Mayawati & Narendra Modi: The two faces of ‘victimhood’

Mayawati & Narendra Modi: The two faces of ‘victimhood’

Let’s be honest: Mayawati and Modi are polarising figures who attract strong reactions. The media, in a sense, is unable to extricate itself from this climate of divisiveness, making it almost impossible to have a dispassionate dialogue on these leaders.

On the face of it, a Narendra Modi’s politics is as different from Mayawati’s as a Gujarati dhokla is from a Lucknowi seekh kebab. One is a Hindutva icon, the other is the Dalit mascot. One is a chief minister of a fast track state, the other of a state still struggling to catch up with the rest. One prides himself on being a CEO-like politician, the other is credited with a transferable vote bank. One is trying to live down his image as a hate figure for minorities, the other is trying to live upto her status as a symbol of caste empowerment. But there is a stark similarity between Modi and Mayawati: they are both authoritarian leaders whose identity is shaped by the politics of ‘victimhood.’ Central to the imagery of the politician as ‘victim’ is the role of the media, in particular the English language media, as a seemingly ‘hostile’ force. For Mayawati, the media is ‘manuwadi’, an upper caste, upper class dominated elite group that cannot stomach the idea of a Dalit woman in power. For Modi, the media is a collection of secular fundamentalists who are anti-Gujarat, anti-Hindu, and by extension, anti-national. When Mayawati was encircled by the cash garland controversy two weeks ago, her instant reaction was to lash out at her critics by claiming that she was a ‘Dalit ki beti’ who was being targeted by upper caste conspirators. When there was a genuine error made over the date on which Modi was to appear before a special investigating team inquiring into the 2002 Gujarat riots, the chief minister was quick to denounce his opponents as engaging in a campaign to defame him and the people of Gujarat. Let’s be honest: Mayawati and Modi are polarising figures who attract strong reactions. The media, in a sense, is unable to extricate itself from this climate of divisiveness, making it almost impossible to have a dispassionate dialogue on these leaders. Why, for example, should every criticism of Mayawati’s alleged disproportionate assets be seen through the prism of caste, or any reference to the Gujarat riots be seen as an indictment of Modi? Conversely, can we not praise Gujarat’s phenomenal economic growth without being accused of being an apologist for the chief minister by his critics? Unfortunately, a rising intolerance has shaped the media debate on these leaders, raising serious professional challenges. In particular, the stereotyping of the media as being anti-Mayawati, or anti-Modi has been used as an enormously successful propaganda weapon by its proponents to push the media on the defensive. In the case of Mayawati, she has almost made her refusal to engage with the media a badge of honour. The UP chief minister will rarely speak to journalists, and even when she does, the interaction is confined to a long-winded monologue. For Mayawati’s core constituency of dalits, their leader’s contemptuous treatment of the media only reinforces their faith in her larger than life image. In Modi’s case, the media is neatly divided into an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ categorisation. Only those who will toe the chief minister’s line are granted an audience, the rest are boycotted (remember Modi’s infamous walk-out of an interview with Karan Thapar a few years ago?). Its an attitude that is endorsed by Modi’s supporters on the ground, and in cyberspace too. Log onto a social networking site and piles of abuse await the journalist who might dare raise discomfiting questions for him. But why single out Modi and Mayawati alone? Across the political spectrum, senior politicians are unwilling to subject themselves to rigorous media scrutiny. After a decade in politics, Sonia Gandhi has only done a handful of soft focus interviews, with scarcely a tough question being asked. Rahul Gandhi has stuck to gentle, well choreographed press conferences rather than engaging in robust debate. Manmohan Singh rarely interacts on national issues with the media and even his annual press conferences no longer take place. Part of the problem lies with us in the media too. Where once the media thrived on its anti-establishment image, a number of influential journalists are now footsoldiers of the political class. Facts have been replaced by propaganda even as the creeping power of the public relations machine threatens the core of journalism. Unfortunately, the changing nature of the politician-journalist relationship means that the space for independent journalism that can hold the politician accountable is shrinking. Access is now strictly regulated, determined not by professional integrity, but individual loyalties. Asking uncomfortable questions of our netas, or expressing a strong opinion is confused with media hyper-activism, or worse, bias. In the circumstances, when politicians claim they are the victims of media campaigns, it strikes one as a bit odd. Surely, it’s the media which is being treated with a mix of disdain and condescension that has far greater reason to complain. Post-script: A few weeks ago, British prime minister Gordon Brown was on BBC being subjected to relentless questioning by the anchor and the audience. Just wonder when a top Indian politician will agree to a similar public interrogation without claiming to be victimised?

Modi rebuilt quake and riot-hit Gujarat in just 8 years: MLA

Modi rebuilt quake and riot-hit Gujarat in just 8 years: MLA

Chicago: Anilbhai Patel, a US-educated Gujarati, is basically an engineer by education, an industrialist by profession and now a politician by a pick. He, who is in his sixties, has been in politics for the past eight years. His late entry into politics has been because he has been picked up by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Anilbhai Patel became the Gujarat Industries Minister, during his very first term as elected Member of Legislative Assembly. He is now an MLA for the second term.

Anilbhai Patel, who has been in Chicago, with which he has long association, spoke to India Tribune about his career and the achievements of Gujarat state under Bharatiaya Jayana Party government headed by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Heading a $100-million highway construction company — Gujarat Apollo Industries, — Anilbhai Patel, who hails from Mahesana district, never imagined that he would be in politics. But Narendra Modi, who saw a spark in Anilbhai Patel, not only encouraged him to join politics but also contest the elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. Anilbhai Patel’s thumping victory and his background as an industrial engineer, has encouraged Narendra Modi to appoint him as Industries Minister in the Cabinet. Under his role as the Industries Minister, Gujarat has seen tremendous growth.

In the early years of this decade, Gujarat’s economy was shattered first by a massive earthquake in 2001 and communal violence in 2002. But today, Gujarat is the highly developed state in India. Industrially it has been recognized as the number one state in the country. In fact, the state has achieved an all-round progress and its double digit GDP is the highest in the county and an envy of all other states.

Besides being an industrialist, Anilbhai Patel is also an educationalist. He is the president of NRI-supported Ganpat University with a 250-acre campus and a strength of 15,000 students. It was started 10 years ago with the support of Ganpat Patel of California.

Giving credit for Gujarat’s tremendous growth to Narendra Modi’s planning, farsightedness and selfless service and the support he commands from his ministerial colleagues, legislators, and the people of the state, Anilbhai Patel says that this Chief Minister is a great visionary. Suffered by two major incidents, at a time when he came to power, Narendra Modi needed to work hard to rebuild the state’s economy. As a first step to attract the foreign investment, the Chief Minister launched the Vibrant Gujarat project and sent teams of experts and industrialists to various countries, in 2003, 2005 and 2007 to popularize Gujarat’s potential for investment. Convinced by the state potential and the ability of the BJP government, foreign direct investment started flowing into the state.

With the 1600-km-long sea- coast, which is the longest in the country, the Chief Minister launched a port-led development. The state developed two LNG ports and laid a 3,000-km-long gas pipeline grid, which is the longest in the country. Besides developing the largest ship-breaking yard along the coast, a biggest shipbuilding yard and a ship repair workshop have been established in Dahej port in Bhavnagar on the Saurashtra coast. In the surrounding areas several scrap steel-recycling plants have come up creating several job opportunities. A most modern commercial petroleum products and chemicals port with a storage terminal is also located at Dahej. The state also has several successfully managed private seaports.

Anilbhai Patel says that for industrial development, Narendra Modi established special economic zones, petro-chemical industrial parks and created free trade zones all over the state. Gujarat is also known for its diamond industry. Eighty percent of the world diamonds are cut and polished in the state. With a long seacoast, the state also produces 70 percent of India’s total salt output. Therefore, several salt-based industries have come up in the state. Other major industries located in the state are textiles, chemicals, heavy engineering and ceramic tiles.

Even among the Indian states, Gujarat’s agricultural production has been the highest. The state’s farm growth rate is 8-10 percent while the country’s average growth rate is 3-4 percent. Mahesana is predominantly an agriculture district and famous for Unjha commodity and spices market. It is also the largest milk-producing district in the state.

Gujarat has a highly developed highway network and a private railway system connecting ports with major industries.

The MLA says that Gujarat has been laying special emphasis on education and in the last eight years 10 new universities have been opened. The number of seats in professional institutions like engineering colleges, medical colleges and pharmacy colleges have been considerably increased. Narendra Modi is keen on girl education. Consequently he has mobilized a campaign with the participation of all legislators, top government officials, and officials of the police department to meet in June, the beginning of each school year, and ensure that every child goes to school. As a result the school dropouts, have come down from 20 percent to 2 percent. Now more girls are also going to school.

Among the improved medical services, Anilbhai Patel, says that the “108 ambulance service” has become very popular. Under this service, in a medical emergency, if one calls the telephone No. 108, the operator provides free ambulance service with all primary medical facilities that will arrive in any part of the state within 10 minutes. Any pregnant woman can avail this service and the deliveries are conducted free of cost not only in government hospitals but also in private hospitals. Consequently the child and maternity mortality rate has come down. Schoolchildren are provided regular health checkups and expensive surgeries related to their hearts, and brains are conducted at the expense of the state government. All schoolchildren are covered by medical insurance and girl students are provided free transportation, free nutrition supplements and pills to treat iron deficiency.

He says that Gujarat has sufficient power for both domestic and industrial purposes. As many as 1,800 villages in Gujarat have 24-hour power supply. There is no death of power for industries. The farmers get guaranteed power for eight hours everyday. This restricted power supply is meant to avoid wastage and conserve the groundwater.

Anilbhai Patel says that Chicago is his second home because after his universityeducation, he worked here and has made many friends here. He came to the US in 1965 and did his Master’s in industrial engineering in Kansas State University. He worked in a Chicago downtown firm till 1969 and went back to Gujarat to start his own industry which now has grown into a $100-million Gujarat Apollo Industries with the collaboration of the US and Japanese firms.

Narendra Modi not involved in Gujarat riots: SIT report

Narendra Modi not involved in Gujarat riots: SIT report

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) inquiring into the Gujarat riots is learnt to have concluded that its “preliminary inquiry” did not throw up any material “that would justify further action under the law” against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, according to Tehelka which published a report on its website based on contents it claimed to have taken from the SIT report submitted to the Supreme Court.

According to Tehelka, SIT chief, former CBI director R K Raghavan, has made the following observation in his concluding statement: “As many as 32 allegations were probed into during this preliminary inquiry. These related to several acts of omission and commission by the state government and its functionaries, including the chief minister. A few of these alone were in fact substantiated... the substantiated allegations did not throw up material that would justify further action under the law”.

The SIT was set up by the Supreme Court which is hearing several petitions related to the 2002 riots cases. It submitted its final report to the court last year in a sealed cover. The magazine claimed to have accessed the 600-page report and ran extracts from it. It said the SIT report had passed adverse remarks against Modi:

n “In spite of the fact that ghastly and violent attacks had taken place on Muslims at Gulbarg Society and elsewhere, the reaction of the government was not the type that would have been expected by anyone. The CM had tried to water down the seriousness of the situation at Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and other places by saying every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Rahul versus Modi in 2014 ?

By 1970, when Rahul Gandhi was born in New Delhi, the RSS had already taken Narendra Modi, not even 20 then, into its fold.

Born with a silver spoon, ‘Rahul Baba’ went to some of country’s best schools – Modern School in New Delhi and The Doon School – and inherited a rich political legacy. Some 900 km away from the seat of power, a ‘middle class’ Modi went to village school and learnt lessons of life on the dusty streets of Gujarat as he roamed with fellow RSS workers.

One was born to a mother with Italian origin; the other grew up propagating Sangh Parivar’s swadeshi theory.

Poles apart, yet destiny is making their diverse lives cross each other. Rahul is likely to be the prime ministerial candidate of Congress-led UPA in the next general elections in 2014. And, while NDA allies rave and rant over Modi’s communal image, the BJP too is left with few options other than the Gujarat chief minister to salvage their sagging fortunes. Even if coalition politics doesn’t permit the saffron brigade to project Modi — he would be 64 then — as their next leader, he surely will remain the party’s main warhead.

While 2014 is still far away, Congress leaders say Rahul has already started taking keen interest in Gujarat, where his party has stayed out of power for over 15 years now. Indian Youth Congress has become extremely active in this BJP bastion under Rahul’s direct supervision.

Modi understands the implications. It is not without reason that Rahul has remained Modi’s favourite punching bag even before the Gandhi scion joined active politics. An astute politician, Modi’s greatest strength is his ability to judge enemies. His sycophants say Modi makes a move keeping in mind the next nine. What they don’t admit is that it the same foresight at work behind Modi’s verbal vitriol targeting Rahul, whose meteoric rise has unnerved many.

Also, it is the same foresight at work behind Modi’s new-found love for sports and other youth-related activities in Gujarat. Earlier this year, he snatched away Gujarat Cricket Association from the clutches of Congress. These days he takes time out from his political chess to promote the game of 64 squares in schools. He buys clothes from one of Ahmedabad’s best boutiques, uses latest gadgets and interacts with students on a regular basis besides blogging actively.

For, Modi knows if he has to win a war against Rahul, he needs the youth by his side. A tall order, you may say, given the natural connect a charming Rahul enjoys with the youth. Every time the young Gandhi visits Gujarat, he makes it a point to go to one campus or the other -- be it National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad or MS University in Baroda.

Try telling Modi that a younger Rahul has an edge in this war and pat comes the reply: "But, our political age is almost the same. I joined active politics in 2001. He followed soon."