Gaalis are the secret of Modi's energy
Gaalis are the secret of his energy, the PM has revealed.
April 18 saw a heart-warming sight in London. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so stoically silent in the face of sustained questioning when at home, decided to share his feelings in the UK. He spoke about how the “godlike people of India” had made a tea seller the PM, how it was wrong to politicise rapes, and how, in a rather neat allocation of resources, he wanted to provide jobs to the young and medicines to the elderly.
In a speech powerful enough to make one think he was going to contest the next election from London, the PM also offered a criticism of criticism – an Exam Warrior-esque handbook on how to criticise right.
I want this Government to be criticised. Criticism makes democracy strong: PM @narendramodi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 18, 2018
Democracy is strengthened by constructive criticism. #BharatKiBaat pic.twitter.com/PPfkxjpUSi
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 19, 2018
The PM said: “I want this Government to be criticised. Criticism makes democracy strong. To criticise, one has to research and find proper facts. Sadly, it does not happen now. What happens instead is allegations.”
He added that criticism was like a “goldmine” for him, which had “beat him” into his present awesome shape.
“There is an allegation against me that there is so much criticism, but I don’t speak up. Actually, I give their criticism so much importance that I try to understand that. I try to rectify myself. My work is not to stop one from talking. That you criticise me is a goldmine for me.”
This is illuminating on so many levels, and shows how misunderstood the PM is. While he is accused of arrogance and insensitivity when not responding to criticism, he is actually busy introspecting. While he and his party are accused of using the basest abuse for political opponents, he is instead offering them a chance to improve themselves.
Criticism versus abuse
The distinction Modi made between criticism and allegations is an important one. Responsible criticism is offering facts and figures to buttress your point; random allegations are claiming at a poll rally that the ex-prime minister and a former Union minister asked Pakistan to bump off the present PM.
Bhai movie plots as allegations aside, Modi has been known for other, rather intemperate, remarks. He once called Sonia Gandhi a jersey cow, Rahul Gandhi her hybrid calf. He called Manmohan Singh a night watchman. He called Congress’s poll symbol a bloodstained palm. He called Sunanda Pushkar Shashi Tharoor’s Rs 500-crore girlfriend. Very recently, he thundered at the Opposition in the Parliament that NPAs were “aap ka paap”.
Let us not even get into what other party leaders, and the irrepressible and inimitable IT cell get into.
Self-improvement project
However, we now know that all the PM was doing was offering the others pointers for self-improvement, and he can’t be blamed if they feel hurt. The only possible defence here is for Jawaharlal Nehru, who, though offered almost constant constructive criticism from the PM, cannot take advantage of it, since he is dead.
For those who did heed Modi’s words, the effects are for all to see. “Maun Mohan” Singh recently spoke up, and spoke so well that he induced UPA nostalgia in many. Rahul Gandhi the “Pappu” now gives advance notice on Twitter about his foreign vacations, and fields questions on dynasty and nepotism.
Modi, of course, is yet to answer the nation on the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat under his watch.
Unworthy criticism
So, next time people accuse the PM of disdain for critics, or find themselves attacked by troll armies for speaking out against him, they should know that the fault lies not in our star, but in ourselves.
It was our criticism that was not well-researched enough for a response, and expletives and threats from trolls will only make us healthy, wealthy and wise. The secret for his stamina, Modi said at the rally, is that he has been consuming “1kg-2kg of gaalis” every day for the past 20 years. Thus, what some call the right wing troll army is in fact a team of do-gooders, committed to pass the secret of energy the PM has discovered even among his critics.
If we still feel unheard, ignored, suppressed, repressed, remember, the PM is giving our “criticism so much importance” that he is trying to understand it and rectify himself. He shall eventually respond to it, probably during his next foreign trip.