Narendra Modi down with swine flu

Narendra Modi down with swine flu

AHMEDABAD: Narendra Modi, chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, has contracted swine flu, his office said in a statement on Friday. Modi tested positive for the H1N1 virus days after his return from a business trip to Russia. “[Quarantine] facilities and medical treatment (have) been arranged at the official residence of the chief minister,” the statement said, adding that Modi was responding to the treatment. Swine flu has claimed more than 450 lives in India since the first death was reported on August 3. Modi, a key member of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, has been tipped as the party’s potential prime ministerial candidate, although his record is tainted by his involvement in the deadly anti-Muslim riots that swept Gujarat in 2002. The disclosure of Modi’s disease has sent a wave of panic among industrialists who accompanied him to the trip to Russia, APP reported. A minister complained that Modi should not have attended the meeting if a swine flu infection was suspected.

Tehelka Screws Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in New Sting

In a six-month-long sting operation, investigative magazine Tehelka.com has royally screwed Gujarat Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Narendra Modi over the 2002 communal riots that led to a wholesale massacre of Muslims in the state.

According to the Tehelka story, Modi blessed the violence that led to mass killing of the Muslims in Gujarat after the Godhra train burning incident in which some Hindus lost their lives.

The sting included interviews with Hindu activists using hidden cameras.

According to the Tehelka transcripts, the Hindu activists boast on tape of having engaged in violence against Muslims with connivance of the police and the state administration.

In the bold expose, Tehelka blames the Gujarat administration headed by Modi as well as the state police for the massacre of many Muslims.

In the introduction to the elaborate sting account of the lage-scale violence against Muslims, Tehelka Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal writes:

Of the many things that are uniquely appalling about Gujarat 2002, three are particularly disturbing. The first that the genocidal killings took place in the heart of urban India in an era of saturation media coverage — television, print, web — and not under the cloak of secrecy in an unreachable place. The second that the men who presided over the carnage were soon after elected to power not despite their crimes but seemingly precisely because of them (making a mockery of the idea of the inevitable morality of the collective). And finally — as TEHELKA’s investigation shows — the fact that there continues to be no trace of remorse, no sign of penitence for the blood-on-the-hands that — if Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky are to be believed — is supposed to haunt men to their very graves.

Responding to the Tehelka sting, the BJP blames it on its rival Congress party and charges Tehelka with acting as the CIA, an abbreviation for Congress Investigating Agency.

For its part, the Congress party lost no time in blasting Modi. Congress party spokeswoman Jayanti Natarajan said:

If the constitution of India is to be upheld, if we still call ourselves as a civilised society, if the right to life has any meaning at all, if human rights are to be upheld, Narendra Modi should immediately step down from public office.

Over the last few years, Tehelka has established a fearless reputation for doing investigative stories targeted at the political establishment using hidden cameras.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Modi of West Bengal

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Modi of West Bengal

The scale may be smaller in the case of Nandigram. But the basic fact is the same. There was violence by a large group against a much smaller group. There were deaths, more on the side of the smaller group. There was looting, there was rape. No one knows the details; Buddhadeb, or his party and government, made sure the media did not manage to enter the war zone. So there were no devastating TV visuals that would convery the horror of what was going on.

But essentially, the West Bengal government did what the BJP government did in Gujarat. Closed its eyes, thus giving a free run to the goons. Moral support too, by its statements at the time. And delayed deployment of central forces so its cadre could ‘recapture’ Nandigram.

I am sorry that I end up calling Buddha a Modi. Buddhadeb has generally been good for the state, good for bringing in a good dose of realism into the party, a good dose of capitalism too. But you are judged by your worst performance. So live with it. It was the same in the case of Modi too. Modi has been good for the economy of Gujarat pre-riots, he was good for it post-riots. But he will always be judged by his one big error. Same for you, Buddha, no mercy for you here.

Oh, and I came across this post rightly attacking Buddhadeb, but also playing apologist to Modi.

If the BJP’s Narendra Modi who responds to riots within 48hours is called a “Modern Day Nero”. what title will the sanctimonious conscience keepers confer on this Chief Minister of Bengal who has slept over the complete breakdown of government and constitution in Nandigram ?

// Got it wrong, pal. The line should have been: If Narendra Modi who did not respond to riots for 48 hours…! Buddhadeb’s screw-up does not absolve Modi’s screw-up, you guys are as sad as commies. //

It is easy for the leaders to sit back while their followers unleash violence, and talk only in terms of general ideas and motives, while the dirty work is being done on their behalf. It is important for them to keep that mental distance with what really goes on at the grassroot level, while, they spout philosophies and principles. But those very principles are translated into blood and gore and systematic looting and violence as we just saw in Bengal, before in Gujarat, even before in Delhi…

Buddhadeb, you would like think that this was inevitable, when worker power meets anti-state elements, this is exactly what would happen and all that blah. The same way a Modi would tell himself that the anger of a hurt community was pushed beyond a point and it lashed out, and it was inevitable. Like an Advani would tell himself that the Rath Yatra was critical for the self-respect of the nation, and some unfortunate incidents happened in its wake. Like a Rajiv Gandhi thought that the ground shook when a big tree falls.

Fact is, all of you are liars. And all of you are responsible for blood on the streets, violence, rape and mayhem. No court may ever punish you, but there are some saving graces.

Like never being able to wash the stigma away. The curse of spending the rest of your political life wringing and wiping your hands. The curse of being the Lady MacBeths of politics. Hopefully your worst judge will, one day, be your own mind.

Narendra Modi’s Gujarat is not developing, Maulana Vastanwi

With due acknowledgement of Ghulam Mohammad Vastanwi’s contribution in the field of education in Gujarat and Maharashtra, one needs to remind him, that no country in the 20th century developed as fast in the six years period, between 1933 and 1939, as Adolf Hitler’s Germany. And in the next six years––between 1939 and 1945––all what he did was destroyed because of the senseless war in the world, for which he too was largely responsible. About five crore people perished and his country, and many others, were thrown back to the Stone Age.

So, before opening one’s mouth on development, one needs to understand, what development actually means––who are the beneficiaries and who the victims. One should also be cautious of the pitfalls of development and be aware of the policies which may, in the long-run prove counter-productive.

Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanwi at a Madarsa in Bihar last year [Photo by Jamiatulqasim.com]

Not only that: in the 21st century world, one just does not need to understand the definition of development from an MBA––Vastanwi has that degree––when renowned scholars and Nobel Prize winners are coming out with entirely different meaning of the term. By their yardstick, Wastanvi’s Gujarat may be ranked among the least developed states. Why go so far. According to India State Hunger Index 2008, Gujarat is shockingly ranked worse than Orissa. Gujarat is ranked 13th in the 17 big states which were calculated. Vastanwi’s Gujarat, is only above Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, which are globally equal to the hunger situation in Ethiopia.

Hold your breath and listen: in this post-industrialized, computerized and mechanized world, a region, state or a country with less number of industries is categorized as developed. The service sector expands very fast there; the people rely on organic farming and want to live in pollution free environment in the rural suburb. Instead they are trying to shift all the iron ore, aluminum, asbestos, chemical, ship-breaking plants etc as well as other poison emitting factories to elsewhere in the world, especially in Asia and Africa, where labor is cheap and rulers have no regard for environment. Our leaders grab such industries with both hands to boast before the people that look we have brought so much Foreign Direct Investments (FDI).

Vastanwi’s Gujarat and Maharashtra are among the few states which are the ‘beneficiaries’ of these so-called investments. When new concept about development is coming up, we are still categorizing those states as developed ones, which have maximum number of poison-gushing chimneys. We are not at all ashamed to say that almost all of those 16,000-odd farmers, who are officially committing suicide in our country every year (since 1997 when the compilation of data started), come from these very industrialized states––Maharashtra topping the list. In contrast Jammu and Kashmir has almost negligible farmers’ suicide rate.

These states have industries because here semi-arid land is available and can be easily acquired from the farmers. In contrast farmers of West Bengal, Bihar and east Uttar Pradesh, where the land is extremely fertile would lay down their lives for every inch, whatever be the compensation. Because of this reason and not because of Narendra Modi, Nano got land easily in Gujarat while West Bengal failed in spite of so much bloodshed.

In contrast, the governments of these industrialized states have done little for the survival of their agriculture sector; therefore, the farmers are either committing suicide or famishing.

To know, how the concept of per capita income, growth rate etc are becoming less relevant in measuring the overall development of any place, one does not need to read big philosophical books of great scholars written on development. Just go through the CBSE Class-X book of Economics. Why Kerala is rated high on developmental index than Punjab, though the latter is agriculturally, even industrially and per capita income wise, ahead of former? This is simply because the definition of development by the United Nations Development Programme is more acceptable now than the old one of the World Bank.

Vastanwi must understand that his talent lies in running institutions and for this very purpose he was appointed as the Rector of Darul Uloom, Deoband.

But being a public figure he will have to understand that politics is a different ball game, for which he, and honestly speaking, many of our Muslim clerics are perhaps not suited. He must understand some basic facts about his own state and should not go about equating it with others abruptly. Being a state with largest coast, Gujarat as well as Maharashtra attracted largest number of big European companies in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Larsen and Toubro, Unilever, WIMCO, Britannia, Siemens and many others landed up on their ports and so was the first railway line, laid between Thane and Bombay.

The entrepreneur culture in Gujarat developed in 19th century itself and man like Abdullah took Gandhiji to South Africa. So far entrepreneur culture is concerned; Gujarat can never be compared with other hinterland states of India.

So, even according to his own definition, whatever development had taken place in Gujarat, is not any thing new. In fact, under Narendra Modi the growth rate––if this is again used as the lone yardstick of development––is less than in early 1990s, when there was no Modi around.

Two decades back, the growth rate of Gujarat was something between 12 and 13 per cent. The national average was six to seven per cent then. Today, Gujarat has the growth rate of 11 per cent when India’s rate of growth is 10 per cent. This is not the figment of anyone’s imagination but the official fact.

Vastanwi will have to understand that the saffron brigade is master in changing goal-post. Since Modi is responsible for what has happened in Gujarat in 2002, he is now being painted as the man of development. The media machinery of the BJP works overtime to project their chief ministers as the developmental-minded ones, even if men like B S yeddyurappa is out to ruin Karnataka, which owes its development to the non-BJP rulers.

Instead of falling into the trap of the corporate media and the Hindutva brigade, who are now projecting him as a hero and an open-minded Maulana, Vastanwi must concentrate in the field he has been involved.

Lastly, he must understand that many criminals-turn-MPs (or MLAs) are ‘much better’ people’s representatives than honest and upright ones. They carry out more development works in their constituencies and are more responsive to the voters’ problems. Then by that logic, their achievements should be highlighted and they should be exonerated of all the crimes and dubbed as development-minded politicians.

Narendra Modi

I have piled on Sagarika Ghose earlier, but I must give credit when she is right. I think that she is essentially right here. I had written earlier that Very few politicians have tried to break out of this cycle, and I believe that the person with the greatest chance of succeeding is Modi. The [...]