National Security
Modi as Prime Minister
Dt: 22/6/12
Modi as Prime Minister
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
I refer to the piece, “The Problem of Narendra Modi” in the Mint of 22 June 2012. Secularism in India is a cover word for appeasement of minorities; minority itself is a cover word for Muslims. Since the second general elections to the Parliament, Congress has been becoming weaker and weaker and therefore it had been building up a vote block among Muslims. Muslims of India were the ones who agitated, rioted, fought and voted for the division of this country. Md. Jinnah and his Muslim League asked for exchange of minority populations. Minorities that is Hindus & Sikhs had been ethnically cleansed out of Pakistan, and later Bangladesh. Muslims who created Pakistan stayed back in India. They have a guilt and hence, insecurity complex. This is exploited by the Congress which has been telling them that it is only the Congress which can protect the minorities, that is Muslims. This is how the Haj subsidies, minority educational institutions, minority financial corporations, minority welfare departments, Muslim First programs etc., had been launched by the Congress. The regional parties have also come to contest, like Congress for Muslim votes. Therefore there is competitive espousal of Muslim demands.
2. The result is ; the Muslim population which was about 10% immediately after Independence, have now reached 15-19%; Muslims who were 50, 000 after independences in Delhi, have now become 15 lakhs; Muslim block vote determines as to which party is the winner as was abundantly clear in the recent elections in UP. Muslims switched from BSP to the SP. The latter won. In West Bengal, Mamata Benerjee won due to Muslims switching their vote from the CPM (which facilitated the infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims into West Bengal), to the Trinamul Congress. Now, Muslim vote is decisive in about 120 out of the 543 Parliament constituencies.
*Director : Center for Telecom Management & Studies
* Chairman : Pragna Bharati, Andhra Pradesh
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3. Narendra Modi is falsely alleged not to have protected Muslims in Ahmadabad and other places of Gujarat, post -Godhra carnage of Hindus burnt alive in railway bogies. In 1984 in the after -math of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in India’s capital Delhi, where the Prime Minister and Home Minister and the Defence Head Quarters are, more than 3000 Sikhs were set upon and slaughtered by mobs led by Congress leaders. Did Rajiv Gandhi intervene, did he call the army; is anybody punished? Why is it that neither Rajiv Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi nor the Congress party is not labeled as slaughterers of Sikhs? Why are they not called communal? Rajiv said that when a big banyan tree (Indira) falls, the earth quakes (Sikhs are slaughtered). That is how he dismissed the slaughter of Sikhs by Congress mobs. Yet, he and his widow are “secular”; so is her party. Secularism is solicitude and patronage to Muslims (soon, Christians also) and indifference, if not hostility to Hindus
4. Contrast Narendra Modi with Rajiv handling of Sikh slaughter, it is on record that Modi called for the military sooner than Rajiv Gandhi called the military in Delhi. Why did the Ahmedabad anti-Muslim riots takes place? The reason was Hindus who had been returning from Ayodhya had been burnt alive in Godhra according to a pre-planned conspiracy. Who was the railway minister then? It was Nitish Kumar. Did he resign, did he say anything about those Muslims who torched Hindus alive? No. Neither Nitish Kumar nor the shining secularists have words about slaughter of Sikhs in Delhi or the burning alive of Hindus in railway bogies in Godhra. For them, Muslim life only is precious.
5. The BJP should shed its shyness to call itself a true secular and Hindu party. If there can be an Indian Union Muslim League, Majlis Ittehadul Muslameen (MIM) both of which are 100% Muslims’ political parties, why cannot the BJP say that it is the Hindu Democratic Nationalist Party? Why can it not assert its nationalism and Hinduism just as the Muslim League and Muslims assert their Islamism? If Pakistan & Bangladesh and Iran and Saudi Arabia could be Islamic Republics, why cannot India be a Hindu Republic? Was there any time in the history of India when Hindu rulers declared Hinduism as their state religion? Did they not give protection to every other religion? Did not the Hindu Kings give lands and grants for construction of Synagogues and churches and Mosques? The only time when an Indian King declared his religion as the state religion was Ashoka. He declared Buddhism as state religion. Hindu rulers have not mixed religion with government and the state.
6. Modi is eminently suitable to be the Prime Minister. Of all the Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers of India, he is the one who has carried out the greatest developments for Gujarat. 8-10% annual growth in agriculture; has no parallel in any other state in India and in the entire history of this country. Scores of big industries are flocking to Gujarat. Has any Muslim complained that he is being discriminated? In Gujarat, have there been scams like what the UPA has indulged in the last nine years?
7. If the BJP feels shy of projecting Narendra Modi as Prime Ministerial candidate, it will be committing suicide. It will also be another pseudo secularist, casteist, communalist parity. Nitish Kumar is casteist and a Muslim -leaning communal secularist, in the unique Indian way. Would BJP like to be one among them or would it want to live upto what it has been saying that it is a party with a difference. If it has no conviction, it is no better than Congress. BJP should not shy to project Modi as the Prime Minister. It must have the courage of conviction. It must not fool Hindus by saying it is for Bharat and for equal treatment for all religions. It must be bold enough to assert that Modi is as secular as Vajpayee or Nehru or Gandhi. If Muslims did not vote for secular Gandhi, socialist Nehru and nationalist Azad, can we expect them to vote for BJP, even if they unscrupulously drop Narendra Modi? Nitish and Sonia are appeasers, they are pseudo-seculars. (1012 words)
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