News channels yesterday were debating on two key topics – Narendra Modi winning a thumping 3rd term and the sad rape of the college girl in Delhi.
Todays TOI reports that Delhi has more rapes than the other 3 metros put together. Delhi is the capital of the country, every second month a high profile incident like this happens and then it dies down quietly in a few days.
I wonder what would have happened if the rape had happened in Ahmedabad instead of Delhi? The high decibel leaders from UPA would have immediately jumped on to every channel demanding Presidents rule in the state.
Gujarat incidentally is one of the safest places in the country for women and during Navratri its common to see girls out till the early hours of the morning. Women comprising 50% of the population in Gujarat are safe & happy and 40% of Delhi (The male Female Ratio is closer to 60: 40 in Delhi) is afraid to venture out at night.
Lets now look at some of the Modi bashing points – which keep coming out in every debate. The great thing about Modi is people hate him or love him. And it looks like the majority in Gujarat love him. Here are some arguments I place against the points raised against Modi
1. The minority is restricted to areas like Juhapura and these places are slums with no water, electricity, sanitation etc.
Bangalore has Shivaji Nagar, Mumbai has Mahim, Kurla & Masjid, Hyderabad has Charminar & Begum Bazar – every city in India has a minority colony. Even the slums in Koramangla do not have water, electricity & sanitation. The Sikhs in Delhi are clustered in a few areas. Why just India – Chinatown exists in SFO, LA & New York. It’s common for minorities to live together.
2. BJP did not give a seat to any minority community representative. Unless there is representation how does the locality / community improve
Modi wants to win the election with a 2/3rd majority. If there are candidates who could have won on a BJP seat he would have probably considered them. But chances are given the rhetoric of the last 10 years people are now brainwashed and will not vote for BJP even if Modi presents a minority candidate – so why should the BJP lose a seat even before the election has started ?
3. The Modi story of development is a myth – he is Corrupt?
The development is there for everyone to see. Industry is rushing in, the Government has been voted to power twice and is all set for a 3rd term. As charges of corruption fly thick & strong against the UPA Government – one has hardly heard any charge of corruption (from a non Congress Source) against Modi.
4. The events of 2002 cannot be forgotten and with Modi at the helm the minority can never progress?
Yes 2002 was unpardonable. But people tend to forget the spark that caused the fire. History is replete with wrong doings – the Sikh backlash post Indira Gandhi Assassination, the high handedness and loot of the British and when one reads of the massacre of Ghazni & Ghori it makes even the most moderate persons blood boil. Till when do we keep stoking the fire of anger – maybe we should have asked the Eng cricket team to go back if they did not return the Kohinoor diamond and claim our due share from Nadir Shah’s descendants in Iran.
6600 Indians die of road accidents every day, thousands more die in the hell called our Govt hospitals every day. We don’t seem to be making an issue of this at all. Yet the media & the opposition keep alive the 2002 riots for their political agenda and for securing their vote banks.
What worries me more is the impact of all this on the educated Muslims. 20% or 200M + is not a minority. There are probably more Muslims in our country than Tamilians or Bengalis. But where are they?
In our apartment complex of 124 flats – Dominated by Hindus, 6 Jains & 1 Sikh families. I am sure this would be the case in the top 100-apartment complex in every large city. Someone as famous as Shabana Azmi recently said that she was finding it difficult to buy an apartment in a central Hindu locality in Mumbai. Check out your child’s school – in a class of 90 across 3 sections you may find 1 – 2 Muslim students. I worked in a large IT company with over 100,000 employees – I don’t recollect interacting with more than 5 Muslims in 13 years. If someone does a count the % of Muslims in India’s top 5 IT companies will be less than 2%.
Check out your Facebook friends and look back on how many people you sent an Id Mubarak greeting ? When was the last time you attended a function at a muslim friends house. This is not how it was 30 years back when we were kids.
There was a time in the 70’s when Muslims were always the helpful friendly characters in movies – whether it was Pran as Sher Khan in the immortal Zanjeer or Rishi Kapoor as Akbar in Amar Akbar Anthony. Today they are always the bad guys, the Terrorists.
The challenge is not Modi – the challenge is we and our inability to live peacefully with nearly 1/4th of the country. It doesn’t help if the media & politicians keep fanning the fire. And it needs both sides to take a few steps forward – but thats the only way forward.
