The writer is an independent journalist based in New Delhi and writes for several Indian newspapers
https://twitter.com/gkhamba/status/457485784384163840
The travel site’s tongue-in-cheek retort soon crashed Twitter:
@gkhamba Already overbooked! Business has been good today :-D Though we may start some charters given the sudden rise in demand.
— MakeMyTrip (@makemytrip) April 19, 2014
With only three weeks to go for news on who the next prime minister of India will be, the general election is getting polarised along predictable lines. Giriraj Singh, fighting his election from Nawada in Bihar, and Pravin Togadia, president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, have, in the last couple of days, equated the secular state with the appeasement of Muslims and therefore of Pakistan.
As the stink from these extreme right-wing elements hits the fan, Narendra Modi himself — or at least his team — was forced to tweet his disapproval of the statements, appealing to people to refrain from making them.
Is that good enough, though? Can we take Pravin Togadia seriously, knowing that he is himself a Modi-baiter and probably wanted to provoke him into saying something that would reassure the hard-line, Hindu right-wing sentiment in the country? Or can we be certain that the tiger, smelling power, cannot change his pinstripes? Should Modi have expelled Giriraj Singh from the party, or at least cancelled his ticket — even though elections in Bihar have already taken place?
It is obvious that Modi has been trying to shed the image of administrative incompetence or deliberate instigator of riots that has followed him since the Gujarat carnage of 2002 in which about 1,000 Muslims were killed. He has focused his election campaign on the planks of good governance and development, pointing out in every poster, radio jingle, newspaper advertisement or television exhortation that the ‘abki baar, Modi sarkar’ hope is underpinned by his determination to end corruption, control price rise and reduce unemployment.
However, if he expels Giriraj Singh and openly criticises Togadia, he is at risk of alienating his extreme right-wing Hindu vote. If he doesn’t, he is at risk of confirming the worst that his secular and liberal critics believe of him.
At best, this is the Gujarat model of development: a few bureaucrats run Modi’s office in Ahmedabad, doling out contracts to big businesses and small. More or less, his cabinet is sidelined in the decisions he makes. Similarly in Delhi, Modi has wielded the whip so effectively that senior leaders like LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi have fallen in line. Only Jaswant Singh had the courage to leave the party.
The solution to Modi’s dilemma is easy: follow the rule of law. Punish or reward people according to whether they have respected or flouted the law. In a country as diverse as India, where the dialect changes every few kilometres, invoking Hindu-Muslim tension is equivalent to plucking low-hanging fruit. There are tribal people and castes and creeds and religions of every colour and size. The question is, if Modi becomes prime minister, can he take all kinds of people along with him?
Modi’s friend and confidante from Gujarat, who is now in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Amit Shah, allegedly polarised the communities by allegedly instigating the Muzaffarnagar riots last year. The majority Hindu community consolidated its vote and voted BJP, while the Muslims and other communities voted for the candidate with the best chance of defeating Modi.
But if the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate really wants the job, he has to only answer one simple question: is the BJP and the RSS bigger than India?
If the answer is no, he has to grit his teeth and throw the law book at people like Giriraj Singh and Pravin Togadia and Amit Shah. Alongside, he could inform them that he has sent a delegation to Pakistan to reassure its people that he wants to get to know them better.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2014.
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COMMENTS (15)
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@naredramodifacts What abt congres or any other so called secular parties. Digvijay singh try to indicate that mumbai attack was planned to kill karkare and MMS government put the blame on Pakistan, what is true face of Congress? Manmohan talkes about liberalization/Privatinzation and Sonia talks about welfare state, which one is true?
There may be some differences between Togadia and Modi, but on the fundamentals they agree. This was acknowledged by Togadia himself who tweeted: "We are ONE & the same... let him [Modi] add secular votes." One could expand a bit: "sure we have to appeal to different audiences - I have to appeal to the Hindu hardliners while Modi has to put on a more moderate face. But this is the way the Sangh Parivar work - we have many faces for different audiences. We are still one family."
Tribune! you guys deliberately edited my comment to make it look bad. I did NOT say : "We appreciate all the alternative thinking and the liberal thought but please keep these hurtful Indians out of Pakistan. (half the time we can’t even tell if they are nicely trying to mislead us or not but they are not people)"
I did not say "they are NOT people". I said I can't tell sometimes if they are trying to be mislead us or not but they are not NICE people. Ofcourse Indians are people. We like the Indians very much even if they don't like us. Just please spare us Pakistanis your movies and your politics and your culture, kindly. We are different.
Thanks.
Why should we care about who India elects ? Please try to produce someone like Gandhi who can respect Muslims enough to live with their independence (as in the case with Pakistan). And please leave us alone. Your people are rude and unkind to us overseas no matter how nice we are to you Indians.
There are some nice Indians but they are very few and far between (like Gandhi and his clan). So we love you guys but please please please leave us alone so we can focus on becoming LESS Indian and more westernized and modernized. If the tribune and their agents don't stop this Indian propaganda then we will be very unhappy to see these Indian agents driven out. We appreciate all the alternative thinking and the liberal thought but please keep these hurtful Indians out of Pakistan. (half the time we can't even tell if they are nicely trying to mislead us or not but they are not people).
@Sajida:
Can you quote any reliable data sources supporting this statement?!
For all of those people raising issue on polarisation during the elections in India needs to understand the following on how Congress and BJP works and the reason for Polarisation: 1) India has close to 22% minority population 2) Has close to 18% Dalit population 3) India has a multi-party system unlike countries like the US. Usually the party that wins gets around 35% of the voters. 4) usually the minorities and Dalits vote enmasse and their voting %age is generally higher than the other population. While they make up 40% of the population but has an impact bigger than their size.
So the Congress will continue to project that they are the saviours of minorities and Dalit. Building a fear psychosis that if BJP comes to power they are doomed is a well crafted strategy. In addition they try to get the caste equation right like say Reddys in Andhra Pradesh by getting the right candidates. So Congress will work on minority, Dalit and caste equation right to win an election. BJP on the other hand needs to put fear on Hindus that if you keep quiet and do not go and vote you and your identity is in trouble. They try to push Hindus to vote across caste lines. They need to get Dalits to vote like other hindus. Finally they also cannot afford to ignore minorities and to differentiate themselves from Congress they talk about equal opportunity mantra instead of special privileges mantra for minorities. This is the dance of the Indian democracy whether you like it or hate it.
This is the only thing you can do...!
@BlackJack: Good observation. In any case for 5 whole years (until 2007) he made every effort to provide clarifications, information to whatever wild accusations were made. However once he realized that facts would be ignored and accusations made anyway, he changed his course and started ignoring a large section of English language media.
@Parag: You may be Hindu right, but you are wrong. I am Hindu Left, and like Author I am Right!. BJP has never got more than 28% votes in India , despite India having 85% hindus. So obviously The Hindu Left is about 57% and twice that of the extremist Right like the likes of you, Togadia and giriraj. Hindu Left is appalled that BJP is riding high. However the New Gen next is neither Hindu Left, Nor Hindu Right. Its an impatient lot, that will throw out anyone who cannot keep up the promises made with respect to growth and Jobs. Modi will find that out soon. Amit Shah can create communal tensions, but he cant provide the youth jobs.
@Sajida:
"Expect to see more communal riots to distract from the real issues."
But, considering Gujarat has been more peaceful any City in Pakistan of whatever size in Pakistan in the past decade, I don't know how you can predict that.
I think its more of a emotional outburst to see a man who has been accused of masterminding a riot where more Muslims died than Hindus.
Because remember, you celebrate people who called Direct Action day against Hindus as founders. Because Hindus were the target you defend it using different reasons.
Fact is Modi never called for any riot. Godhra was incident was not instigated by BJP. But, Direct Action was called by Jinnah.
Who is more guilty here? Why the double standards?
Is that good enough, though? Madam, nothing will ever be good enough - which is a simple truth that you should admit in a disclaimer. Even if Modi did all that you suggest and more, you will search for the next reason to crucify him for the next controversy that comes up, even if he has no connection with it. So Modi does the next best thing, which is ignore you all, and it galls you to no extent that he is at the doorstep of power despite not playing by your rules.
Modi’s friend and confidante from Gujarat, who is now in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Amit Shah, allegedly polarised the communities by allegedly instigating the Muzaffarnagar riots last year.
This is how leftists twist and turn matters. Rather than mention the root cause that SP under Akhilesh Yadav failed to take any action and subsequently arrested leaders of only one community, you want to pin the entire polarization on Amit Shah who was a bystander when the original events took place.
Problem is that India has a culture of communal riots for political gain in which Muslims are usually the victims. This masks the politicians failure to actually improve lives of all Indians. Indians do not seem intelligent enough to make out they are being deceived for only the politicians' gain.
Meanwhile Modi's claims are hollow. Expect to see more communal riots to distract from the real issues.
Incomplete facts deliberately provided to lead readers to a misleading conclusion: 1. BJP party President Rajnath criticised Giriraj's irresponsible statement 2. EC intervened and has ruled that Giriraj cannot address any more poll rallies in Bihar or Jharkhand.
Parties have millions of members. The actions of a member cannot be considered paty policy when party President himself says so.
The notion that no one can criticize Modi is laughable. For 12 years he has faced relentless scrutiny and criticism from bulk of English language media who chose to ignore facts available in public domain such as: a. A lot of the FIRs were fake as a sting on Teesta Setalvad proved. b. While many have been convicted for involvement in the riots, Modi has been acquitted by Supreme court c. Gujarat which was historical a riot prone state has been riot free under Modi for 12 years d. While Modi did nothing to start the riots, he did everything to stop them including ask for reinforcements from neighboring Congress CMs who refused due to political rivalry and calling the army - which happened on day 3 after which the riots stopped
This article demonstrates the author's lack of understanding of the Hindu right - of which I admit to being a part of.
The Hindu right is for Modi. He does not need to reassure us. However, the reason for Togadia and Giriraj Singh making these statements is identical, both are angry with Modi.
Togadia is angry because he has been completely sidelined in Gujarat. Their was a personality clash, and an RSS member and veteran like Narendra Modi does not need lessons in Hindutva from Togadia. The ultimate clash came when some Hindu temples had to be demolished in Gujarat to make way for roads. The VHP was opposing it, and if one wants ultimate proof that Modi puts development above all else, the Gujarat example is it, where the. Temples were demolished and roads were built.
The Giriraj Singh story is a sad - he was Modi's earliest supporters in Bihar. But he has been upset that upper castes have not been given as many tickets as they wanted, and there were some issues regarding his constituency. Giriraj Singh must understand that electoral politics have their own compulsions, and more importantly caste ism needs to be eliminated to bring about Hindu consolidation. This lesson will be learnt over time.