[Reader-list] Gujarat is Modi?

Bipin Trivedi aliens at dataone.in
Mon Apr 5 12:09:24 IST 2010


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Article of Ahmedabad Mirror on April 2 2010 by Mr. Pradeep Mallik

Gujarat is Modi and... 

 

By censuring Amitabh Bachchan for promoting Gujarat tourism, the Congress
party is implying that Gujarat is Modi and Modi is Gujarat 

 

 

   Gujarat is Modi and Modi is Gujarat. This is the message that Congress is
giving out in 2010 after famously singing India is Indira and Indira is
India in the 1970s. 

   The only difference is that the latter was sang in an unparalleled
display of supreme Congressque sycophancy while the former is being painted
with a view to embarrassing a political adversary and another who was their
very own a few years ago. 

   Investors and entrepreneurs living within the geographical limits of
state called Gujarat and wanting to go there, beware. A certain political
party that calls itself secular and national, may brand you communal and
question your sanity simply because a certain Narendra Damodar Modi, too,
lives within the same limits and happens to be its chief minister. That he
was elected in a perfectly democratic election conducted by the Election
Commission of India and “observed” by independent panels has no sanctity.
How could it be so? The result did not go in Congress’ favour.

There was a time when Modi would term any attack on him, his ideas, ways and
administration, as an attack on Gujarat. He would famously say that it was
an attack on “sava paanch crore Gujaratis” (52.5 million Gujaratis).
Inherent in this statement, repeated over the years, was the idea that Modi
and Gujarat are synonymous even as his detractors would rightly snigger.
Like an expert judoka, Modi would use the challengers’ force and motion to
pull and pin them down. To wit, recall Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar”
remark. Modi and his supporters used the UPA chairperson’s ill-advised
phrase to transform Modi into a “vote ka saudagar.” An emphatic victory for
BJP and corresponding crushing defeat for Congress was the obvious
conclusion. 

   Incidentally, this time around the Congress seems to have decided to help
Modi further underline his expertise in political judo. By censuring Amitabh
Bachchan for his decision to promote tourism in Gujarat, Congress is telling
the world Gujarat is Modi and Modi is Gujarat. 

   Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari has asked Bachchan if, by promoting
brand Gujarat, he is endorsing sectarian violence in which Modi’s reported
role is being probed. Implied in his question is that anyone who decides to
do anything for Gujarat is doing it for Modi. 

   So, if you promote Somnath, you are promoting Modi. If you are singing
praise of Dwarka, you are singing praise of Modi. If you are telling the
world about the glory of Rann of Kutch, you are glorifying Modi. To cut it
short, Gujarat is Modi and Modi is Gujarat, Congress suggests.

   What next? Will Congress ask the federal government that it heads to
impose sanctions on Gujarat? While the Planning Commission give Gujarat a
GDP target higher than that for the nation, will Congress recommend travel
and investment advisory for Indians and foreigners? 

   As Modi in his blog says, at this rate, the Congress will end up telling
people outside Gujarat, don’t have Amul milk or butter because they are
produced in Gujarat. 

   I know, I am exaggerating Congress’ probable reaction but what do you
expect of a party that has been unable to see the party and its presiding
family as two separate entities. Remember its former president Devakant
Barua’s pearl of wisdom, “India is Indira and Indira is India”? 

   You can’t expect anything better of a party that has refused to take the
blame for massacre of Sikhs across the country. Instead of apologising to
the community it nominated the reported killers to run for elections and
rewarded them with ministerial berths, perks and security. 

   It does not take much intellectual effort to form some corollary to
Tewary’s questions: Does anyone, by being in Congress, endorse the killings
of Sikhs in 1984? By nominating the accused to run for elections, does the
party say that it is all right to kill Sikhs? By withdrawing the nomination
of its candidate from a Delhi Lok Sabha seat after public outcry, does the
party acknowledge its guilt?

   The party that pretends to be secular has been selectively ignoring the
plight of minority communities and forging electoral alliances with parties
with communal ideology and agenda. 

   Sorry for repeating a cliché, but couldn’t find anything better to
describe Congress polemics: Pot calling kettle black.

 



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