[Reader-list] Gujarat's secular development

[Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi]

Rakesh, it is very easy to get into blame game, for the errors of few
"admirers" who made the mistake of hardsell the Modi image, with photos from
Azamgarh girls in the Shibli College, if at all, little efforts were made,
there are enough muslim young women who are well educated in Gujarath, with
good mobility seeking jobs, getting them in places like Noida, Bangalore,
Chennai, staying in PG accommodation without the hassles of hijab, and the
fact that the photo has "traditional" faces of islamic girls says so much
about the rigid truth of the Azamgarh.
It is unfortunate that today, everything in politics is about management of
perceptions, on one side the hate campaign for Modi bashings, on the other
hand, efforts to whitewash the image of "secular" Modi, what really required
for free india today is the governance without any labels for delivery of
good of governance, unfettered by faith, caste and regions.Nitish who had
supped the power for all these years with percieved "communal" BJP is
suddenly aware of this perception management and now makes blank noice with
elections in view and his rival lalu rubbing his hands in glee. Even at the
cost of dividing the votes both these leaders have been guilty of managing
the perceptions like all the leaders in political arena.
Sadly, none seem to pay attention to details of the present and give more
stress on the past, even if they are only managed perceptions that Modi is
butcher.?
regards,
rajen.

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 2:19 PM, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Indeed, Gujarat has a secular development, which was being showcased by
> Narendra Modi (or his sympathizers at least) in the form of ads published
> in
> Bihar papers, which interestingly had a photo of girls learning computer
> education. Sadly for whoever got the advertisement published, truth emerged
> that the photos were of a college in Azamgarh and not in Gujarat, neither
> were the girls Gujarati or sent by the Gujarat govt. to Azamgarh as part of
> a scholarship.
>
> It would be interesting if the Gujarat govt. does showcase this secular
> development in the form of encouraging journalists and other ordinary
> citizens to come to Gujarat and see for themselves the condition of
> Muslims,
> rather than sympathizers of Modi putting out such dubious ads in
> newspapers.
>
>
> The biggest problem with the Gujarat govt. including Modi is that they
> don't
> have the guts to give answers, but instead point to the wrong questions.
> When somebody asks about justice for post-Godhra victims, Modi turns to the
> agricultural growth of the state. This is extremely dubious. After all, if
> a
> state has positive agricultural growth (which is indeed an achievement),
> why
> should we be questioning Modi at all on it? Just to ensure he gets
> publicity? Any politician or public authority is questioned for the wrong
> or
> controversial decisions he/she had taken at some point of time. Instead of
> having the guts and the conviction to answer the truth and accept one's own
> mistakes, Modi and his sympathizers and partymen only parrot the positives
> as if Narendra Modi is God who can do no wrong.
>
> They yet don't have the guts to say sorry for what happened in 2002, when
> ironically a Manmohan Singh (who had no control over what happened in
> 1984),
> said sorry for 1984. The 'sorry' won't mean justice has been done, but the
> 'sorry' indeed will be a big change as it will mean a reflection on the
> fact
> that irrespective of their belief that Muslims are traitors or are not
> patriotic to the Indian nationhood, a RSS-karyakarta-turned CM would have
> accepted that he failed in protecting their lives as Indian citizens and
> violated the Indian constitution in that manner, and that he promises that
> such a thing will never happen in future. But he won't say sorry, because
> he
> hardly cares about those who died, and it would instead affect his public
> image in Gujarat as a Hindutva hardliner.
>
> It is indeed wrong when we bring every question of Gujarat's development
> back to 2002. But to forget 2002 would be dubious because what Modi has
> done
> and got away with will encourage other CM's also to do the same and win
> elections on the dead bodies of people. Modi would have himself been
> encouraged by the 1984 pogrom organized by Congress which got away with it.
> Therefore, it's time people like Modi are taken to task for having messed
> around with the Indian criminal judicial system and the lives of innocents.
>
> By the way, Shiv Sena constructed many mosques after coming to power in
> Maharashtra (on the plank of having 'protected Hindus'). That doesn't
> absolve them of what they did before coming to power, i.e. killing
> innocents. Your good deeds can't absolve you of your bad ones. And that
> should be understood clearly.
>
> Rakesh
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-- 
Rajen.