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Muslim wary of Modi's india
5-21-2014
Cloud of fear and anxiety shrouds India as the rise of Hindutva envelopes the nation, where 61% of voters voted for the secular parties. Center of it all their newly elected PM, Narendra Modi, a disenfranchised son of a tea vendor, card carrying member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, since age of 8. In 1948 RSS got prominence when one of its members’ assassinated India’s founding father, Mahatama Gandhi, for his tolerance towards Islam and Muslims.
Modi, dubbed as Hitler’s reincarnation has been concisely clear in his stance over his “Vision” for India; which of course appealed to the new generation as well as old, that had witnessed that India, despite its global importance, beauty, elegance, had not resulted in Hindus getting the respect they deserve.
They see Modi as the person whom had dedicated his entire life to the advancement of Hinduvta, Hindu Nationalism, as the man who would materialize their dream of a strong, respectable Hindu Nation at a world stage. On May 16th, it clearly resulted in a landslide victory, netting Modi the secound strongest mandate ever given to any PM in India’s 70 year history after Rajiv Gandhi’s Government. Modi immediately after victory headed to Varanasi, along the banks of Ganges, where Hindus go for the pilgrimage, his Twitters creating uproar and discomfort among many, “People of Varanasi have endorsed my silence and made me win with a huge margin.”
The state government prevented him from speaking at Varanasi, possibly citing his past history of inciting hatred. Just three days before elections in Assam Modi had visited Assam, and in his speech incited the people to send Muslims back to Bangladesh which was led by Muslims being killed.
Modi has a history of sending short subliminal messages to his supporters, inciting hatred, which often results in communal violence.
At Varanasi and through his Twitter handle he did exactly that. At Varanasi, he did address a smaller crowd at Kashi Vishwanath Temple, sending conspicuous but highly divisive and inflammatory messages, according to India Times, nation’s largest newspaper, messages that is ought to send double messages, such as, referring to Ganges, “Maa Ganga” – Mother Ganga – and “her call to him to rescue her from filth”, part of his speech consisted of pushing an agenda of cleaning up Varanasi and he did this by invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s obsession with cleanliness. “By 2019, when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we should have cleaned up the country,” Modi said, pitting himself as, someone appointed by God, “There’s a lot of work that god has put me on this earth for,”
He later twitted, “Need of the hour is to restore the glory of the Ganga. Today Maa Ganga is calling us, her children to make the river clean once again.” He later twitted, “When I see the pitiable condition of Ganga I feel pained but I feel it is Maa Ganga who has decided I have to do something for Her.”
He is indeed a magician when it comes to playing the crowd, a tacit politician, whose political career is galvanized by preying on disenfranchised Hindus and need for a Hinduvta rise, who has made his intentions clear before an election, his term in the office as CM for Gujrat, under which a pogrom saw an ethnic cleansing of Muslims, thousands still remain displaced, awaiting justice.
During election campaign vying for the top post, a reporter asked him over foreign affairs about how he would deal with neighbouring nuclear rival Pakistan, and his quick reply was, you saw what I did in Gujrat, leaving all to wonder, while giving hope to Hindus.
What is completely absurd, despite his past checkered history, allegations of War Crimes, the western democracies, including United States and Canada, which in past have denied him the Visa, now seemed to be more worried not souring their relationship with India’s strong more are incline to curry up favours with a supposed War Criminal.
New York Times editorial on May 20th, gave an easy pass to Modi. “Many Indians, and many of India’s friends, are eager to move forward with Mr. Modi. It is time, they say, to forget his troubling past, when he was associated with deadly riots in his home state of Gujarat that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.”
PM Harper is quick to act against Hamas, but when it comes to Modi, the so-called “Tough on Crime” PM had only this to say, “Canada and India enjoy a rich, long-standing relationship, underpinned by strong people-to-people ties and a one million member-strong Indo-Canadian community. I look forward to working with Prime Minister-elect Modi and the new government of India to further strengthen our social and economic partnership to the benefit of our citizens. I would also like to thank India’s outgoing Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, for his role in strengthening Canada-India relations.”
What is the most troubling part of this all is that, more than 61% of the people did not vote for him, and voted for other secular parties, yet they are stuck with Modi and outside world is not only blind, rather celebrating with him, especially the western leaders.
This elections also has the lowest number of Muslim MP’s in the history of India. India has a Muslim population 180 million , 15 % but only got 24 Muslim MP’s.
India Times, on May 18th reported that “Every third newly-elected MP has criminal background.” It further provided evidence stating, “An analysis of 541 of the 543 winning candidates by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows that 186 or 34% newly elected MPs have in their election affidavits disclosed criminal cases against themselves.” It further added, “Of the 186 new members, 112 (21%) have declared serious criminal cases, including those related to murder, attempt to murder, causing communal disharmony, kidnapping, crimes against women, etc.”
Another disturbing factor of how the elections was run is the role played by the media.
As many as 694 cases of paid news – or news for which the media organisations took money to publish or broadcast – were detected by the Election Commission in this election, official said. India’s advertising industry is expected to receive business worth a staggering $800 million. Almost One Billion dollars was spent on the advertisements by BJP alone.
The Election commission also has seized cash and goods worth 1,110 crore meant to buy votes. That’s more than 50 percent of the cost incurred by the EC to conduct the election. Drugs worth as much as 550 crore were seized from Punjab alone. Despite their best efforts, it is estimated that the EC has only seized 10 percent of the total black money in circulation to buy votes.
Democracy is a not perfect, the best in dealer often gets the top post, the popular vote, hardly makes it to top post, and runner up often weasels his way in, especially in country like India, world’s largest democracy where elections last over 5 weeks and span over none days with so many candidates and parties, the one who can put the coalition together first often gets the job.
This is exactly what has happened here. A shrewd politician with a checkered past has managed to put a team of self-acknowledged criminals who were able to get the vote out and win to rule over the second most populace nation in the world with nukes at it avails, and western leaders, such as our own PM Harper rather than distancing themselves from such characters are lining up to bless him.
Footnotes: Footnotes: Modi has a history of sending short subliminal messages to his supporters, inciting hatred, which often results in communal violence.
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