Shri Narendra Modi is right afterall

NDTV hosted a program on the Shorabuddin case with Vikram Chandra ably moderating
the show(July 31,2010) The present writer’s only criticism of him is that he did not check before hand the seating/standing arrangement of the participants in the debate. The Congress Party’s attack dog,Manish Tiwari, who speaks in a loud stentorian voice, was placed next to the sober well spoken Nirmala Seetharaman of the BJP.
 
He interrupted her often, virtually shouting her down ! He began quite soberly, making  the observation that an investigation is under way and that it should take its course. By the end of the program he had forgotten this most reasonable observation and was hurling phrases at Shri Modi such as bribery, corruption, murder and so on !

 Earlier in the day he had spoken darkly about Shri Modi and he talked wildly about Hindu mythology( not clear why he says maithology, there is no diphthong there!) and how Shri Modi’s guilt would catch up with him etc. Not clear either whether Manish Tiwari understands his Hinduism, period.  Be that as it may . . . . .

His ally for the  event was Vrinda Grover, the human rights lawyer and advocate. One of
the problems with Ms. Grover, is that she cries wolf once too often. This is possibly an
occupational hazard. Human rights activists often do a good job but get carried away sometimes, and often rely on manufactured reports. In Ms. Grover’s case there also
seems to be a partisanship and a bias against the BJP and ofcourse, Gujarat. Like Tiwari she interrupted  Shrimati Nirmala frequently . As Shrimati Nirmala correctly pointed out:  it was no less a witness than David Headley who affirmed that Ishrat Jahan was an LeT operative. This is one of the causes that Ms. Grover had taken up.

The present writer has seen Ms. Grover on other debates where she has been shown to be inaccurate, as e.g. in affirming that the military in Kashmir have not been penalized for human rights violations. Praveen Swamy , associate editor of The Hindu ( a left of Centre publication) and by no means a BJP supporter, pointed out correctly that many had been brought to justice.

Both  Nirmala Seetharaman and Mukul Rohtagi (Counsel for the Gujarat government)     presented their positions well, at least when they were allowed to, by Tiwari and Grover.
They were frequently interrupted both by  Tiwari and  Grover . The BJP position was quite straightforward: the entire investigation into the Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah was timed to distract from the Congress failures on public policy and economic conditions in Bharat (for which they were responsible) and also create a   destabilizing of the Gujarat government.

None of the allegations against Amit Shah , the former Home Minister of Gujarat, would stand up in a court of law. This is obvious even to a lay person. Neverthless, the ruckus created, it is hoped (by the Congress) would achieve their twofold agenda: divert attention from Congress failures and simultaneously destabilize the Gujarat government. Two birds with one stone. A double whammy, as they say, in other countries.

This is, ofcourse, a dangerous path to take. Kanchan Gupta of The Pioneer, has written
a timely and detailed report on the misuse of the CBI by the Congress Party. Further, even the liberal media has not gone overboard yet ( though one editor did make a brash, rash and far fetched comparison with Srebernica). And CNN IBN even has the clip on the Congress minister who was seen together with one of the Maharashtra officials, allegedly involved with questionable people linked to the Sohrabuddin case.

Congress must remember how Sonia Gandhi’s remark ‘maut ka saudagar’ cost them
seats in the Gujarat Assembly. A few months ago many were startled by the re broadcasting
of Shri Modi’s speech on national television the very next day after the massacre of
the Hindu pilgrims (mostly women and children) on the train at Godhra by burning them
to death in an enclosed compartment in 2002.

Shri Modi had called upon the people of Gujarat not to retaliate. He even invoked the Mahatma’s name. The liberal press had been quiet on this topic, though one or two journalists such as Saba Naqvi admitted sheepishly that Shri Modi had made that speech indeed. And more recently sociologist Ashish Nandy said quite belatedly that the revenge killing of Muslims in Gujarat was more like the Partition riots, rather than any planned attack. Each day new evidence is coming to light as to the cooking up of allegations against Shri Modi by those who profess to work for communal peace, but are actually working against it. Teesta Setalvad and Communalism Combat are prime examples. They seem driven by a preconceived agenda rather than a genuine attempt at establishing communal peace.

To return to the question of Congress’s ill fated attempt via Amit Shah, his former Home Minister, to bring down Shri Narendra Modi.

It has been reported that Rahul baba may not accept the mantle in 2014 and may follow in his mother’s footsteps and work behind the scenes. This would enable the Mother son duo to exercise power without accountability, assuming a Congress win in 2014. Or is it that like his mother some ghosts may come to haunt him ? Not much is known, as yet about the young man. He appears to be a pleasant, not particularly bright young dude, surrounded by adoring Congress youth. The duo have been silent on important issues of the day.

There is also the odium of allegations of impropriety surrounding the Bofors scandal. At least one well honed researcher who  does not go public with reports  that do not have a solid foundation , has written in some detail about various aspects of Sonia’s career, both prior to and after her marriage to Rajeev Gandhi. In time, the Indian public would want to know the truth of these reports. A few years ago the overseas Youth Congress foolishly took some
people to court for what they said were false rumours concerning Sonia. The case went to 
court for a brief period but was withdrawn when the star witness herself did a no show.

Many onlookers who would otherwise have not noticed these anomalies must surely have pursued the matter in due time. And the people of Bharat cannot be fooled for too long.

The present writer  believes that the conduct and pronouncements of many of the dignitaries of the Congress Party convey a sense of doom, a slow slide into a free fall. It is possible that their unexpected victory in 2009 gave them a false sense of confidence, but the hubris  in the last year has turned into a grinding failure.

In addition to such things as the failure of the India Pak talks, and the astounding contradictory statements emanating from the Congress Party, the growing difficulty in their handling of the Kashmir situation  and the Maoist insurgencies, the Party has embarked on what appears to be a suicidal mission in attacking Shri Narendra Modi.The once glorious party of the freedom struggle has now descended to an all time low, with deceptions and stratagems. The present writer has already written about some of the deceptions especially those  linked with the Chairperson of the Congress.

Gujarat will stand by their Chief Minister Narendra Modi simply because he has brought that state forward to prosperity and peace and communal harmony. With regard to the fake encounter killings and other allegations against the former Home Minister Amit Shah, the legal process will continue. He is being advised by a renowned and highly competent lawyer Ram Jethamalani. And the CBI’s slate is none too clean. This is an open secret.

The Congress is living in a fool’s paradise if they think that these false allegations  against the Home Minister can somehow also be made to stick to Shri Modi. The most recent news is that the scheme had been hatched three years ago by Ahmed Patel, Sonia’s assistant. This charge has been made by a former Congress Party member, who has since left the party. He claims to have been physically present at some of the meetings when the plan was hatched at Ahmed’s residence.

Gujarat is not likely to forgive the Congress for their attack not only on their Chief minister but what seems to be on the entire state.And the rest of Bharat will see the present witchhunt for what it is, precisely what Shri Modi says it is : an attack on Gujarat.It is obvious that the once glorious freedom struggle party has descended to low tactics in their frenetic struggle to stay in power at the Centre by embarking on a Machiavellian preemptive strike on the Gujarat Chief Minister. The once glorious party of the freedom struggle seems to have drifted away from its
moorings and is entangled in a Byzantine maze.

Can one detect a fine Italian hand behind all this ?

( The writer is a Political Scientist who taught at a Canadian university).

Responses