Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Curious case of Narendra Modi

He should be getting " Controversial India of the Decade" award, if there is a such thing. Many could not come to a conclusion about him. Is he a hero, a villain, slayer of muslims, avenger of Hindus, visionary, growth oriented person, the best CM, the hypocrite etc etc etc and it seems he deserves not just one title but many. 

As Thomas Hobbs explained in his book Leviathan, in the absence of external fearsome power, there will be a war of all against all. And that external fearsome power in the society is police. Though there are crimes going on everyday, we cant neglect the role of police in creating fear in people so that they will think twice before indulging into a crime. But what if  the authority of police to punish when the crime is about to happen/happening is stripped? There will be a battalion just watching if someone beats you up. Now imagine, someone is coming to kill you with a weapon and police were just standing there like a statue. Somebody stole your car and police wont take a complaint, somebody occupied your land and police are motionless. 

Of course  according to some people, he did a good thing by allowing the angry mob to take revenge. If revenge is the justification of the act, then what is the point of having courts, judges, lawyers and PILs ( చట్టాన్ని చేతుల్లోకి తీసుకోకూడదు అని పాత తెలుగు మూవీస్ లో తెగ చెప్పేవారు గుర్తుందా )

Coming to other side of coin i.e development in Gujarat. Yes, the the state is business friendly even before Narendra Modi and we just cant ignore his efforts to attract investment into the state. We will have to agree that the Gujarat under the control of Narendra Modi become the leader in business. 

But whats the point of growth in GDP, when a section of society are denied protection from violence and justice. What is the point of me having a good job with nice pay, when i am not sure police would come to protect me when i am being mugged coming home? Or at least take a complaint after that? And this treatment is only because my religion is different from CM's. 

Any way, does it matter, even if rest of India says he is a bad man.No. The people of Gujarat re-elected him with thumping majority, we should respect their verdict. Can we call them religious fundamentalists because they have elected a man who acted like one? Again no. After all we are living in a country, where a party was elected with highest majority just after its members strategically killed around three thousand sikhs, only because they belong to same religion that of the murderers of the party president.  


2 comments:

Sri Kanth said...

The definition of secularism is completely different in India when it compare to other countries. IMO, There the problem lies.

people will behave like secularists when it suits them.

IMO, if muslims are not the deciding factor in elections, perhaps Narendra Modi came out of all problems, (he is facing now) by this time.

tankman said...

yes, the definition of secularism is different when it comes to india. But the thing i was trying to establish with this post is not the nature of secularism but the duty of govt to protect lives of people no matter which religion they belong to.