Are death anniversaries celebrated? “Celebrated” is an
unfortunate choice of word to use in the same breath as “death.” And no,
that word choice is not mine. It is the media’s. Somebody’s death
anniversary is not celebrated unless that person is someone like Stalin.
Speaking of which, Jawaharlal Nehru was the only head of a democratic
state in the world who mourned the death of “Marshall” Stalin. Death
anniversaries of the truly great and noble people rightfully deserve the
label Memorial Day. Does anybody “celebrate” Jallianwallah Bagh? If the
answer is yes, then he/she is celebrating General Dyer’s unmitigated
cruelty.
Yet, for that filthy conglomerate of human scavengers who
make up the Gujarat Riots Cottage Industry, the 700-odd dead Muslims
presented them a lifetime opportunity to feed off their deaths. What
else explains such shameless, and almost sadistically gloating headlines
as this sample Google search shows?
Let’s call it by its name: not one black heart in that
sullied secular-liberal galaxy genuinely bleeds for those who were
murdered: in Sabarmati Express or in the riots that followed as a
consequence. They simply want to continue their cushy lives built over
the foundation of these dead bodies by keeping the issue alive and by
relentlessly attacking Narendra Modi. Actually, if there’s anybody who
really cares about getting justice to the victims, it is the man who is
unfairly accused of unleashing the riots: Narendra Modi. You call that a
stretch? Answer these questions honestly:
- Which political party was in power for the longest time
(both in state and centre) in the long history of communal riots in
India?
- Under which political party’s rule has the maximum number of riots occurred across various Indian states?
- What was the average response time in each case to quell the riots?
- How many of these riot-tainted politicians have even
faced an inquiry of the kind Narendra Modi has been facing for the last
10 years? Jagadish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar don’t really count. Hell, the
whole “getting justice for 1984 riots victims” is yet another cruel
joke played by the Congress party.
There’s not a single instance in these 10 years
where Modi has refused to comply with the law or tried to influence or
scuttle inquiry proceedings in any manner. And inquiry after inquiry has
yielded the exact opposite result of what these Riot Scavengers
continue to allege.
Even a very cursory look at Modi’s timeline from 2002 to the present explains it all:
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In
other words, the discourse around Narendra Modi has done an almost
360-degree turn within a decade. Today the same people in the selfsame
media that had casually painted him in the ugliest of hues is finding it
increasingly difficult to use words like mass-murderer, fascist, and
the rest. In the past, a media hitjob on Modi was as easy as breathing
for these Scavengers of Human Misery. But now, a hitjob—like the one the
motivated moron at Caravan did recently—has to be carefully couched by
taking recourse to secondary sources, and hearsay, and quoting
allegations against Modi by X person who heard a similar allegation by Y
person who thought Modi was a bad man. Despite this, there’s not one
solid, provable fact that Modi was behind the post-Godhra riots.
If the court judgments exonerating him is one strong reason
for this drastic shift in affairs, there are also other important
reasons. Several influential business houses, retired bureaucrats and
other people with social standing and influence have shown a favourable
tilt towards Narendra Modi in light of new facts emerging over the years
about the post-Godhra riots. It was a little late in the coming but it
has occurred. Another prominent reason is Narendra Modi’s tremendous
success in making Gujarat an economic superpower state in India. A state
that was first torn by the Bhuj earthquake in 2001 almost immediately
followed by large-scale violence had to recuperate its finances quickly.
That under Modi’s Chief Ministership, it not only recuperated but made
astonishing gains in a short span speaks volumes about his leadership.
Modi’s economic success is not on paper: it has been demonstrated, and
demonstrated repeatedly. Apparently, Congress-ruled states run their
economies on the strength of secularism on paper and in speeches and
hoardings. It is a truism that an accomplished politician is one who
improves (and increases) the wealth of his subjects by wise and
farsighted policies. It’s not surprising that Kautilya said that wealth
was the root of dharma (Dharmasya moolam arthah). The Congress party’s
numerous “poverty-alleviation” schemes are simply evil designs to create
more and more vote banks not to mention that they’re primarily
blueprints for large scale corruption. In contrast, Modi created his
“vote bank” by fattening the wallets of Gujaratis more and more through
well-thought policies. As an exercise, compare the issues and promises
on which UP elections and Gujarat elections are fought. You don’t need
an advertisement or scholarly paper to show that creating the Golden
Quadrilateral boosted the economy in myriad ways.
That 2002-2012 is truly Gujarat’s Decade of Peace and
Prosperity is hardly an exaggeration. For a state that is supposed to be
a Fascist Hindutva Laboratory intent on exterminating Muslims, there
hasn’t been a single communal riot or organized violence since the
post-Godhra riots. That Modi has managed to accomplish all this in the
face of extreme, and relentless hostility is truly a marvel. In the
excellent Atanu Dey’s words,
Modi is [a] study of how to meet adversity and overcome them
with grace, intelligence and single-minded dedication to the goal of
advancing the national interest. He epitomizes the strength that a
warrior gains from the attacks by his opponents. The greater his
achievements, the larger the threat he poses for those who want India
and Indians to be backward and poor, and the more intense their vicious
attacks on him.
If you look at the vast world of Modi-bashers, you’ll find
that all roads finally lead to 10 Janpath. It is not so much Modi-hate
as much as it is Modi-fear among his political and other opponents. The
Congress party’s Dynastic leadership thrives because—as I explained in
my political ecosystem piece—it wants slavish people under it both
within the party and even among its political opponents. The BJP is no
exception to this. It willingly plays the game by the rules set by the
Congress party and routinely falls into traps set for it by the Congress
party. Narendra Modi is perhaps the lone exception to this. He takes
the Congress party’s threats headon but refuses to bite their bait. He
doesn’t talk to the media in English, a fact that only annoys them all
the more. He refuses to give them interviews not because he wants only
good things to be written about him but because he knows the exact
nature of the English media.
The most important reason why he has earned a groundswell of
support from tens of thousands of people who want to see him as India’s
next Prime Minister is because you cannot say “corruption” and “Narendra
Modi” in the same breath. He has demonstrated that it’s possible to
achieve prosperity without corruption and by using the same
administrative machinery the rest of the country uses. Small wonder that
tons of ordinary Indians have created fan pages and similar initiatives
on various social media networks devoted to Narendra Modi. Small wonder
that he attracts huge crowds wherever he goes. These aren’t people who
come to attend because they’re promised biryani meals + 500 rupees. The
underlying sentiment behind all this can be described in exactly one
word: hope. If you want to call it blind belief in and hero-worship of
the man, so be it because the alternative—UPA 3.0—is truly frightening.
This blind belief applies in equal measure to the legions of
Modi-haters who seem to be glued to a fraudulent stuck record. No matter
what proof, no matter what amount of proof, the Devotees of Secular
Fundamentalism and Scavengers of Human Misery prefer to side by the
likes of the Banerjee Report prepared at the behest of a known thug and
conman like Lalu Prasad Yadav. It doesn’t matter to them if you point
out the fact that the 2002 riot cases are the only ones where speedy and
fair trials have been conducted and convictions have taken place. These
blind Secular Fundamentalists number few and their noise-making
quotient has reduced over the decade but they still remain in
circulation. And will continue to remain until a final judgment is
pronounced by the court on the riots. Which is exactly what they don’t
want. The day the Gujarat riots case sees a closure is the day a
permanent source of dead meat for these Human Misery-Scavengers will dry
up. It is the day Communalism Combat, Tehelka and similar outfits of
gutter journalism will scamper for newer miseries to exploit—and wind up
in the process. Hell, you know Modi is doing something right when
Genocide Suzie has stopped talking about him.
And there lies a lesson, and a truth reinforced: never trust
the Indian English media. Because if you do, all you would still see is
10 years of relentless Human Misery Scavenging with a grudging and
obfuscated mention of Narendra Modi’s achievements.
Postscript: The Gujarat Riots of 2002 marked a definitive
turning point for this blog. It was truly the episode that made me
realize a simple truth: that a coin has two sides. It made me look at
this other side and examine every word that the English media used—words
whose meanings were twisted beyond shape and their usage was taken for
granted as the Truth. It was a really remarkable and shattering
discovery, one that continues. The next few posts will be dedicated to
the memory of the unfortunate people who died in the riots. And most of
all to do shraaddha to the souls of all those unfortunate kar sevaks
whose only fault was to believe in Lord Rama. And about whose justice
nobody ever talks.
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