Detractors call Modi a fascist, a dictator, an autocrat
But boot seems to be in the other leg
By Amba Charan Vashishth
The fragmented
opposition in the country shares one thing in common: All of them seem united
in calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a fascist, a dictator, autocrat and
what not. He, they allege, refuses to hark the voice of those who do not see
eye to eye with him. They hurl unlimited abuses at him, the abuses one feels shy
of repeating here. Country's election was fought in the past on principles, performance
and promises made to the electorate. This time political leaders seem to be in
a hurry to be the first to conquer the Mount Everest of filthy abuses to gain
an edge over their opponents to spit foul language against the PM.
They further accuse the
BJP-led NDA government of undermining the constitutional institutions like the
Supreme Court (SC) and Election Commission (EC). Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income
Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are some of the other important
arms of the Government. National
Investigation Agency (NIA) was constituted through an act of Parliament in
2008.
As a matter of course,
every institution whether a product of the Constitution or an arm of the government
as a department is expected to function in a free, fair and impartial manner to
fetch justice to all without fear and
favour. And, above all, these should not discriminate against anybody on
grounds of caste, creed, sex and region.
The record of those who now accuse Mr. Narendra
Modi of being a fascist, autocrat, a dictator who cares for none, not even his
party, do not stand vindicated by their own record when they were in power. Recall
UPA’s stubborn arrogance under Dr. Manmohan Singh to get the nuclear deal with
USA approved by Parliament. Allegations of money having been exchanged to buy
support for the move were not proved to be false.
CBI
It was during the UPA
regime that the Supreme Court of India was constrained to dub the CBI a
"caged parrot". No need to say any further.
It is on record that an
IT team raided in January 2011 business houses with which the then BJP
President Nitin Gadkari was connected — a day before he was to file his
nomination papers for election to the office of BJP national President for
another term. Feeling so much hurt, Mr. Gadkari decided not to seek
re-election. Congress-led UPA did succeed in its design to frustrate Gadkari's
bid for re-election. The then government failed to justify the raids because
nothing came out of this raid during the next three years it remained in power.
When the same IT did
the same with Congress and other party leaders after the hue of the Union
Government had changed, the Congress calls it a political vendetta to defame
the party and its leaders.
Election Commission
During the Congress regime when campaign to UP state
assembly elections was in full swing and Model Code of Conduct had been
enforced by the EC, two Union Ministers Salman Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma
openly defied the EC by promising reservation to Muslims on religion basis
during the election campaign. Mr. Khurshid was censured by EC but he still
continued unabashedly defy the EC till polling was over in his wife's constituency.
Afterwards, Verma took the thread from where Khurshid had left and repeated the
same promise. UPA PM Dr. Manmohan Singh kept silent, as was his font. That speaks volumes for Congress respect for
the institutions of the Constitution.
The 'secular liberal'
media and intelligentsia — some political parties also included — who accuse
others as communal and fascists are themselves no less guilty of this very crime.
They continue to treat Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world’s largest
social voluntary organization, as ‘communal’ and dreadful although it or its
members have never been charged and convicted by any court of law for indulging
in subversive or anti-national activities. They are seen, at many occasions, on
the side of people indulging in anti-national, terrorist, and subversive
activities.
Recall the JNU incident
where some student leaders celebrated the death anniversary of Parliament
attack case convict Afzal Guru and raised slogans like “Bharat tere tukde
honge, insha allah, insha allah”. Mr.
Rahul Gandhi was the first politician to rush to JNU to express their
solidarity for the attack on the right of students' freedom of expression. These
politicians feel honoured to share space with terrorist and anti-national leaders
but not with RSS leaders.
Courts have framed
criminal charges of cheating, breach of trust, illegal use of funds, even rape
and murder against many in the top echelons of some political parties. They are
on bail. Many Congress leaders were named for their involvement in 1984
anti-Sikh riots by various commissions of inquiry into these riots. Still
Congress nominated them to fight Lok Sabha elections and some of them were made
ministers even.
Dr. Vinayak Sen who was sentenced to life
imprisonment by the Chhattisgarh High Court on charges of treason and contacts
with Naxalites, to cite just one instance, was appointed by Congress-led UPA
government to Planning Commission's committee on
health, the very next day he was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
On the
other hand, Congress party is protesting against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur who is
contesting Lok Sabha poll against Mr. Digvijay Singh from Bhopal. She has, as
yet, not been found guilty by courts for any criminal act.
Gandhiji's words proved prophetic
"Addressing about 500 members of the Rashtriya Sewak
Sangha at the Scheduled Caste Colony, Gandhiji said that he had visited the
Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh Camp years ago at Wardha, when its founder Shri
Hedgewar was alive. The late Shri Jamnalal Bajaj had taken him to the camp and
he (Gandhiji) had been very impressed by their discipline, complete absence of
untouchability and rigorous simplicity. Since then this Sangh had grown.
Gandhiji was convinced that any organization which was inspired by the ideal of
service and self-sacrifice was bound to grow in strength. But in order to be
truly useful, self-sacrifice had to be combined with purity of motive and true
knowledge. Sacrifice without these two had been known to prove ruinous to
society.( "Mahatma Gandhi's writings, philosophy, audio,
video and photographs" available at Gandhian Institutions — Bombay
Sarvodaya Mandal & Gandhi Research Foundation )
These views should open the eyes of those who otherwise swear by Gandhiji
in every election and important political forums.
The myth RSS was 'pro-British'
A myth has been created and spread
that RSS before Partition was a pro-British organisation and it played no role
at all in the fight for India's freedom. This stands falsified in an article
"Gandhi's relations with RSS need open-minded acceptance, not
suspicion" (Indian Express, April 25, 2019) by Divyansh Dev, a practicing advocate at Delhi High Court
and also United Nations Global School Ambassador from India. He states: "As for the Quit India Movement, the report of the CID, Home
Department and British intelligence describes the Sangh’s members as
“anti-British volunteers who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the cause
of the country”. Another British intelligence report in 1943 states that “the
ulterior objective of the RSS is to drive the British away from India and free
the country”. Further, Swayamsevak Hemu
Kalani and RSS leader Dada Naik were hanged in 1943 by the British. It was
during Quit India Movement that RSS provided shelter to Aruna Asif Ali,
Achyutrao Patwardhan and Nana Patil, to protect them from the ire of the
British.
Not in
the words of his associate Pyarelal, but of Mahatma himself, who paid a visit
to RSS in 1934, and commented: “When I visited the RSS Camp, I was very much
surprised by your discipline and absence of untouchability.” In one of his
documented interactions with RSS workers in 1947, Gandhiji recounted that visit
by saying, “Years ago, I went to a camp of the RSS in Wardha. At the time, its
founder, Mr Hedgewar was alive. Mr. Jamnalal Bajaj took me to the camp and I
was very impressed by the strict discipline, the simplicity of those people.” (https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/mahatma-gandhi-m-s-golwalkar-rss-hindutva-nathuram-godse-5693117/)
THE
TWO RIOTS
There were two big riots in the country — one anti-Sikh riots in
1984 and riots in Gujarat riots in 2002.
Over 2800 Sikhs lost their lives in Delhi in a brutal reprisal
to the assassination of India’s Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi on October
31, 1984 at the hands of two of her Sikh policemen on security duty at her
residence. More people died in attacks in various parts of the country but
confined to States which had Congress governments, nowhere else. Unconfirmed
reports put the figure of deaths in Delhi at 5000 and about 1000 at different
places in the country.
Further, while nobody justified the riots in Gujarat, the then
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is on record having said: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes."
Even
after about 35 years justice has deluded to the bereaved families of Sikhs.
Only 2-3 cases have been taken to their logical conclusion. Last year, Congress
leader Sajjan Kumar, ex-MP of Congress was awarded imprisonment for life.
On the other hand, in riots
triggered by the burning alive of 59 karsewaks in a stationary train at Godhara
railway station on February 27, 2002, as per the figures given by the Union
Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belonged to the Congress
Party, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in
the riots, 2548 people were injured and 223 people were missing. A report
placed the number of riot-affected widows at 919 and the number of children
orphaned at 606.
In Gujarat riots
numerous cases have been taken to their logical conclusion and a number of
political leaders awarded jail sentences. Many more such cases are still under
trial in various courts.
The same is not true of
1984 anti-Sikh riots.
For the
‘secular-liberal' intelligentsia and media as also many politicians, it
appears, the anti-Sikh riots were 'secular' and, therefore, pardonable and
those in Gujarat were 'communal' and therefore, deserve model punishment. That
is why they always cry hoarse for justice to those affected by Gujarat riots
and not against anti-Sikh riots.
No 'secular-liberal' scholar,
media and some political parties sheds tears for justice to 59 kar sewaks burnt
alive in Godhra which triggered riots in other parts of the State. On the
contrary, these gentlemen try to explain away the killings by advancing various
excuses. Courts have convicted a number of persons for this crime. For these
gentlemen convictions of those responsible for Godhra riots are an
"injustice" to the minority community.
In his article
"15 years after Godhra, we still don’t know who lit the fire" in the Hindustan Times (May 10, 2019) Mohan Guruswamy, in a way, questioned the court judgement which convicted
the persons accused of the crime.
"According to
official sources", Guruswamy quotes, "790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were
killed, and as many as 100,000 Muslims and 40,000 Hindus were rendered
homeless. About 130 are still reported missing. But we know that official
estimates are always low and in this case the estimates are from the Gujarat
government." This clearly smashes the impression created in the country,
and the world over, that it was an "anti-Muslim" pogrom. The facts
show that was a strife between two communities as both sides suffered losses.
"Civil rights and Muslim
groups report that more than 2,000 Muslims were killed by Hindu mobs. Muslim
mobs too were active and exacted retribution wherever possible. But it is
clearly evident that the Gujarat Police acted more firmly on Muslim mobs as 24 Muslims
and 13 Hindus were killed in police firings." If Civil Rights and Muslim groups report was
genuine, why were they shy and silent to report the number of Hindus who were
killed? If Gujarat police "acted more firmly on Muslim mobs (alone) how
come that they killed 13 Hindus?
Hinduism a way of life, not religion
The case dates back to 1995, when
a three-judge SC bench led by Justice JS Verma overturned a Bombay high court
order that scrapped the elections of nine BJP candidates because they had
sought votes to create a “Hindu state”.
The SC said that
“Hindutva/Hinduism is a way of life of the people in the subcontinent and is a
state of mind” – not a religion – and therefore seeking votes was not illegal
under the Representation of the People Act, which outlaws poll campaign on
religious grounds.
The court declared Shiv Sena
leader Manohar Joshi’s statement “First Hindu state will be established in
Maharashtra” as not illegal under electoral law. “It may well be that these
words (Hindutva/Hinduism) are used in the speech to promote secularism and to
emphasise the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian culture or
ethos,” Verma ruled.
Courts wrong, they right
But for the superior
intelligence of our secular-liberal intelligentsia and a section of media court
judgements on any issue are of no consequence and meaning. For them Hindu,
Hinduism and Hindutva remain something obnoxious. Court verdicts are laudable for them only if
they satisfy their whims.
For them, RSS (as also
the Bhartiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal and the like continues
to be a hateful organisation despite the fact that no court in the country has
ever described it as a spiteful organisation, 'communal' in words and deeds. It
has a membership composed of all other faiths.
On the other hand,
Muslim League and other such political organisations whose membership is restricted
to one religion, continues to be 'secular' in their estimation. Nobody can
challenge it.
They subscribe to
another strange philosophy. If a political party which they dub as 'communal' enters
into an alliance with these 'secular' political associations, it instantly
turns 'secular'.
Opposition criticises
calling it a Modi government. But if Mr. Modi calls it "my
government" and on the same analogy "my army" or police, it
hurts the opposition. In various addresses at various occasions, the Presidents
of India have been calling it "my government". What is objectionable?
Mr. Narendra Modi is
holding an office of the Constitution. He is the prime minister for the country
as a whole. He represents the whole nation. If he has raised the esteem of the
country in the world, it is a matter of pride for the whole nation, including
his detractors.
If Mr. Modi has been
honoured with six international awards by various countries, it is an honour
not for Mr. Modi individually; it is for the whole nation. This is something
unique. This is the result of what he did for the country and the world. This
has never happened earlier.
Contrast it with what other
countries do and what our opposition does. For the world Mr. Narendra Modi is a
person to be honoured. But what language is our opposition using for him?
Never, perhaps never, in any democracy, such words have been used against a PM.
It is not in our culture even.
In spite of all this,
our 'secular-liberal intelligentsia continues with its main na maanon (I
don't agree) stubborn stance. Let
the people decide who is a fascist, dictator and autocrat? Who is denigrating
the institutions of the Constitution — PM Modi or his detractors? ***
Courtesy": Uday India online
