Hon'ble Narendar Modi Stands Vindicated

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Since 2002, the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendar Modi, has been battling charges ranging from criminal conspiracy, rioting, instigation to violence, abetment to murder and a host of imagined atrocities he is supposed to have committed. In the entire history of India no Chief Minister has had such a tough agni pariksha, a trial by fire. And the Hon'ble Chief Minister has come out unscathed. Witnesses were tutored, statements were fabricated, evidence manufactured, police officers dragooned into the campaign, but all these conspiracies fell by the wayside. The Special Investigation Team appointed by the Court has stated that there is not a shadow of doubt about the innocence of Hon'ble Narendar Modi. My question is quite simple: Sonia Gandhi called him a "merchant of death" (moth ka saugagar). Where was she when 15,000 Sikhs were massacred on the streets of New Delhi when her late husband Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Congress goons ( in fact every Congressman is indeed a goon) went from street to street armed with the electoral rolls and pulled out Sikh men and mercilessly killed them. I have another question: Why did the Congress shield all the criminals involved and even appointed the ring leaders to important cabinet positions. Why was the investigation so shoddy that not a single convictions has been secured in spite of major Commissions of Inquiry. I think the answer is also simple: Congress is a violent dynasty obsessed party and it protected its goons and I am somewhat surprised that Atal Behari Vajpeyee did not reopen this issue when they had the opportunity.

Hon'ble Narendar Modi has repeatedly won the elections in Gujarat and even the Muslim population of Gujarat seems to have reposed its trust in him. The Congress brand of identity politics has lost ground in Gujarat and therefore under the compulsions of electoral politics the party tries to keep hounding him and Modi always bounces back looking smarter than ever before. When the Courts have found no evidence to even summmon Hon'ble Narendar Mosi I am somewhat shocked to see that Congress courtiers always bring up the alleged complicity of Modi in the post Godhra riots. As for as the Congress MP who was killed in the Housing Society incident, it is well known that he had a terrible reputation and his own enemies in the so called Congress party may have used the riots to have his butchered and Congressmen are known to indulge in factional fighting.

Teesta Setavad has been convicted of perjury in the Best Bakery Case in which she was found guilt of influencing the testimony of the witness. With sucgh a record the Bar Council of India should have debarred her but she still soldiers on spewing venom against the Chief Minister from Evey Television channel. The Hob'ble Chief Minister has been proven innocent and it is absolutely criminal pon the part of anyone to claim that he is implicated in the post Goshra riots. I agree that the Hon'b;le Chief Minsister has unconventional methods of dealing with organised crime, but his methods of course are effective. Gujarat has emerged as the fastest growing state in India, and the infrastructure and power situation are the envy of the nation. The rapid strides made in the field of solar energy makes Gujarat a pioneer and you have just to take a look at the mess in Rajasthan to understand where Gujarat stands in this field. Law and Order are of course on track and there are no major incidents of atrocities on tribal and SCs in the state. The Congress brand of politics hinged on the manufacture of communal violence and the state had paid a heavy price for that. Since Modi came to power, the Congress brand of street fascism has been checked and we have no one but the Hon'ble Chief Minister to thank for that. In spite of all this, Modi carries the Cross of Godhra and it will take him some more effort to wipe the stains off. Already the judicial verdicts have given an immense boost to his national standing and I hope that the faction ridden BJP closes ranks around the Hon'ble Chief Minister.

One last point. Gujarat is perhaps the only state where the Chief Minister is not corrupt, his ministers and officers are afraid of corruption and there is a modicum of moral authority.

P Sainath and the Faremer Suicide Debate

I have always admired the writings of Shri P Sainath, a distinguished journalist and an internationally acclaimed critic of Indian social and economic policies. His book Everbody Loves a Good Drought is a scathing indictment of the policies initiated and implemented at the block level both by the State and Central Government. He is able to show that the elected representatives of the people make money out of the misery people face and the Governments are only colluding with the rich and the powerful. We have seen pictures of rotting grain in the godowns forcing the Supreme Court to order its distribution. Sainath is a very good speaker and he was in a local University the other day and I happened to listen his key note address to an International Seminar on Farmers's Suicides in India. Sainath was perhaps too politie to point out the irony in the very topic of the seminar.
Being a student of History, an MA from JNU, New Delhi, Sainath began by pointing out that in Western Maharashtra in the late nineteenth century, farmers were out protesing against the agrarian policies that were pursued by the then British Government. Now in the 21st century they are committing suicide in large numbers. Sainath is a master both of statistics and rhetoric and he deployed both with devastating effect. At a time when according to the Census figures, the farmring population is showing signs of decline, the number of suicides is increasing. Hearing Shri P Sainath remined me of the great Victorian public figure and chronicler, Digby who wrote a 2 volume book on the Great Famine of 1877-79. Trenchent criticism without any alowance for intellectual sloppiness.

Sainath blames the Government policies for the present crisis. He draws attention to the fact that Aurangabad which has the largest number of Mercedes Benz cars, located in the very heart of darkness as it were, people are able to get State Bank of India loans for 7% while farmers get koans fopr 12.5%, a rate that is unsustainable as far as farm income is concerned. He also drew attention to the fact that farm subsidies in the form of electricity, fertilizer and seed, hels only the rich farmer and the irony is that the farmers with around 10 acres of land end up killing themselves because the rural credit mechnism has broken down. Sainath mentioned the tragic incident of a farmer in Vidhrbaha who killed himself with pestticides bought on loan.

I was very happy that a critic of government policies was invited and I hope the students of the University learn something from such personalities. In India all too often educational institutions paly it safe and invite sarkari intellectuals who give bland and insipid analysis of the situation. Sainath, like William Digby is a socially motivated critic and he said very poignantly that mothers in Western Maharashtra want double rations for the mid day meal progrm because the child has staved for two days over the weekend. A very moving statement.

Liberal critics have termed the farmer suicide and the increasing numbers as state genocide. Though Sainath did not use this term, it can be said that the wrong policies forced down the rural economy has led to such a situation. Sainath says that as India is increasing its GDP together with the rising income the rate of farmer suicide is also increasing. Gujarat under Narendar Modi seems to have devised policies that are more successful as that state has not withessed the same rash of suicides. The reasons must be probed and lessons drawn.