This blog was written by me at CNN-IBN blogs on http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/author/1388/2722/gujaratblogs.html
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Until the elections actually got over and I got around arguing with some friends why Narendra Modi aka "NaMo" should or should not be voted for, I actually never thought from the other side.
It goes this way. On a freezing Monday night, at Lucknow, sitting around a bonfire, I overheard some discussion about the Gujarat elections. Being known for my staunch anti-Modi comments, I naturally made myself part of the discussion. The group of 5 (plus 1-2 floaters) soon started on why or why not Modi?
Like most anti-riot supporters, my thoughts started and ended on one thought - that Modi aided the mass genocide post-Godhra and how all his positives cannot take that stain off him. The pro-Modi classmate of mine asked me one simple question: "Why did thousands of people come out and actually rallied against the Muslims? Is allowing riots to happen enough to actually make those Hindus come out in the open, to go and make them kill?" My answer remained the same, that it is in the innate self that every human being should find the answer. Every stone does not have to be answered with a brick. But the apparent, simple yet shocking truth behind his subsequent words actually had me hestitating for a reply. He asked me that "ofcourse there was this hatred inside those men, maybe not all, but atleast 80% of them, that drove them to riot. That decades of communal violence, killing of their families, neighbours etc had rooted deep inside them, a rage, that boiled over post-Godhra."
Not that he justified what happened, nor am I doing the same, but why this hatred? Or what is the solution to the ghettoisation that has happened in most corners of the country? How do we remove this hatred? Is minority appeasement actually benefitting us? Suddenly, there were no clear answers, atleast not practically.
Though we anti-Modi guys managed to make them concede their initial point and accept that as the responsibility of the state, and as an elected leader, Modi was wrong in allowing the riots. But the questions continue to linger. Is it enough to say that he is wrong? And that Congress leaders in 1984 also were wrong? Its too idealistic to say that ok, we should not kill in response to a killing. Apparently, and obviously, human emotions in these cases are too fragile.
Our politicians, cutting across party lines have been using the communal card for their vested benefits since a long time. Either in the form of Hindutva, or minority appeasement, the society has always been taken for a ride.
Ideally, yes, Modi should be punished. Yes, but after that what are the steps we take to make us Indians take as much pride in our social and communal fabric too as we take in our economic progress or our cultural richness. Anyone out there with an answer?
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2 comments:
Maybe ... we are focusing more upon symptoms than on problems!
But again ... since ages we have glorified issues like caste and religions and associated 'code of conduct' and harping upon superiority of 'which caste/ religion' we belong to that have allowed ghettoizing to happen ... as a result it all has probably become too deep rooted
Yes he should have been punished. But beofre coming to that conclusion, we need to think who actually would punish him? The Police, the courts, everyone seem to be under his control, and now also the 'Junta', who has made him win another 5 years of autocratic rule...i call it autocratic as, once the ppl have elected him, he doesn't listen to the ppl again...goes abt his work his own way....be it killin innocent people, or labellin ppl terrorists and then killin them thru d police(fake encounters).
IF ever he is punished... the next step...or rather should i say, the step to be taken now, at this moment, is of a revolutionary party to be formed by the youth, who think alike. They might not be against Modi, or agaisnt any party... but they need to have just one agenda, of growth of Human Race. It shall take time, but it can be done. It wont be done tomorrow, but one day it shall.
To bring about a change is important, and sustaining that change even more.
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