[Reader-list] I LOVE GUJARAT

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Rajendra bhai

The problem is not with Modi believing in Hindutva or practising it in his
daily life as a personal case. The problem is that he is a CM and is
supposed to protect the Gujaratis. Yet instead, in numerous cases he is
found to have instead hijacked issues just to build his image without
understanding the consequences of what they have on the society. It's ironic
indeed that months after he was using the claim that no terror attack in
Gujarat is his achievement, there were terror attacks in Ahmedabad. And from
the testimony of one person who was indeed arrested and actually helped the
attackers (till the end when he actually went back on his support as he had
given the support for attacking RSS offices and not the general public, who
were attacked, as he told the Tehelka), we find that 2002 again is the
cause.

Why?

It's right for me and you to say that violence is wrong. Of course, it's
wrong. But what do people do when they see no chance of justice. For some
time, they will keep quiet. They will fear. But there's a limit. If they
find no chance of their dignity being secured, they will incite and commit
violence, howsoever one may term it wrong. This is referred to by Arundhati
Roy as right, and media people are after her, as well as people like you.
Violence does not originate in vacuum. And if the violence after Godhra is
pointed out as a revenge for Godhra, why not accept equally the theory that
Godhra itself was the revenge for bad treatment of Muslims travelling on the
route to Sabarmati Express in the days preceding the tragic incident, as has
been expressed in many papers in Uttar Pradesh?

Yes, the Congress has been an incompetent party. But what Modi represents is
a further degradation from what the Congress can offer, even in terms of
rhetoric. And that's why I oppose him. Not for just the sake of opposing.

Yes, Gujarat has achieved 10% growth rate. Great. Yes, Gujarat is one of the
few states with  positive agricultural growth under his rule. Great. Yes, he
didn't give any subsidies and had to face farmer's wraths and still he won
the elections. Great. He has public acceptability. Great.

But even Hitler had public acceptability. And we know what he did later to
Germany.

Sometimes, public acceptability must be tempered down by actual
calculations.

Rakesh