I am in awe of Narendra Modi – no two ways about it. Why? Because for the first time in recent years, I am seeing a politician who is looking beyond the ‘kursi’. Innumerable well-wishers of the BJP have advised him against following any policy reaching out to the Muslims or the SC/STs because they feel that this will anger the upper castes or the Middle Class or the Hindus. They have also written pages on how neither the Muslims nor the SC/STs will vote for him or his party in the coming elections. They have warned him how the upper caste Hindus and/or the Middle Class will vote for NOTA or Congress, but not vote for BJP. But none of these exhortations has stopped him from walking the tough path towards change.
So many people have panned the Modi Government for the Triple Talaq criminalization, that one gets the feeling that this may be a sinkhole moment for this government. The Muslim men don’t appreciate it, the Opposition doesn’t support it, the Hindus are wondering why BJP is interested in the Muslim women instead of the Hindus, some ‘intellectuals’ are criticizing that instead of TT, the Government should have criminalized Nikah Halala … and so on. But one thing no one want to talk about – how for the first time a community is forced to accept that they were doing something wrong; they were accepting a social evil as permissible. This is phenomenal. Hindus have always been forced to accept that they had practices which were socially and morally wrong. And they did. But the minorities always hid behind the veil of ‘secularism’. Everyone knows that TT, Nikah Halala, having innumerable children, all were wrong; but not one politician wanted to even start a discussion on this. We all know what the reaction of Rajiv Gandhi was to the ShahBano case.
Many parties kept talking about how the poor should be uplifted or how casteism was bad. But how many politicians actually took step to help them? Even the Mandal commission and the then Government of V P Singh stopped at increasing reservations. It took a politician like Modi to give basic rights of hygiene, house, health and minimum income to the lowest strata of society. For many educated people, especially those living in the cities, it was something taken for granted that villagers should defecate in the open, use wood as fuel, live in unclean surroundings, have thatched roof huts as homes and be burdened by loans for procuring seeds/cattle, children’s education or marriages, etc. This BJP Government changed the perspectives of the people. Today when I walk into my village in Karnataka, the first complaint I hear is that no workers are available to do farm work. Wait – don’t say that this is bad! The fact is that no farm workers are available for ridiculously low wages, as in the past. Now that they get a basic income through MNREGA, thanks to the direct credit to their bank accounts, they aspire for better wages in doing other farm work. Thanks to getting loans more easily from the Government for seeds, education, marriages, etc. they are not in the clutches of money lenders, as before. Because of farm insurance and basic procurement of prices for their produce, they don’t have to depend on agents as much as before. Of course all the problems haven’t been solved. But definitely the basic quality of life has improved. And this is definitely because of the working vision of One Man. They were not theories on paper, but action on the ground.
I am against reservations based on caste or religion; but I too have to accept for a fact that unless everyone has some basic needs fulfilled, these reservations will continue. This is also because we have always allowed politicians to divide us on these lines. For the first time Narendra Modi came up with the campaign, “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas” and worked on this very sincerely. I definitely hate the fact those from the upper castes, who are living below the poverty line, face severe problems when it comes to giving their children good education or jobs, thanks to the reservation policies; but at the same time I have to appreciate the Modi policy of computerization of Madrasas – the intent being on exposing the Muslim children to modern education and thinking. It is a balancing act which has to be done keeping the future in mind, and I implicitly trust that Narendra Modi will soon change the reservation policies – that is, when he wins a second term. Once a basic standard of living is achieved, the second thrust will have to be on merit.
For those who have criticized R S Prasad on his speech on reservations on the Judiciary, I wish to point out that Reservations have always existed in the Upper Courts & the common man never even realized it & so he never protested it. The fact is that the Collegium was one of the most ‘hidden’ reservations one can ever think of. Did you know that unless you knew English, you could not even fight your case in the Supreme Court, leave alone Judge it? Ever heard of a poor man becoming a lawyer or a Judge in any of the Higher Courts? Did you ever protest it? Did you think it was sudden that Supreme Court Judges were never able to decide on cases of Hindu importance, keeping the Hindu variables in mind? Were they even understanding the nuances of Hindu thought or Dharma? No! This is because most of the Judges in the SC were foreign educated, had family connections and were almost part of a club of elitist people, mostly steeped in Colonial thought, not Bharatiya culture. Breaking into their system despite strong objections from a sleeping majority and/or agenda driven minority, is something that only a person with vision will dare to do. And I am in awe of Narendra Modi for having that vision.
It is not everyday that one comes across a politician in Bharat, who loves change for the better, more than he loves his post. We knew two such politicians before – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Atal Bihari Vajpayee … and we also know what people of those eras did to them. What is this generation going to do with Narendra Modi? Will we become fools for a third time? Or will we beat the tide? You Decide.
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