The Gujarat verdict is out. Narendra Modi has led BJP to their 4th successive term in office. All TV channels are busy analyzing the various electoral permutations and the strategies involved.
Modi is supposedly a honest and an effective leader who has done quite a bit for Gujarat in the last five years. They say he is 'incorruptible' and I dont know how much credible that argument is. Here is a leader who proclaimed that execution of Sorabuddin was 'just' and vowed to crackdown further on minorities. After the post godhra riots in 2002, people were just amazed with the simmering barbarity demonstrated Mr.Modi and his men. This bout of barabarity and intolerance on the part of Modi and his men was all too conspicuous and easy to see. But you have got to wonder why the people of Gujarat again voted him into power?
The people of Gujarat didn't have an alternative? Did they? The opposition is all messed up and unconvincing with its "soft hindutva" rhetoric. This election came after substantial amount of time after"GODHRA" and everybody had eons for deliberation and thought.
I dont want India to become a fascist state. After the partition of India and pakistan, all the so called big leaders like Churchill predicted that India will go to dogs and Pakistan will survive because they were a bunch of people who were followers of a single religion and spoke the common language and were ethnically not variegated. But India was anything but that. We have held on to our secular, internationalistic outlook towards this world and the powers of tolerance and compassion shown by us is a great accomplishment in this ethnically ravaged, intolerant and supernationalistic world.
Our political system is an exceedingly messed up labyrinth which shows no sign of credibility and integrity. All the political groups are ravaged by avaritia for power which is indispensable for them at any expense even if it means taking away a thousand innocent lives.
Do we have a solution?
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Congress doesn't have good leaders(both in state as well as national level) in Gujarat who could have used anti incumbency factor. At the same time we must be accept the fact that during Modi's last tenure, people didn't face any grave problems, the reason why anti incumbency factor was quite meagre.
Another the cause for the victory of Modi is media. There were debates like "Why Modi?" even before the elections, giving a feeling that it is going to be Modi again. As we all know in India around 20% of the people cast their votes on the winning side, thus the so called media war worked in Modi's favor.
It is really disheartening to see BJP coming into power in State after State, as you said I have strong fears that we may end up as a facist state. Lets hope we don't end up that way.
Is Gujarat really a tolerant and pluralistic state? I'm sure there are simmering tensions on religious, caste and class lines beneath the veneer of calmness. The tensions came to fore in 2002. Now, Modi just used the innate demons of Gujaratis to get voted back. Religious intolerance is a easy election winner. I wonder why other politicians don't use it as much. Maybe they do - Mayawati is a good example.
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