The general elections of 2014 are going on in full swing, their results will be declared very soon (May 2014). Based on several opinion polls BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is expected to emerge as the single largest party in this election. All credit for this performance is supposed to be given to the spectacular leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi, who also happens to be its prime ministerial candidate. Mr. Modi's name came into national news for the first time because of the infamous 2002 Godhra riots. These riots happened in Gujarat during his first year as chief minister and he faced a lot of criticism for the way he and his administration handled that incident which resulted in the killing of more than 1000 people in his state. He won three consecutive assembly elections in Gujarat since then, but his role in those riots is still debated and some survivors are still pursuing cases against him. These riots gave him a certain image that he hardly tried to change, he never even apologized to riot victims. He emerged as a conservative, right-wing politician, and a self-proclaimed Hindu nationalist leader. A very aggressive and well-planned media campaign, support of the organizational network of BJP, and lots and lots of money helped him to build this image. Now please don't ask about the source of all this money that these big national and regional parties use in India as political parties don't need to declare the source of all their donations. These organized efforts and extensive propaganda have a created certain image of him in people's minds. This campaign tried to maintain his image as a conservative Hindu leader but added another dimension of developmental messiah based on some recent economic developments in Gujarat. Based on the very much debated Gujarat model he is projected as a leader who can solve all the problems that India is currently facing. The dismal performance of the UPA-2 government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the anti-incumbency factor along with the number of scams and corruption charges on some ministers helped Mr. Modi to become the front-runner for the next PM's post.
No one can deny the role the 2002 Godhra riots played in helping Mr. Modi to emerge on the national scene of Indian politics, at least I heard about him for the first time after those riots. I also heard a lot of praise for him from many people for the way he handled those riots, most of the praise was from Hindu conservatives. They were happy that he gave time to Hindus to vent their anger about the killing of Godhra train burning incident victims by delaying any strict action against rioters. We all know that this cannot be proven in any court, but this was my personal experience while interacting with these people and I am writing it based on that, not based on something that I read. These riots helped him a lot to win the 2002 Gujarat assembly elections. Now the question that comes to my mind is how Mr. Modi is going to stop the emergence of another Modi, who might want to use a similar strategy to achieve political gains? And I am not talking here about something that never happened in Indian politics, there are some examples from the recent past where people from the same party (or same family) tried to use a similar formula used by their seniors to achieve their own political goals. Maybe these people thought why design any new strategy when they have something that has already been tested and proven to work. This happened with the firebrand leader of Maharashtra Mr. Bal Thackeray, he couldn't stop his nephew from becoming another firebrand leader and launching his own political party using a similar strategy that Balasaheb used to launch his own political career. Mr. Modi also used tactics similar to what his political guru and mentor Mr. L.K. Advani used in the past. Mr. Advani was a leading political figure in the Ram Mandir movement. That movement polarized India at that time and created a lot of disturbance and violence but it also helped BJP to gain power in center for the first time in 1996. The Ram Mandir movement polarized the country and so did the Godhra riots, both incidents helped a political leader to become a national figure. Recently even a young leader like Mr. Akhilesh Yadav (CM of UP) is also using similar political tricks that his father used to stay in power.
When aspiring leaders see that a particular formula worked very well for someone to achieve their political ambitions in a short time then at least some of them cannot avoid the temptation to reuse that same formula for their own political benefit and that's where lies the biggest danger. This creates a real possibility of the emergence of many such leaders who are ready to travel the same path to reach the same goals. Maybe Mr. Modi is a good administrator, maybe leaders like him or Mr. Thackeray are really good in decision making, maybe they know how to control their cadre but the question is, do we want to encourage others to use similar methods to become another Thackeray or Modi? If not, then how are we going to stop this from happening? Just hoping that nothing like this will happen in the future is not going to help. Why don't we question these leaders and make them come clean before they occupy any public office? Minority or majority appeasement both are wrong, there should not be any appeasement politics at all. We need to object whenever it happens no matter which party is playing such politics.
No one likes to remember these unfortunate incidents and argue about them again and again. This is not a very pleasant experience at least for me and memories of these incidents are also very painful for the victims, survivors, and their relatives. But if perpetrators of these types of crimes are not punished and worst if there is no hope that they will ever get punished then how come someone can forget these incidents? Because of this passive attitude of many people, these types of crimes repeatedly happen and every time people who complain or protest are targeted. They are advised to forget and move on or they are reminded that this is not the first time it happened so it's not a big deal that it happened again. Have we become so insensitive? Have we totally lost faith in humanity? Do we value human life only based on religion, race, caste, and political affiliation? Has politics become more important than human life to us? What is the reason that these types of incidents keep on happening and no big politician accused in these riots has ever been convicted? Do all these victims lie or there is a serious flaw in our investigating agencies and law system that allows the culprits to escape easily?
No one can undermine the need for economic prosperity for any nation, it is required for any country to remain competitive but it should not come at the cost of injustice to riot victims. Economic progress without humanity is no progress at all. This post is not about Mr. Modi, Mr. Thackeray, or Mr Yadav, I am using them just as examples because they are from the recent past. This is about our passive mindset which makes us keep quiet and ignore such crimes. We behave as if the death of 100s of people is not a big deal at all, it's politics and development that only matter. Maybe it is not a big deal for some people but for me, it's a big deal, and the fight for justice needs to continue until justice is done to Kashmiri Pandits, 1984 victims, 2002 victims, or any other riot victims. This is not about some individual or party or some election but about people who suffer in these incidents. If we can't protect them then at least we can fight for their justice and apologize to them so that their pain becomes bearable. No one can understand their pain but at least we can try to reduce it to as much as possible. Let the best candidate or party win this election but let's not try to trivialize serious incidents like riots which affect the lives of many people. Please remember what George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
No one likes to remember these unfortunate incidents and argue about them again and again. This is not a very pleasant experience at least for me and memories of these incidents are also very painful for the victims, survivors, and their relatives. But if perpetrators of these types of crimes are not punished and worst if there is no hope that they will ever get punished then how come someone can forget these incidents? Because of this passive attitude of many people, these types of crimes repeatedly happen and every time people who complain or protest are targeted. They are advised to forget and move on or they are reminded that this is not the first time it happened so it's not a big deal that it happened again. Have we become so insensitive? Have we totally lost faith in humanity? Do we value human life only based on religion, race, caste, and political affiliation? Has politics become more important than human life to us? What is the reason that these types of incidents keep on happening and no big politician accused in these riots has ever been convicted? Do all these victims lie or there is a serious flaw in our investigating agencies and law system that allows the culprits to escape easily?
No one can undermine the need for economic prosperity for any nation, it is required for any country to remain competitive but it should not come at the cost of injustice to riot victims. Economic progress without humanity is no progress at all. This post is not about Mr. Modi, Mr. Thackeray, or Mr Yadav, I am using them just as examples because they are from the recent past. This is about our passive mindset which makes us keep quiet and ignore such crimes. We behave as if the death of 100s of people is not a big deal at all, it's politics and development that only matter. Maybe it is not a big deal for some people but for me, it's a big deal, and the fight for justice needs to continue until justice is done to Kashmiri Pandits, 1984 victims, 2002 victims, or any other riot victims. This is not about some individual or party or some election but about people who suffer in these incidents. If we can't protect them then at least we can fight for their justice and apologize to them so that their pain becomes bearable. No one can understand their pain but at least we can try to reduce it to as much as possible. Let the best candidate or party win this election but let's not try to trivialize serious incidents like riots which affect the lives of many people. Please remember what George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
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