Modi is taking up from where Bhagat Singh and Subash Chandra Bose left....in between were the dark years. HH MANDATE FOR CHANGE Narendra Modi is unstoppable in his mission to transform India. By N.V. Subramanian (19 May 2014) 19 May 2014: Narendra Modi’s decisive victory has stung his “secular” and “liberal” detractors anew. Not content to abuse and insult him, they make statements and advance arguments that are dangerous. They say the Bharatiya Janata Party has no Muslims among its newly-elected Lok Sabha members as if this is by design and as though only Muslims can represent Muslim interests. Muslims themselves don’t feel this way and have, thankfully, rejected this poison. The other plea is that only a third of India voted for Modi. So? India has a first-past-the-post system. Every election since independence has been held on that basis. Modi didn’t invent it. More parties means more vote-splitting. Let us take the reasoning one step further. If this were a truly presidential election, Narendra Modi would have won handsomely. Who do you think would have stood a chance against Modi? Rahul Gandhi? But this sort of perverse opposition, which insults the intelligence and wisdom of the voter, benefits only one person, which is Modi. Who could imagine that a chief minister from a smaller state like Gujarat, who had been demonized for 12 years, had a battery of Central agencies hounding him, who had no dynastic connection, and who was, worst of all, poor in childhood and youth, a mere tea seller, would come so far? It is to the credit of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha that it first detected the fire in him, the latent talent, and channelled his unrequited nationalism. The best chief ministers in this country are from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and a majority of them have a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha background. There is something in Sangha training -- logically, there has to be something -- which produces this continuous crop of meritorious chief ministers. And for all the bewailing at the downfall of Nitish Kumar, the truth is out. The Bharatiya Janata Party component of his previous alliance government gave the brilliance and sheen to it. Once the arrangement collapsed due to the sheer opportunism of Nitish Kumar, his image sank. He was a third-rate mediocrity propped up by a first-rate partner. Now he stands thoroughly exposed. Two things really made Modi. One was the implacable opposition of the Nehru-Gandhis, the Indian National Congress and the discredited secular-liberal establishment they had together spawned, nurtured and funded in a variety of ways both within the country and overseas, including via the government. The top hierarchy of the mainstream media (with honourable exceptions) was the recipient of such largesse. It is beneath this writer to name and shame them, but it shows to their thick skins that the culprits can bear seeing themselves in the mirror every morning. One columnist and liberal establishmentarian and a 10 Janpath loyalist, whose sole claim to fame is that his ancestor is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, penned an open letter to Narendra Modi today dripping with venom and patronizing nonsense. Would he dare write in similar tones about a particularly repulsive incident in his own family revealed through an old auctioned letter last week? Why are the so-called secular-liberal Gandhi-Jawaharlal Nehru historians silent about this grave crime against a girl child? But Narendra Modi is a convenient punching bag. Except that the more you hit him, the greater is his capacity to fight back, and he has shown the merest glimpse of his considerable political capabilities in the general election. That is, however, only one side of Narendra Modi. In the next few days, India will gain a prime minister who knows more about this country than anyone of his political generation. This knowledge comes from two sources. As a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha volunteer, Modi travelled the length and breadth of India. Being a perceptive observer, a quick learner, and a natural manager and problem-solver, he gained remarkable understanding of the country in nearly half a century of wandering and activism. His second asset is his background of grinding poverty and birth in a backward community. Poverty is a grim and unrelenting instructor. It has no romance. The poor hate poverty and struggle to overcome it. Coming down in life is as bad or perhaps worse. Check back to those chapters where George Eliot’s great heroine Maggie Tulliver and her brother realize the closure of the golden gate. It breaks your heart. Narendra Modi understands poverty and its associated indignities perfectly. He has lived that life. He was once very poor. It is only the old rich and the affluent dynasts that give lectures on socialism and think the subject of money is vulgar. Their liberalism is a ploy to maintain the status quo. Martin Scorsese portrays this beautifully when Howard Hughes has a run-in with Katherine Hepburn’s family in their wealthy, Connecticut manor house: Ludlow: Then how did you make all that money? Mrs Hepburn: We don’t care about money here, Mr Hughes. Howard: That’s because you have it. Mrs Hepburn: Would you repeat that? Howard: You don’t care about money because you have it. And you’ve always had it. My father was dirt poor when I was born... I care about money, because I know what it takes out of a man to make it.... This is the principal difference between Narendra Modi and the rest. Being poor, he didn’t loot the treasury when he had his chance. In this writer’s book, that is greatness. That is his ultimate connection with the people of this country. The poor and the aspirational see him as one of themselves, and he gives the hope to them to make good in life too. In his first term, Modi will work himself to the bone to contain inflation and plunge essential prices; spur growth, entrepreneurship (the key to self-empowerment of a nation) and jobs; build infrastructure and create the basis of new cities; and pay the closest attention to education and healthcare. He will be a hands-on prime minister. As a man of destiny, he will not differentiate between castes and communities. He keeps his word, which cannot be said for most Indian politicians. He has a ten-year plan to transform India, and he has the will to succeed. His intentions are clear and transparent. Narendra Modi wishes well for every Indian. The next prime minister also understands that his detractors will obstruct him. The Congress party has advertised its designs to engineer riots to discredit the next Modi government. Congress henchmen have been openly communicating this to journalists. There will also be an attempt to repeat the successfully provoked stock-market crash of March 2001. It is entirely possible that Narendra Modi is aware of these threats. But the more efforts are made to impede his transformation of the country, the worse will be the backlash on his opponents. This is a mandate that will not brook subversion. take care
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 05:38:58 +0000
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