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Modi tsunami alert: Destruction and disaster ahead

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Pawan Khera
Pawan KheraDec 27, 2014 | 12:03

Modi tsunami alert: Destruction and disaster ahead

Much has changed in the last few months. Lot may change in years to come. It is now getting clearer, what happened in May 2014 was not just a change in government but a full-fledged regime change. When a new government takes charge, new linkages replace the old ones. From industry to media, bureaucracy to some levels of judiciary, a predictable pattern emerges and the system balances itself out by tilting for a while in favour of those who were left out of the patron-client paradigm under the previous government. Despite these reckonable changes, there is always a calming continuity – necessitated by an electoral upheaval.

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Debates and issues that dominate a campaign during an election rarely constitute the agenda of a new government. Conversions, Article 370, Uniform Civil Code visit us before every election and fade out by the time the new government settles in. This time it is no different. The election was fought on the development agenda but the government of the day is completely undermined by activities and utterances of non state actors belonging to the Sangh Parivar.

For those who had treated the emergence of the Dinanath Batra school of thought, a few celebratory riots and dilution of environmental norms as the MRP on the much touted development agenda of the Modi government, the worst is beginning to unfold. Are we paying the MRP on an empty bottle? Or worse still, are we paying the MRP and much more on a bottle of poison?

Narendra Modi’s inability to rein in the activities and utterances of the loud elements of Sangh Parivar increasingly gives the impression that this is not the case of inability but of complicity. The timing of conferring the Bharat Ratna on Pt Madan Mohan Malviya when the organisation he co-founded is indulging in shameless deification of Nathuram Godse and supporting "Ghar Wapsi" campaigns for reconversions appears to be state endorsement of the activities of Hindu Mahasabha.

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Narendra Modi heralds the age of the anti-hero in Indian politics. People of doubtful heroism are sneaking in through the backdoors of the hallowed halls of fame. Holding just Modi responsible for appropriation and demolition of heroes would amount to a bias. Lazy liberalism of this age is equally responsible for the kidnapping and death of the hero. Instead of making our heroes into objects of worship, we should allow them to become subjects of intense scrutiny.

If history is the new battleground between those who shaped it and those who wish to distort it, let there be a debate.

Let there be a debate on Godse’s role in shaping our history. Perhaps a debate on Godse will ironically make today’s India understand Gandhi better. The distance between Gandhi’s Swadeshi and Modi’s "Make in India" must be covered through Nathuram Godse. Let there also be debates on the dubious martyrdom of Syama Prasad Mookherji and the embarrassing mercy petitions written by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to the British  "master". Let the country also discuss the confessional statement of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Bateshwar episode. Let the nation choose its heroes, and if need be its father too.

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When they said there was a Narendra Modi wave, they were wrong. When they said it was a tsunami, they were right. For only a tsunami can augur a destruction of this magnitude. A lot stands under the destructive gaze of the Sangh Parivar. The decision of 31 per cent voters has never before threatened the future of the remaining 69 per cent. Would the rest of us wait till the next elections?

Last updated: December 27, 2014 | 12:03
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