Politics all over

While India's political scene is always bubbling with some scandal, accusation, fist fight or apparently epochial expose, these days there seem to be a huge inferno raging in this political cauldron, with so many stories going on at once, and the common man, as usual, just watching the show at the sidelines.

I mean I don't even know where to start from. Okay, lets start with the man everybody loves to hate - Narendra Modi.

Actually, before that, I want to remember the victims of the earthquake that was centered around Sikkim and has devastated major parts of the state. At last check, the toll had risen to over 50 in the state alone. A good friend of mine here is from Sikkim, and he told me even his home in Gangtok had cracks in it, though the major devastation was in the northern part of the state. My best wishes to the Armed Forces and the paramilitary and state forces to effectively reach out to all the affected regions, and my prayers with all the affected people and families to help them rebound and my condolances to all those bereaved. This world's been having way too many natural disasters in the past few years, at least a lot more than I can remember seeing in the past, and I wonder if the Earth is finally starting to revolt.

Coming back to Narendra Modi, It seems to me that the stage is being set for him to enter national politics. As a Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will prick the conscience of every pseudo-secular traitor hugging politician and social activist, and while the CONgress and the psuedo-seculars will never allow the country to move in from the Gujarat riots, I can definitely feel that they are genuinely afraid of Modi.

I do not know what goes on the corridors of power - who talks to who, about what, and about who. So the news that there was a recent American report which praised Modi really took me by surprise, because this same country denied visa to Narendra Modi because of his bad religious freedom credentials (!). So Mr. Modi was denied a visa for his bad record on religious freedom, but the same people praise him for his effective governance. Once again, American double standards come to the fore. The BJP certainly used the report to project Modi as the next big thing on the national stage and the CONgress releasing a quick rebuttal.

But overlooking the other issues, it cannot be denied that under Modi, Gujarat has come up as the new economic driver of this country, leaving behind traditional industry powerhouses such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu far behind. In a country that has been set back many steps in the past few years of the UPeeA government, Gujarat has been doing splendidly well economically and I suppose American or no American, any capitalist would drool at the market and the potential. The American report also praised Nitish Kumar, and on this front, I am really glad that Mr. Kumar does not seem to have lost a lot of steam, because its very easy for politicians to give up and see their efforts fizzle out after a short while in power.

In my opinion, the new poverty leaders in India will be West Bengal (who would have thought that a region and people that have given this country so much should come to this), and Uttar Pradesh. Mamata Bannerjee had asked the Centre for a bailout package of Rs. 47,000 crore a few months ago because the state has absolutely no money left! The economy of West Bengal was not a communist economy, it was a CPI(M) economy, and good luck to that state, and UP to get themselves out of the morass. I was just thinking about this a few days ago, that this is a democracy, and no matter how crazy or ridiculous this nation is today, at the end of the day, it is possible for people to come out and vote out the incumbants. So I believe that the people of West Bengal voted for CPI(M), at least till the time the Commie bastards started voting themselves in by hijacking the voting process, and the people of UP have voted Mayawati in with her agenda of self-aggrandization and caste divisions, so they should be content right now, no matter what armchair analysts like me write.

Coming back to Narendra Modi, he had recently fasted for three days, named the event as Sadbhavna mission, which means compassion/harmony/understanding among religions (in this case). The three day fast was a media circus, because I think it was, at least in my eyes, the first time that Narendra Modi was doing something so brazenly and openly and which was being followed by the national media, and the Government of India chiming in with their ridiculous jibes and dismissals. On a sidenote, Mahatma Gandhi's real great grandson Tushar Gandhi, who had dismissed Anna Hazare's fast has dismissed Modi's fast as well, calling it self-publicity. While the fraud decendents of Gandhi rape the country, the real descendent is now only busy with one thing - others associate themselves with Gandhi, he disassociates them.

So a lot of people came to meet and greet Narendra Modi as he sat on his three day Sadbhavna mission, and they all presented him with turbans, shawls and all sorts of stuff. A Muslim cleric presented Modi a skull cap and a shawl, and Modi politely refused to wear the skull cap. NDTV and the Tabloid of India, faithful dogs of the CONgress party and the rest of the media, went to town highlighting how un-secular Modi still was. The cleric was on the television too, hurt had how Modi had hurt all Muslims by not wearing the skull cap. Such is the level of propaganda machinery that the CONgress rules over, and it just surprises me sometimes how people can't recognize such blatant propaganda machinery that the CONgress indulges in. Throughout this post, I haven't even mentioned that their local politician Shankar Singh Vaghela went on a counterstrike to ridicule Modi's strike!

When I talk to people of leadership, everybody bemoans the current government, and then tells me we have no choices. I tell them I am surprised that they think this country of over a billion people can't throw up a few credible people to form a government. Sure the CONgress and the fraud Gandhi's are blatantly ruling the roost and quite possibly setting up the stage for Rahul Gandhi to stand up as the next PM, but surely the people of India have now reached a stage when they say enough is enough. Modi is a man everybody loves to hate, and no matter what he does, how effective he may be or how active he gets on the national stage, Godhra will forever be brought up when the elections come. He was elected as the CM of the state again even after 2002, and I believe that while his detractors are most vocal, there seems to be a big silent mass of voters who will easily vote for him because of what they see happening in Gujarat now.

In the end, this country needs a leader with some spine and some scruples, because current leadership hasn't an iota of either. If Modi, despite all his flaws and right wing leanings and whatever, represents the leader to display those, then there will be huge chunk that will bring him in. Whether that happens, we shall see, but to me, that represents the most credible answer to the current onslaught against the country by the CONgress. The CONgress is certainly sitting up and taking note.