Wednesday, October 7, 2015

An Open Letter to PM Narendra Modi

Dear Sh. Narendra Modi,                                                                                                 07/10/2015

Sub:  Some Sincere Advice

One would like to congratulate you on the great show you have been putting up abroad as Prime Minister of India. Rather you would like to be so congratulated and probably rightly so. In last general elections, people like me desperately wanted you and BJP to oust one family run corrupt dispensation called Congress from power. BJP under your leadership did so commendably well, beyond most optimistic expectations. But more than a year on, one is being compelled to wonder whether the country has gone from frying pan to the fire. And this must be a cause for great worry and sincere reflection for you.
During the last general elections your opponents tried to create a fear among voters telling us what could go wrong if you came to power. And whether you realize it or not, you are proving them correct. Hindu vs Muslim communal feelings are being excited openly and you are keeping quiet, thereby proving your complicity to whatever is happening for vote bank politics. It is true that many political parties in India have been rising to power playing the minority appeasement card in the past. But it is not necessary to arouse and excite communal feelings to counter that. Two wrongs can’t make one right. Let me tell you as an Indian and a Hindu that while the majority does resent politics of minority appeasement at the cost of the majority, Hindus of India will never tolerate any threat to secular fabric of the country. As Mr Ashok Vajpeyi, the poet, mentioned today that while some ministers were making the right noises, on ground the communal passions were being fanned by the ruling party. Believe me, people are no fools not to know that.  
Congress lost power because of arrogance of its leaders that made them continue with unbridled corruption. Though you and your ministers boast that no ministerial scam in your government has come to the fore, is that sufficient? It is not failure of your government to curb corruption in the least in bureaucracy on the ground that is worrying, but it is the clear message coming from you that you are not the least bothered about corruption. You chose to keep quiet on evident cases of corruption by Rajasthan CM and your own Foreign Minister. You, your Minister and bureaucracy under you chose to turn a blind eye to ongoing loss of at least Rs 5000 crores per year to public exchequer through procurement in Railways even when confirmed by none else but Mr Sreedharan, the famous Metro-Man. And above all, you preferred to close your eyes to a fraud worth at least Rs 3 lakh crore annually in India alone through international cricket, your own Finance Minister being one of the kingpins controlling the cricket administration.
It is true that you may not be personally corrupt and there may not be anything amiss in your keeping quiet as CEO of a nation which collectively feels happy to celebrate and market one of the biggest frauds on earth. But you had assured acche din to us and you had been shouting from roof tops against corruption. Therefore your actions now fill one with a sense of big betrayal. You do talk a lot and you do talk a lot of sense but as has been happening with all our leaders you also fail in action. You are proving to be just another one in the crowd of our opportunistic leaders. The paid and boneless media may continue to sing paeans for you, but remember that history doesn’t forgive anyone.
In your single minded pursuit of development, you seem to be under a wrong impression that development will be panacea for all evils. Development without justice can be disastrous. Have you become so obsessed with recognition from the western world that the possibility of India again turning into a colony never crosses your mind?  

The need of the hour for India, more than anything else, is a strong secular fabric and overhaul of existing systems that have been rotting since independence. Judicial System immediately comes to mind. In present times, media has overtaken all other institutions in leading the social rot. Bureaucracy doesn’t need second mention. Your job is far from easy. You need to rise to the occasion to make best use of the opportunity that Providence has given you. India needs statesmen, not salesmen.   

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Ridiculous to the power of Ridiculous

It is not amazing, but baffling to the power of baffling, or ridiculous to the power of ridiculous that in a country (India) where Prime Minister and other top political Hindu leaders across parties have been and continue to be in league with a Pakistani Muslim Don (Dawood Ibrahim), and this fact is coolly accepted by all the countrymen, especially the parliamentarians and those who are in media or active on social media (all those who have a say), Hindu vs Muslim issue becomes so relevant now and then.