[Reader-list] Gujarat's secular development

[Bipin Trivedi]

Yes, well said Rajen, thanks

 

 

From: Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi [mailto:rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 5:43 PM
To: Rakesh Iyer
Cc: Bipin Trivedi; sarai-list
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarat's secular development

 

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

_________________________________________
reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
Critiques & Collaborations
To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe
in the subject header.
To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>




-- 
Rajen.