks facts. The best thing which I like about him is that he has totally changed the narrative of the political discourse whether people like it or not. To the so-called secularists’ dismay, they are the ones who are constantly found to be talking about different castes, identities and religions whereas he talks about Indians. He talks about inclusive growth. He doesn’t care whether you are a Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Dalit or OBC. He has a firm grip on how resources should be used for maximum benefit. Just look the way he has cleaned up river Narmada. Gujarat is quickly turning into the biggest producer of clean energy. Yes, there are kinks, and there are claims that Gujarat is a State that anyways does better compared to other States, and not being an expert I won’t be able to counter your argument. He talks about concepts our other clueless politicians and highly biased intellectuals can never even think of even if they are born twice. To a person who really feels for the country, Modi seems to be taking the country forward and the rest of the politicians seem to be taking the country backward. Will he deliver? Frankly, I don’t know, I cannot vouch for him. I’m not a BJP propagandist and I’m certainly not working for Narendra Modi. I support him because, as I have already written above, he says things I want to hear. He has facts on his fingertips. He talks about solutions rather than problems. He is unapologetic about his leanings. He’s not bothered about his international image. He couldn’t care less whether you term him secular or communal as long as he gets to do his job. His own party works against him. Despite such a prolonged hounding, he has risen and not disappeared into political oblivion. I mean look at that perpetually scheming Kejrichandra. He’s a total creation of the media as well as political machinations. Without these factors, he and his bunch of jokers are nothing. Look at Modi on the other hand. He has borne the most vicious media onslaught. His own party men and women are constantly scheming against him. The entire English speaking intellectual class loathes him. Not a single media channel has done a real documentary on what are the real conditions in Gujarat. Why? Because, they’ve got very little negative to show. Had the conditions been bad, do you really think an award-winning documentary wouldn’t have been commissioned and telecasted in loop, especially on NDTV? What about his divisiveness? Doesn’t he pose danger to the minorities, especially the Muslims? You tell me which party isn’t divisive in our country? Which political party truly works for the country and not for self-interest? The Congress party, the darling of the secularists, have milked the cows of communalism, casteism and poverty dry while letting the Muslims die and remain backward invariably. The DMK and the AIADMK are the epitomes of corruption. They say, Karunanidhi’s sons are as bad as Saddam Hussein’s sons or even worse. Communists have done what they are best at—destroyed multiple States. Laloo and Mulayam run their own fiefdoms and all Nitish Kumar wants to do is become the PM of the country even if he has to explode bombs for that. An average Modi supporter is not as fanatical as he or she is made out to be. If that were the case, the Togadias and Singhals would have been mainstream politicians rather than fringe elements. Considering all these, I don’t think Modi poses a threat to the Muslims. Besides, I believe that he has bigger goals and he knows that playing communal politics doesn’t pay in the long run. He is intelligent. Most of our politicians are corrupt and near-sighted. They cannot see beyond the next elections. Modi, on the other hand, is far-sighted. This, I’m sure, will keep the Muslims of the country safe, even if you think he is a hard-core Hindu nationalist.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 08:27:30 +0000
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