Narendra Modi-Rahul Gandhi: Discourse in debasement

Many years ago, when the Congress referred to Narendra Modi as the maut ka saudagar I was frankly appalled: I almost believed it was an aberration because the Congress could have hardly labelled Modi that without Modi not helping them recall the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination when thousands of Sikhs were butchered albeit in a non-televised riot. But then things didn’t change and this time round, things are much worse.

I am shocked to see how the holier-than-thou Arvind Kejriwal (who is nothing but a pretentious autocrat) has allowed his people to call the other political parties, kameenas which in English, when translated, cannot ever render the full force of what was said. This time round, both the BJP and Congress have exchanged the kind of vitriol that is not only repulsive but abhorrent of electoral democracy. The Election Commission will remain toothless as long as it has an ineffective CEC so to expect the Commission to knock anyone on their knuckles is hoping for Utopia.

Then there was this tardy incident of hoardings springing up all over Bombay with Modi’s portrait announcing him saying ‘I am a Hindu nationalist’: this too, to my mind was something in bad taste and I let both Modi and his then agent some Bombay BJP head whose name I cannot remember, know.

This is an India that needs healing. Enough wounds: both social and economic have been inflicted on a hapless population. Votes on the grounds of religion are easy to get but they never last and the BJP has learnt this better than anyone else. The people are looking to regain their lives: lives where diligence and dignity will play an important role. People generally want to follow the law; they genuinely want to live in peace and harmony; they do not want riots and strikes. The dolts who want all of the above are politicians. The time has come to tell them and then tell them off.

We cannot afford to wish away 180 million Muslims is something that Narendra Modi must realise. Neither can this country be run by a dynasty that believes is their moral right to rule. Democracies are governed and not ruled is a lesson that young Rahul Gandhi must learn. Gandhi must also realise that in a democracy silence is not a virtue. I am shocked how little people are talking about what they are going to do. Currently the discourse is how the other side has done little or pretty much nothing. There was a time when elections were won because the people wanted the incumbent out. That too has changed. People don’t mind the same folks as long as there is development. To that end, Modi has done far far better than the Congress. Arvind Kejriwal in comparison comes across as an anarchist: some kind of local thug who’d be better off shutting petrol pumps on a bandh day. So him I am not worried about and we will see the results on December 8 for Delhi.

The two national parties have a graver responsibility than merely winning elections: they have to steer the nation be they in power or in opposition. So when you take such strident; bloody-minded stands against each other, you forever close the doors to co-operation: either in Parliament or in the States. The day democracy becomes anarchic, you can kiss reforms goodbye and this is what we are at the cusp of. So the one thing to do is morph present- day discourse from debasement to development. We need that to happen if we are to regain our place in the comity of nations. Now than ever before. Replace the abuse with solutions to  a better India.