Why choosing Narendra Modi and BJP is dangerous?

Before I start, let me quote the Preamble of our Constitution for the better understanding of the entire issue. The Preamble of our great Constitution states, ‘WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens JUSTICE LIBERTY EQUALITY and FRATERNITY….’ And it goes on. The reason why I started with the core of the Indian Constitution is because the citizens of this country needs to be awaken about the true spirits of our constitution that our forefathers left behind for us.  Today there is a lot of hullaballoo about the return of BJP and their poster boy Narendra Modi pitching for the PM’s post and many people angry with the current government because of anti-incumbency, inflation and a lot of  other reasons. But have you ever thought how dangerous the alternative that some people are proposing could be to the cultural fabric of the country?

Today if we are considering the BJP and its PM candidate Narendra Modi to be a messiah who’ll move his magic wand and all the problems would be solved instantly, then I’m really sorry that’s not happening. Whereas the truth is that he himself is not being able to handle a lot of crisis in Gujarat which he is elected for in run up for the top most and had instead created a mirage of development. But we’ll touch upon on that part later. In regard to the core principles of our Constitution, choosing Narendra Modi or the BJP would be dangerous precedent. How is it linked to the core principles of our constitution? Let me decode it to you for your convenience.

BJP politics of saffronization and the bizarre logic of Hindu dominance backed by the Sangh Parivar are not unknown to us and Narendra Modi being an erstwhile Pracharak of the RSS is no exception for it. When we talk about the core principles of our Constitution, the BJP and especially Narendra Modi fails in all grounds. Under them, India won’t be a SECULAR country in its true spirit and I don’t think I need to tell you the reason for that. The Ayodhya Massacre and Gujarat Riots are still fresh in all our minds. Nor it would be SOCIALIST as the BJP and Narendra Modi have always backed big corporates often at the cost of poor farmers. The issue of giving away lands in throwaway prices to the Tatas and the Adani Group is most prominent in today’s time. Given Modi’s style of running a state as an Autocratic ruler, it’s a big question how DEMOCRATIC the functioning of our democracy would be. And when these three grounds are at fault, obviously India wouldn’t be a SOVEREIGN REPUBLIC in its true essence.

Never quite thought of all these right? But this is not the end. In Modi’s Gujarat, not all citizens have the Right to JUSTICE LIBERTY EQUALITY and FRATERNITY. The victims of the 2002 riots haven’t stilt gotten justice yet in Modi’s Gujarat nor is there any sort of equality between the majority and the minority. And when the state government has a draconian law in which you need to take permission before converting your religion, what kind of liberty do you expect? Fraternity which in other words stands for brotherhood is nowhere close to Modi’s divide and rule policy. So when we talk about the core principles of our Constitution, Modi fails in all grounds. How can you elect a person who tends to be a threat to what our Constitution propagates?

Many people tend to compare the BJP and the Congress on the same page. But how fair the comparison is? If you ask me, it’s in no way a fair comparison. Let me tell you why. Three thousand Indians died in the violence that Advani’s. Ayodhya gambit produced. In his autobiography Advani absolves himself by saying little violence happened in the areas his Rath Yatra had visited, but he is aware of the fires he lit. He led a fired-up mob to the mosque and then expressed suprise when they razed it and he was unable to stop them. Modi’s aide and his deputy home minister, Amit Shah, said in a recent interview to rediff.com’s Sheela Bhatt that the violence in Gujarat was inevitable given the massacre at Godhra. In his words: “The BJP has nothing to do with the riots of 2002! The riots were the reaction of the people to the Godhra incident. The reaction was so huge that the established machinery could not meet the challenge of these spontaneous reactions.” What he doesn’t say is that it is that the BJP over the decades had so polarised the state that a single incident led to a state-wide orgy of revenge. The reason that so much anger and bitterness and hatred exists in Gujarat is because of the divisive language and policies of the BJP. These remain unchanged in the era of Modi but have been papered over by the second aspect to his image.

Congress is often accused guilty for the massacre of Sikhs, but it must be acknowledged that the party has tried to make up for all the allegations made to them. Under Sonia Gandhi, we have had a magnificent gesture to Sikhs in the face of Manmohan Singh. His two terms as Prime Minister have done much to heal feelings of Sikhs and non-Sikhs offended by the way the community was treated in Delhi. The other way to judge how effective Congress’s outreach to Sikhs has been is to observe the politics in Punjab. The fact is that the Congress has made its peace with Sikhs there. To see this we need to only go through the names of Punjab’s legislators. Of the 46 Congress MLAs, 33 are Sikh (on the other hand 10 of the BJP’s 12 MLAs are Hindu). It is the Sikhs who elected Congress to government twice in Punjab after 1984. How different this is from the BJP in Gujarat, where no Muslim has been given a BJP ticket to contest in three Assembly and two Lok Sabha elections under Modi. The record shows that it is not wise to see the BJP and the Congress as being alike, even if Modi’s popularity has convinced many to see it this way.

Modi recently said that shauchalay (toilet) should precede devalay (temple). What he tend to forget is that a couple of years ago, Jairam Ramesh, the then Union Minister of Rural Development, said that toilets are more important than temples. When Ramesh had made his statement, Sangh activists – Modi associates – urinated and kept urine bottles in front of Ramesh’s house. BJP spokespersons accused Ramesh of destroying the fine fabric of faith and religion in the country. Now that Modi made the same statement, those spokespersons are silent, although Praveen Togadia criticised him. Other Sangh members have kept mum on the issue. Many commentators have come forward to uphold Modi’s statement saying that it represented the soft side of Hindutva and would help the BJP increase its electoral strength and that’s what we called double standards.

Before we conclude, let’s look at the tall claims and criticism that he made during his recent rally in Delhi. In his speech Modi merely made false assurances of bringing in a stronger Lokayukta as the party itself has failed to do so in Gujarat, where Modi is the Chief Minister. The Delhi BJP is making tall claims of bringing in a stronger Lokayukta if they come to power, while its national leadership is not even willing to introduce a Delhi-like Lokayukta system in Gujarat. A number of Gujarat ministers, MLAs and councillors have been indicted by the Lokayukta but even after the court’s intervention, nothing has been done. Recently Delhi Power minister Haroon Yusuf alleged that Modi had been stating that power rates in Gujarat were Rs.1.50 but he did not mention that the rate was applicable only for 30 units. Once you cross that, the bill goes up substantially. “Modi is just trying to fool the people. In Delhi, if you consume power till 200 units, you pay only Rs. 2.70 per unit and at least 61% of the population here falls in this category,” he added. In Gujarat as per social indices, it has the highest school dropout rate, high malnutrition deaths compared to other states and low availability of safe drinking water. So now the decision lies in the sane wisdom of the people of this country in the upcoming 2014 general elections.

For all sorts of bouquets and brickbats feel free to leave a comment below or mail me at author.vish94@gmail.com