Mr. Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat and the new shining knight of India's growth and progress strory
Mr. Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat could be a huge fan of Sandra Bullock. He may have seen Miss Congeniality a few times more than an average Gujarati to know the importance of “world peace”. Only difference- he did not undergo a hugely expensive makeover and a bikini wax to achieve the same. Instead, he has taken over a very humble air-conditioned 5 star hall and decided to call the entire Indian right wing jamboree to do a 3 day “fast” for peace and harmony- what a heartwarming site!
Mr. Modi has transformed Gujrat from a dairy farming, cotton weaving, gem cutting state to an industrial powerhouse of India. A state with just 5% of India’s population (65 million) it accounts for almost a seventh of all Indian exports. Gujarat is now home to India’s biggest automotive industry and some awesome infrastructure projects. Roads and nice and smooth, malls are big, air-traffic is growing and the famed “progress” is now a reality. All industries are making a beeline for getting their shops opened in Gujarat and he is being hailed as a champion of “progress” and “growth”. Even the US Congressional Report says that Mr. Modi is a strong contender for the PM’s job in 2014.
Right, now that the “progress” is achieved, he has rightly shifted his attention to less important matters, namely “peace” and “harmony”. Well surely if you were to choose between an11% growth rate, which would make you the poster boy of all wealthy and rich, and some vague and unreasonable concept like “peace” and “harmony”, I am sure you would choose the former over latter. So, “progress” and “growth” has to be taken up first and has been with all earnest, all other poetic concepts can marinate.
Gujarat Riots 2002: over 3000 muslims butchered by marauding Hindu right wing extremists who enjoyed full administrative support, making it one of the worst genocides of India
Gujarat has made excellent progress in its growth of sectarian intolerance under the able leadership of Mr. Modi. The horrors of 2002 genocide that left over 3000 dead and a million homeless was a small price to pay for a shiny 11% growth. So what that the state machinery connived while killers roamed the street with detailed reports of demographics and economic ownerships and carried out clinical CIA styled elimination of targets and then set up puppet enquiries that absolved everyone? So what that everyone who spoke about the collusion was dealt with emperor Caligula’s wrath and vengeance? All is fair in growth and progress.
Now with the US Congressional Reports’ veracity, we all must forget the past. After all, US is the final arbiter of morality and righteousness and if they say the guy us clean, sure he should be. Lets forget the bygones and look at the future, right? After all, isn’t he an awesome administrator who changed the script for Gujarat’s economics? Isn’t widespread development a proof that he has done a great job?
A few days back there was this newspaper report about a mother who sold his daughter to some brothel so that his son would finish his education. It is a sad story and deplorable but hey you missed the good part- the son would get a degree and would live happily ever after. In this case, isn’t the human traffic a small collateral for the larger good and therefore we must congratulate the mother for being an efficient administrator and gloat about her exceptional foresight? Who knows, the son might make enough money to buy back his sister from the brothel?
If this argument does not cut much ice with you then why not look at the similarities? Gujarat genocide killed thousands and permanently disfigured an entire community (around 9% i.e around 6 million) completely. On that plinth, read elections on religious lines, we have a growth story and finally just like the son buying his hapless sister from the brothel, now we are about to purchase “peace” and “harmony”, for they did not exist in Gujarat since 2002. Great job, I must say.
By the way, if the standard for great administration is how much support one has in the industrial lobby then one must remember that money has no moral. It flows where it can multiply regardless of the destination’s nature of governance. Germany under the third Reich had made unimaginable industrial growth. Today Saudi Arabia and UAE are examples that intolerance and growth can co-exist and genocides are not bad news for business. May be that’s why they say, “making a killing” to describe a great business success story! So, we shall over-kill.
Now that killings are a passé, we have a fast to drum up support for a xenophobic mass murderer as the prime minister of Indian republic. My mind goes back to a very sick Hollywood flick “Kill Kill Faster Faster”, where the protagonist murders his teen bride and then falls in love with another shady woman. In this case, the protagonist brutally annihilated a community through a wonderfully administered pogrom and then fell in love with the money to give us an 11% growth. Now, he is shopping for peace and harmony. Please oblige, I beg you with folded hands!!
the face of Gujarat riots- an unwanted blot on the shining progress story of Gujarat
Tags: genocide, growth, gujarat, narendra modi, riots
September 17, 2011 at 7:52 pm |
awesome.
absolutely loved your views. it is sad that we have lost sight of the reality in the maze of pizza toppings and swanky malls.
September 17, 2011 at 9:45 pm |
So what about all hindu who were killed in Gujarat over the years by muslims? Remember congress that killed thousands punjabis? or congress policy that lead to million hindu displaced and thousands killed in kashmir?
Are you gonna write about how congress scam lead to thousands of indian dying indirectly?
September 17, 2011 at 10:10 pm |
Dear Concern Hindu,
Justice is not revenge.
If you want justice then you don’t go and kill people.
So, the whole point you have given is illogical, hateful and pathetic.
September 18, 2011 at 12:22 am |
This article is nothing but just a biased opinion of someone who sounds like being paid by the royal Indian family. When you made the mention of Gujarat riots, did you just forget how and why did these riots actually start? Shall I not suggest some facts gathering before you jot down something like this? I really do not believe that it was someone from “majority” who burnt down the train first. And when the retaliation happened, the “minorities” were all hue and cries.
In fact, you also forgot to mention 1984 riots, why do writers like you want to forget everything that had happened or been happening where innocents have lost their lives, people have lost their dear ones – except Gujarat?
Now that there is one state and one person in the country who has transformed some portion of people’s lives so much so that the state is now in competition with the largest country of the world, let alone India. And then there are writers like you who would write anything because they wanted to do something different.
You mentioned revenge is pathetic, I’d say a biased opinion is even more pathetic and disgraceful. Did you loose someone in the train fire ? I suspect not so you just cane feel the pain. And I am sure you would also have some answer to the killings of innocent from “majority” over the past many years.
Last suggestion – gather some facts and shed off the bias and one brained thinking before writing such articles or just don’t waste your time in disgust.
September 18, 2011 at 12:43 am |
in case you missed:
1. this article is not about 1984 riots
2. this article is not about who and what caused the 2002 Gujarat riots
this render most of your commentary useless for it is not topical.
the only place you resonate something topical is when you air your view about “when someone is doing so good for a state then why not laud them”.
I guess that part is answered in the blog too. peace and harmony are predecessors to growth and not an after thought that an administrator must know this well.
this blog is a critique (a style of writing, if you are not aware) and that is the reason the facts and figures are kept to a bare minimum and if that is a cause of your grief then there is not much relief I can provide as the writer.
finally, I am not paid by the royal Indian family (not sure which family that is anyway) and my paychecks come from an American/German software product based company – that much for the facts huh?????
September 20, 2011 at 1:05 pm |
I know enough to understand that even criticism needs some kind of truth and reality to criticize and not mere biased opinion. Any article which only reads out a story can not be called a blog, it is better off published in the category of fiction.
So I suggest to include some facts when you write a blog else it’d become a self imposed, wayward essay without any real challenge against anything/anybody and only read and liked by friends and family.
All the best…………….
September 20, 2011 at 8:26 pm |
the official figures are close to 1500 dead.
however that is hotly debated because of state govt’s complicity which is why this blog was written anyway.
I have been following this case with all earnest and have had the pleasure of reading the reports from NHRC, Amnesty International etc that cast grave aspersions at the official figures and numbers.
There are some very good journalistic works that one must like to go through (like Siddhartha Varadarajan’s book, Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy).
with nearly a 1000 footfalls for the blog, I must say this is being read a bit more than “my family and friends only”
September 18, 2011 at 8:40 pm |
Dear Manasi,
Where did you get your numbers of killed and homeless? The real numbers are far below. Check wikipedia and other sources. Can you highlight your sources ?
The very fact that you do not even dig into reality makes me wonder how much reality do you really know to write this column and conclude.
Courts are there who will verify all the truth and give a verdict.
September 19, 2011 at 1:12 am |
Dear Manasi, Need a article from you on evacuation of Kashmiri Pandits
October 2, 2011 at 3:40 pm |
Just can’t get enough of your exceptional style of writing…loved the you you put it all together…wonder how can people complain about facts when it is a known fact that the real numbers was buried by the government at the first place..as if hundred people less dead justifies anything…guess according to the modern Indian culture, anything can be sacrificed or forgotten for power and growth and prosperity…just as a good groom is justified by paycheck and a good bride by fair skin!
October 26, 2011 at 3:22 pm |
शुभ दीपावली,