The world admires Amitabh Bachchan for many a things apart from his movies; the blend of his diplomacy being one among that virtuous list. He has had a sizable fan-following despite his fallen off box-office value post 1990, and they belong to all faiths, classes, languages, political idioms and nationalities. And while keeping this diverse fan-following content with his diplomatic grandeur, he has also had many face offs with the media about his public conduct. Much has been reported about his thriving relationships with as contrasting public figures as Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh on one hand, and Bal Thackeray on the other.

The pseudo-secularist focus of targeting anyone that may be trying to approve Modi’s governance has started to shift towards Bachchan as well now, after the latter’s open endorsement of his administrative caliber. Some of his own fans have been hurt badly due to his alliance with Modi. Bachchan has taken the usual diplomatic route to counter this situation. But, it gives enough scope for both the anti and pro-Modi posters to start shooting off their mouths and keep his blog moderators overtly busy. I couldn’t stop myself either from posting the following comment, which I shall share with my fellow Modi supporters now.

Haven’t been to your blog for a while, but I knew the Modi affair would not allow you settle down in the near future. And the reasons of it are amply clear. Modi evokes two contrasting emotions in India. Those who wish to see India as a strong and blooming country, to get rid of its “ifs and buts”, to get rid of its inefficiencies, strongly support Modi. While those willing to milk India’s corrupt and sluggish nature and wish the status quo being maintained, would always strongly oppose Modi. Because “Modi means the right change in the right direction” in a simple sentence.

How ironic, that those unwilling to debate communalism in its entirety accuse Modi of the same crime they have committed for generations now! They start debating the 2002 events from Feb 28, the day riots broke out and not from Feb 27, because if started a day earlier, they may have to explain the dynamics of the Muslim communalism that was the cause behind the Godhra train carnage and its political patronage from the so-called mainstream secular outfits.

In my teenage-hood days in the 80s, when the BJP in Ahmedabad used to be confined to a two square kilometer area only, and the Congress used to call shots allover Gujarat, Hindus had no peace in those days either. There was a family of seven Hindus burnt alive in a Muslim strong hold. Agitated Hindus responded by torching up six Muslims in yet another area. Mumbai’s top cop Julio Ribeiro had to be called in, but he couldn’t control the repeated stabbings by Muslim goons for weeks on. He then threatened to bring in tanks if the violence did not subside quickly.

The ruling Congress was known to support the city’s Muslim mafia in those days, who were additionally, part of Dawood’s extended network. A goon named Alamzeb was known to pay 20K rupees to any Muslim stabbing and killing any Hindu. Somebody killed their fellow Muslim and the money had to be paid to the victim’s family, Muslims used to openly brag of such flawed heroics in those days.

On his own part, P Chidambaram, who was part of Rajiv Gandhi’s ministry and once happened to visit Ahmedabad with Gandhi during another similar strife, had openly accused the Muslims of having supported the Muslim underworld and harmed the city’s peace in that course. A bootlegger called Abdul Latif had been elected from five Muslim dominated AMC wards in those days, while carrying out his jail term. He was latter photographed shooting dead a PSI during another riot, but always evaded arrest due to his “secular” contacts in Gujarat Congress.  He was finally gunned down by Shankar Sinh Vaghela’s cops in the 90s in yet another fake encounter, but nobody, not even the media questioned it with the Congress being Vaghela’s alliance partner.

Those residing in Gujarat have known why things finally boiled up after the brazen carnage in Godhra. Both the sides were blood-thirsty demons that targeted only innocents, but they both were and not just the post-Godhra rioters. Let there be no doubt, that the things would not have been any different without Modi. The Gujarat electorate understands this simple truth without any tinge of doubt and hence has voted back Modi as their CM twice. He is widely known to be an incorruptible, workaholic and impartial administrator throughout Gujarat. Those trying to pick up only the negative half of the 2002 story are finally getting exposed with more and more people acknowledging Modi’s true caliber outside Gujarat.

(The author, a North Indian and who as a first time voter had voted for Rajiv Gandhi in the late 80s, was brought up in Ahmedabad since 1972 and knows a great deal of Gujarat’s transformation from a Congress stronghold in the 1980s to a BJP bastion in the new millennium.)

I laughed reading this story in the TOI, the home for all secularists. The TOI, as I know, has been a meeting-point for all secularists post 2002 Gujarat riots. I had to leave it as a regular reader, finding its one-sided nonsense unbearable in 2007, five years after Godhra’s infamous train carnage. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, since I’ve always known the TOI as one of the two newspapers reaching my home since the 1970s, my childhood days. The other being either Gujarat Samachar or Sandesh, the Gujarati stuff. But, the English media began losing its integrity in the aftermath of the BJP’s rise, which almost coincided with the Babri Mosque demolition in 1992. The questions raised by the BJP have since then gone almost unanswered by the secularists, resulting into a widening gap between two contrasting opinions about what constituted a secular and law-abiding nation, such as India.

The more under pressure they came from the Hindutva blokes, the more histrionic they became in the English press since 1992, and finally started seeming totally incoherent post 2002. There were two massacres in 2002, first the Godhra train carnage and the subsequent riots thereafter, both mindless in nature no doubt, yet the secularist chose to pick up – as usual – only the larger of the two facets, the riots part, for obvious reasons. I’ve never seen an editorial in the TOI or elsewhere in the mainstream English media, questioning the political sanctity being given by the secular outfits to the Muslim ghettoism and communalism in this nation. For them, Muslims mobbing and burning a train in broad-day light is a result of the earlier acts of Hindu atrocities over Muslims and therefore politically correct. They blame the Hindu zealots and BJP’s urban middle-class voters for whatever happening against the Hindus. Some of them even go to the extent of putting the blame for all wrongs within the Indian Muslim community on the majority Hindus.

In their opinion, Kashmir should be freed, if Jammu began fighting for its Hindu identity. They would also not mind agreeing with the 26/11 perpetrators that it was the Babri Mosque demolition and Gujarat riots that were to be blamed for the savagery they were carrying out. This sounds maddening…real maddening! What right do the Pakistanis have to poke their nose in Hindu-Muslim problems of this country? By this argument, the Pakistanis won’t be surviving even for half a day and be instantly nuked by the world community for the kind of Jihad they have spread. Besides, the history suggests Muslim rulers played a havoc on India’s heritage during their times. What will take place, if every non-Pakistani and non-Muslim started thinking on those lines, the way Jihadis and their secular friends in India do?! I worry more for the English speaking secularist, for it is they who sitting at the high places patronize the Muslim violence, and are increasingly becoming a hate figure among the not-so-affluent and affluent both (for the latter, check this out…and this…and this as well from the Indian Express, my current newspaper). How far can they continue to carry on the way they have under India’s constitution, it appalls most non (yet secular)-secularists.

The recent discovery of Hindu terror outfits is frightening for this reason, but I don’t think they can go much beyond where they have by now. Pakistan has shown where you might end up by allowing the majority terror unchecked. Nobody from within the Hindutva fold may like to tread that path ever.

So, finally a Supreme Court Judge decides to differ from whatever has been over played by the secularists for so long – the Gujarat bashing since 2002! Its a symbolic and humble gesture, yet a great indication where the exhausted secularist might be headed to.

I asked the following to Prabhu Chawla, the Editorial Director of the India Today Group of publications, on his weblog. He may or may not reply it, but the issue holds much significance in the backdrop of Modi’s recent Nano coup:

Prabhuji, what does Nano’s Gujarat journey indicate? Is Ratan Tata going utterly communal and fascist or is the whole brouhaha regarding rule of law, secularism, Gandhian non-violence, democratic functioning etc – embedded so deeply in the rhetoric of the UP, Bihar and W Bengal politicians and missing in Gujjus so widely according to them – nothing more, but a shameless way of perusing minoritiesm, casteism, nepotism, inefficiency and corrupt practices in 2008? Why else would Nano flee away, had it not been for the latter scenario?

Outspoken Gujarati
Sitting and laughing at the secular brigade from a hat’s drop in Sanand, Ahmedabad…Nano’s new home…lol!

And it is not surprising that Nano had to flee away from a place and its people that, according to the so-called secular commentator, should be the hallmark of all around development in India. For it is not influenced by Modi, Gujaratis and communal elements (read resurgent Hinduism). For them anything that may not live up to their own lopsided visions of secular ethos should be deemed a disaster awaiting to take place. But, as it proved out in Nano’s case, the complete opposite occurs in the KALIYUG. The communal and murderer masses, as per the secularists, got away with the material gains they so strongly deserved. So where does Nano’s relocation into Gujarat leave this whole debate?

Though, my above quoted statement should say it, let me make it further obvious. Talks on secular polity, rule of law, Gandhian non-violence etc in today’s times is mostly done by those who are either weak-minded and escapist or who are unwilling to be examined for their own negative role in the Indian society and whose sole objective is to continue milking away from a divided and fragile nation.

A bulk of BJP’s support base comes not necessarily from the hard-line Hindutva, but due to the aforementioned deceitfulness of the so-called Indian secularists. I was never on the BJP’s side either during the Babri mosque demolition or the post-Godhra riots in 2002. However, the subsequent events only made me drift away to the other side of the fence. The BJP did not come out clean and upright. But, the secularist proved themselves a highly inept and dubious entity by stating whatever they stood for in both cases.

You never heard so much favoring the Indian secularism before 1992, as against what you may from Sharia-abiding Muslim clerics and Christian missionaries today. They are miles off from the kind of secularism, we are taught about, but they are the sole torch-bearers of Indian secularism in today’s times, along with their left-minded cohorts in the Indian society, i.e. caste NETAs, fake social activists and intellectual zealots. Things like Nano’s relocation into Gujarat should only further help unmask them!

Ahmedabad’s sky was heavily overcast since the early morning today. It rained uninterruptedly until late in the afternoon. While Modi government’s prime concern was a looming drought until the late Saturday afternoon, the focus sharply shifted towards the serial blasts by midnight. The terror strike left behind a trail of injuries and destruction. It rained heavily on Monday in several parts of the state though, thus lessening the burden of the state administration at least in one area – the lack of irrigation and a diverted power supply to farming to compensate it. Power cuts were taken back on Monday, sensing an improvement in the irrigation scenario around the state.

While Modi’s team regroups to strike back at blast perpetrators, it is more than evident that his plank of peace and security, that won him a landslide victory in the recently held Gujarat assembly polls, is tarnished for the time being. Whatever be the outcome of his skirmishes with the Jehadi elements, which began after 59 Hindus were torched in Godhra in 2002, the mood in Ahmedabad bore improvement at least on Monday afternoon. Some key moments from the same outpouring rain here.

Ahmedabad Blasts Shatter Gujarat’s Peace

Let me clarify this in advance. Outspoken Gujarati is not a Hindu zealot. Outspoken Gujju is not a Muslim hater. He is not an anti-peace or violence loving soul either. In fact, you might find him totally different, if you stayed with him in conversation for longer. He is someone who would always be in a dialogue, if it happened from both sides. There should be no misconception though, he hates pseudo elements of this country. He doesn’t like pseudo nationalists and pseudo secularists, both.

Living in the “post Babri-demolition and post 2002 Godhra carnage and Gujarat riots” era makes him more vary about the pseudo-secular polity though. Why so? Let him explain this through his ideas on this weblog. It may take time, but should make sense at the perceived end in future. What he was about to quote today is full of anger though, and carries the risk of being projected as a Hindu zealot. The explanation given beforehand is aimed at countering this.

The following is a post made out by him in response to the TOI article: Blasts revenge for Gujarat riot atrocities? They won’t be publishing it, he knows. Though, they can’t stop him (that’s myself) from writing it down in his own weblog. So here we go, my pro-Hindutva and secularists friends both. The secularists are asked to keep quiet today…this ain’t your lucky day my pals.

My Comment At The TOI

The question is not how India should tackle the Islamic militancy. What is emerging clearer with each occurring terror strike is the necessity of disciplining the pseudo secularists first. They are the one’s who provide moral support to hard-line Muslims by justifying their acts as a counter to VHP and RSS. A heinous act of Godhra train burning, which reminded one of the partition days, was overlooked. Separate personal law is taken for granted, Muslims encroaching upon Hindu rights and making violent attacks is thought out to be politically correct. Anything contrary to it would be passed on as pure communal. Caste politics would be assumed ethical. Muslim politics even more justified. One family rule in a country of one billion, a splendid act. Buying out votes in parliament ok. Keeping it hush-hush, not showing it to the masses and making out the BJP culprit instead, perfectly fine. “Tum logon mein kuchh bhi sharam bakee naheen bachee hai ab!” You are proving out an embarrassment of immense nature with each passing moment.

Forget about Gujarat riots. You have outlived it way ago. The anger among the common non-psecs is bulging out fast. I used to be an ardent TOI reader until recently. Then I moved on to another newspaper knowing you won’t be changing just like a dog’s tail. Going through your pages after so many months, only strengthens my past belief about you…that one should discipline institutions like you first before anything else.

This coming from somebody who was equally aghast when Babri mosque was demolished and when Gujarat riots took place in answer to Godhra train carnage. This from somebody who abides by the Indian law more than what you may try to fake about (with challenge). This from somebody who won’t snip off even a leaf fearing it might pain the tree. This from somebody who dislikes the way how the VHP or Bajrang Dal may prefer to behave without the neccessity of boasting about one’s secular credentials, as in your case. But, let there be no misconception about this, the first enemy is not the Islamic terror from within and outside of this nation. It’s you and your ilk that require being fought on and disciplined before initiating any other measure.

Narendra Modi acknowledging his jubilant supporters in Ahmedabad soon after winning the 2007 Gujarat assembly polls.

It was an unprecedented electoral win for Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat in India, in the just concluded 2007 assembly polls. He was facing the toughest challenge from within and outside of his organization, the BJP and its wings, since assuming power in the late 2001. Narendra Modi, also called Namo by his admirers, is the most hyped and undermined, hailed and abused, loved and hated and spoken of and protested about public figure in today’s India. His alleged administrative inaction during the 2002 post-Godhra riots got heavily denounced by various civil rights bodies and is still being investigated by the Indian courts at different levels. However, much water has flow down the river Sabarmati since the infamous Godhra train burning and the subsequent riots that followed in 2002. The latest franchise victory by Narendra Modi in Gujarat, in this context, assumes a great significant.

The War Of Two Ideologies!

The Indian politics got divided into two separate zones slowly since the arrival of the Hindu nationalist party the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) on its canvas in the late 80s. The first one is the so-called (or self-acclaimed) secularists, led by the 120 plus years old Indian National Congress, the communists and some other regional outfits. Many from the left-minded intellectual fraternity, NGOs, social activists and a sizable section of the English speaking print and electronic media do also contribute to this part. They call the other stratum communal, the second of the two stated dominions, which is being led by the BJP and some of its like-minded regional allies.

Hindutva, as per the nationalist BJP and its parent body the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), is a way of proclaiming one’s Indian roots and not any attempt at dividing the nation based on religious beliefs. If the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs of India could feel proud for being what they were, then why not Hindus, argues the BJP. Why should only the majority, the Hindus, feel hesitent in proclaiming their roots – further add the Hindutva ideologue! The secularists, in the BJP’s opinion, are pseudo-seculars, who are hellbent on dividing the nation into several vote banks. The BJP accuses the Congress and its allies of Muslim appeasement throughout since India’s independence. According to them the secularists are not interested in any kind of betterment for the minorities whatsoever.

There is some water behind the concerns shown by the two sides for each other’s behavior. The secularists have proven badly indeed to measure fairly on vote bank politics. With the BJP’s rise at the national level, they are forced even more now to go soft towards their Muslim vote bank. The BJP, on the other hand, keeps siding on with a couple of hard-line siblings such as the VHP and Bajarang Dal that are not much appreciated even by some BJP sympathizers.

The Hindutva outfits, however, come across as more straightforward, predictable and transparent in kind as compared to what the so-called secularists might appear to be. The latter comes across, on the other hand, as a complex entity which is full of contradictions and with a “greater than thou” attitude, hard to fathom for many, a reason why many Hindu voters got drifted towards the BJP in the last few years.

Modi Enjoys A Cult Following Among Gujaratis!

Modi mobbed by his frenzied supporters outside the booth he cast his vote in Ahmedabad.

Modi has, in this scenario, proved out to be a great boon for the BJP. He has taken tough decisions and ensured the government in Gujarat was run smoothly. The results have started showing up and even the neutral observers now acknowledged it. At a time, when his detractors were busy asking for his ouster and a fresh trial in association with the 2002 riots, he was busy organizing development savvy meets, taking harsh administrative measures and trying to woo fresh investment in his state’s favor.

His governments dodgy role in the 2002 Gujarat riots which claimed a thousand lives, upto 700 of which were Muslims and which got sparked off due to the burning down of 59 hardline VHP sympathizers in Godhra, has kept him hounding at various national and international fora outside Gujarat. However, the masses in Gujarat confer and adore him for providing them with one of the most peaceful and prosperous five years of the state’s history. As a result, he has gained tremendously in popularity among the development oriented segments of Gujarat and elsewhere. His well-admired oratorical skills and an exceptional PR management have given him a cult following among Gujaratis.

Crowds go berserk as Modi arrives at the BJP’s Ahmedabad headquarters soon after scoring a landslide win.

What A Contradiction Of The Present-Day India To Live On With!

Modi is perhaps India’s most controversial public figure in today’s times. He is heavily hated and adored by two different schools of ideologies at the same time. Many call him a “mass murderer”, citing his government’s alleged failure in curbing down the post Godhra train burning backlash. On the other hand, his supporters across Gujarat call him Gujarat Ka Sher (The Lion of Gujarat). He is hounded by the secularist media wherever he decides to go. However, the performance of the secularists on the merits of secularism, adherence to the constitutional and democratic norms and ethics driven polity is so strongly poor, that many neutral minded Indians like this author ended up siding with Modi, the BJP and Hindutva in the last five years. The recent victory by Modi only goes to suggest the extent of this polarisation, a key factor in Gujarat’s polity post-2002.

Modi may have got a major blot on his career graph in 2002, but he has also succeeded in justifying his stand as an outstanding administrator since then. He may have failed in silencing his secularist accusers, but he has surely succeeded in curbing down the rebellions from within his own party and hence given the people of Gujarat a very stable government for the last six years, thus allowing the state’s economy to grow with a double digit mark. Various independent bodies have upheld Gujarat as the best administered state in the last few years and Modi as the best Chief Minister at several times. He may still have to face a political extinction, if indicted in the 2002 Gujarat riots in any manner, in the ongoing probes. On the other hand, he may soon go on to become India’s Prime Minister, if he kept on winning the laurels the way he was. An accused in the eyes of many, yet the most successful and proven administrator of the contemporary times – what a contradiction of the present-day India to live on with!

Modi, along with the BJP chief Rajnath Singh and the Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani, taking a victory lap of the Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad, where a massive crowd of roughly 2,50,000 BJP sympathizers gathered to watch his swearing in ceremony.