Mai Modi Badnaam......

I am not a big Mr. Narendra Modi fan. Nor am I a hater. But in India, I’m not allowed to do so. Here, neutrality either means lack of ‘round objects connected to a  necessary reproductive organ’ which half the population literally doesn’t have (an expression which even feminists use, without realising that it is against their basic cry), or subtler terms like diplomacy, running away from the topic and not taking a stand just to ‘save oneself from the debate’. The truth, however remains that I have mostly viewed Modiji as a normal person who has been unnecessarily hyped on either side.

It was one of the reasons I did not care to listen to his twin speeches at the UN General Assembly and at the Madison Square Garden. I have often regarded him as the dramatic and happier version of Nirupa Roy and Ravi Shastri in terms of melodrama and repetitive exaggeration respectively. But the event which caught my eyes was the protests that were held and shown by the ‘alternative’ media, which also blamed the mainstream media for ignoring the ‘Anti-Godhra’ protesters just to keep the PM in a good light. Let me explain the situation in the way I best can.

Movie: Don        Year: 1978          

The character Jasjit (played by Pran) is sitting in jail narrating his tumultuous life- experiences to Kaka (played by probably a real-life Kaka).

Kaka: “Laikinn (sic) Jasjit, Ye hua Kaise?”

Jasjit: “Insaan apni burai chhod sakta hai Kaka, lekin insaan ki badnaami humesha uske saath rehti hai. Maine apni pichhli zindagi se rishta tod liya tha, lekin duniya mujhe maaf na kar saki.”

Now, before you digress by starting to mimic Pranji’s voice by repeatedly shaking your head on the above dialogue, let me come to the point straightaway. Here, in the movie, Jasjit used to be small-time thief. And yet the world couldn’t forgive him for this. The person in consideration here has been accused of genocide. Why would anyone, especially the ones who suffered, even think of anything on the lines of forgiveness? It is a completely different matter that he has been absolved of all the cases lodged against him. The people who further accuse politicians of having the judiciary in their pockets need to look no further than at Jayalalitha. Ironically, it seems that the whole ‘kayanat’ is conspiring to help Modi become the Messiah, which the half of India already views him as.

I, therefore, halfheartedly made it a point to at least listen to his UNGA speech, thinking that maybe it’d make me think better of the man. And this time, I was impressed indeed. Agreed, that his amount of usage of the words ‘sthirta’ and ‘samriddhi’ was equivalent to the amount of abuses given by a typical Indian male aged 16-35 on a 'minutely' basis, but this time, it was different.

No ‘Bhaiyon aur Beheno’ here. It was the official meeting of delegations from different parts of the world on a global platform. The sentences were short, neat and terse. There was no beating around the bush, no sugar-coated accusations. Terrorism was duly criticised; as was the inability of the super powers to deal with it; Suitable messages were sent to Pakistan with appropriate amount of humour*; peace proposals were extended throughout the world; and he spoke and portrayed as if India was a benefactor and not a beneficiary anymore, walking toe to toe with other super powers. He spoke as a global citizen wanting to contribute, not someone begging the UN to help their country/community. When the alleged merciless butcher is extending a baton of peace to the entire world, you know that something is not right. You could even feel the man desperately trying to cleanse his image despite not being entirely at fault. I had a smile on my face throughout.

No matter what the inner realities are, I felt proud, the feeling one gets when someone praises one's family despite it having problems. I could myself feel that my country’s a world leader; the few minutes of feeling like a superpower which it was supposed to be by the end of 2020 were indeed awesome.

To the victims of the Godhra incident, and the people involved directly, who can never forgive this man for the massacre, I say, DON’T. Neither I, nor can anyone else step in your shoes and feel the pain in the same way you do. You have the full right to do so, and perhaps you are the necessary critics required at this and every further stage. To the people who have complained about the media bias, do you seriously think that displaying the photos of the protesters would’ve made even an iota of difference to the blind supporters? To the supporters, I say, ‘CONTINUE’. To the rest, which include people like me as well, I just have one thing to say, "We’ve elected Sleeping Beauties, Mute Buttons, and Corruption Kings as leaders of our nation. I think we can give a chance to the person who’s at least trying hard. The worst that can come out of this is nevertheless not new to us. We've already had 67 years of net practice for that."

Time for a Namaste! Jai Hind! I guess.

*I know it wasn’t intentional but I actually laughed at the clever usage of words when he said ‘UN jaisa itna achcha platform hone ke bawajood hum G badalte rehte hain’ while referring to the history of the G-20 summits.

P.S. A very Happy Birthday to you Bapu. We as a country did not deserve you. But then, neither did the other nations. So I guess it’s ok. Thanks, anyway.