Daily Fix
Rosemary's Baby -
India's Narendra Modi
T. SHER SINGH
“The evil lives after them,“ observed Shakespeare’s Mark Antony on those who rule over men, during his famous funerary oration.
Narendra Modi’s prurient rise in India’s political firmament holds the same promise, though the desperate wannabe-prime-minister has nothing further in common with the man Antony eulogized.
'Evil’ is the single word that succinctly captures what this petty politician from Gujarat has wrought through his career trajectory to date.
Positioning himself as the soon-to-be proclaimed prime-ministerial candidate for India’s looney right, the man hailed himself on Friday, July 12, 2013, a “Hindu nationalist”, and in the same breath asserted that he had done “absolutely the right thing” in his role in the 2002 mass-murders in Gujarat.
Despite the mounting evidence of his crimes, he says he feels no compunction, he admits no remorse.
"Frustration comes when you think 'I got caught … that I was stealing and I got caught,' he said in the same interview on Friday. “That's not my case."
It is true. He hasn’t been caught. He has deftly escaped accountability. He was the state‘s chief minister then, and he is chief minister now; he has indeed purchased and finagled immunity for himself every step of the way.
The choice in the next election in India, it appears, will be between this very man and one other.
The latter -- Rahul Gandhi -- has the unique distinction of being son and the grandson of mass-murderers.
How does that fact make him guilty or taint him any way, you might ask.
It doesn’t.
Except, he has no other qualification, no experience, no history, no achievement(s) to his name. The only reason he leads his party and why half of the lemmings that make up the country are willing to do his bidding, is that he was sired by Rajiv Gandhi, who in turn was the progeny of Indira Gandhi.
That’s it. That is the full extent of his qualifications and qualities. If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself.
So, here’s the choice for a nation of 1.2 billion lemmings: between this straw figure, empowered by half-a-century’s history of crimes by his immediate family and the wealth they have accumulated to date in distant havens … and the other who is being held up by nothing but a scaffolding built of fundamentalist terrorism.
Chances are, the latter will win. Because he has equipped himself with the very same tactics his opponent’s grandmother had finessed.
The other day, when asked about the thousands of innocent Muslim men, women and children who were butchered under his watch in 2002, Narendra Modi shrugged his shoulders and said: Sure it was sad … when a “puppy comes under the wheel of a car, one feels sad.”
The comment, carefully worded … like Indira’s misdescriptions of Bhindranwale, or Rajiv’s image of the falling tree … is calculated, and guaranteed, to rev up the nutty Hindu vote in Modi‘s favour ...
It has oft been said that nothing is going to get better in India, no matter how much it wallows in crime and corruption, until and unless it first gets worse … really, Really, R-E-A-L-L-Y bad, that is.
It is a resilient society, that’s what it has going for it. And it has the ability to absorb any misery, to adapt and adjust to anything that tyrants and oppressors throw at it, and yet carry on as if it’s the norm.
Well, there’s good news then.
Things are about to get really, really bad.
Rape, plunder and pillage have taken on a slick corporate façade -- India Inc. -- and the world is about to see first hand, live and in technicolour, what keeps the sub-continent a land of slaves over and over again, almost in a continuum but for a few hiccups here and there, since the dawn of history.
Cassandra like, I predict anywhere between a decade and two, while this phase of modern kaliyug burns its way through.
In the meantime, what do we Sikhs do?
Simple: wrap ourselves in the mantle of chardi kala. Dip into our DNA of super-strengths. And dig in for the long haul.
I, personally, seek solace and strength in History. Call it Nature … or God … or Poetic Justice, if you will. But it delivers. Always. Ultimately.
Remember, it wiped off Hitler from the very face of this earth, leaving behind not a trace. Not too long after he inaugurated his Thousand-Year-Reich.
Remember, it sank the arrogant Titanic … on its maiden voyage.
Remember, a Sikh was dancing on Indira Gandhi’s grave even while the cement on her samadhi was still waiting to dry, and became the ruler of the very land she and her sons had contaminated with their crimes.
So, I turn to the greatest interpreter of human history in living memory: Arnold Toynbee.
Who wrote, having walked across countries and nations -- yes, on foot -- twice around the world and visited and studied every civilization known to Man -
They are the burliest men on the face of the planet -- tough and capable and slightly grim. If human life survives the present chapter of Man’s history, the Sikhs, for sure, will still be on the map.
Modi will come and go. So will Rahul. As sure as others who have plagued this earth before them.
Sikhs will stay. And they’ll be all the stronger with each passing.
July 15, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Dinoo Jhunjhunwala (New Delhi, India ), July 15, 2013, 1:10 PM.
True to the very last word, Mr T. Sher Singh ji. Thuggee is back in India, with a vengeance. And its followers worship the same goddess. It's not just Sikhs -- all of us in this country need to prepare. And resist, while there's still time.
2: Karam Singh (Patiala, Punjab), July 15, 2013, 1:17 PM.
Sikhi is the only Noah's Ark in sight in the oncoming deluge. I agree with this assessment 100%. Recent years have been the worst, no doubt, but -- believe it or not -- there'll be no holds barred once Manmohan Singh, this nation's only moral compass is gone. If they could do what they did during his tenure -- and it was not one worth writing home about either -- imagine what'll happen when all pretensions are thrown to the wind.
3: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), July 15, 2013, 8:04 PM.
Sher ji, even Mark Antony has not escaped your blue pencil. Thanks for improving on Mark Antony's passionate speech in the context of Narendra Modi's dubious rise amongst known thieves. History is replete with such men who did not know right from wrong and ultimately paid the price. It was Guru Nanak that spoke fearlessly in his Babarvani of such lost souls. On the Indian scene today, one name that comes to mind is Dr. Subramanian Swamy who has spoken out often without fear. He was the one who indicted the Gandhi family and stalled the President of India's impending appointment of Sonia Gandhi as PM, on several counts. She in turn tried to show false magnanimity in suggesting Dr. Manmohan Singh's name, knowing that she could still pull the strings. A 'mard agamrraah' is once again needed. "sach ki bani Nanak aakhai sach sunaa-isee sach ki bayla ... hor bhee uthsee mard kaa chayla" [GGS:723.4]. Winston Churchill quite correctly predicted: To abandon India to the rule of Brahmins, who in his view dominated the Congress Party, would be an act of cruel and wicked negligence. If the British left, he feared, India would fall back quite rapidly through centuries into the barbarism and privation of the Middle Ages. Which it duly has ...
4: Harinder Pal Singh (Patiala, Punjab), July 15, 2013, 9:41 PM.
They say that a nation gets the rule it deserves and that holds true for every country. It was true, for example, Bush Jr.'s case! The Indian voter is smart, very smart. Come election time, he's going to surprise everybody ... Modi, Rahul, et al! The nation which can progress despite the 'leadership', has something in it. Chardi kala has been the clarion call of Sikhs. Guru bhala karega.
5: G C Singh (USA), July 16, 2013, 11:08 AM.
The history of 1984 is likely to be repeated under Modi. Remember how most Hindus supported, with an overwhelming majority, the mass murder of tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs by Rajiv Gandhi's goons. Unfortunately, Sikhs in India, cowed by the majority that suffocates them, are getting sucked into the vortex of Hindutava due to political, economic and military oppression. We have to pray for the survival of Sikhi in India during the upcoming dark period, since mercenary collaborators such as Badal- an RSS protege - have already sold the Sikh nation and its institutions to the Hindutava gang in exchange for power, pelf and protection for their families.
6: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), July 17, 2013, 12:38 PM.
Rule of Law, judicial righteousness and fairness, protection of freedoms, life and liberty ... these are pillars of any respectable and functioning democracy. If India needs to gain respect on the world stage, it has to ensure that all its people enjoy basic fundamental rights that protect freedom and life ... I repeat, of all its citizens. How many 'big trees' have to fall, followed by senseless killings, or how many puppies have to get crushed under the bus, before Indians or mankind acknowledges that loss of even one precious life because of hatred or terrorism or politically motivated senseless killings is unacceptable? Mr. Modi and his likes deserve the right to be considered innocent before proven guilty in a respectable functioning democracy. The question is - "Is India a respectable functioning democracy?" If it is, then the answer is obvious and if it isn't then ... I believe and encourage Indians to build a country of which they themselves and all the world can be proud of, and we should assist them in this venture in all possible ways.
7: H Kaur (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada), July 17, 2013, 6:37 PM.
If Modi wins, you can be sure of one thing: the BJP/RSS will try to do their best to show that Sikhs too are against Muslims and are willing to carry out atrocities against them. India has used 'Sikhs' -- yes, we too have our fair share of those who will sell their souls for a fistful of coins -- to kill tens of thousands of innocent Sikhs, so surely it will not be a problem for them to find such goondas to convince the world that there is wide-spread support for the BJP's mischief against minorities, Muslims or anyone else! It's India! It's where, heavens, they don't even have a problem finding Muslims who are willing to be a part of their party. The goons who run Sikh affairs in India will be used like puppets, too. That is what I predict will happen with the winning of the BJP.
8: Harpal Singh (Australia), July 17, 2013, 10:48 PM.
Without any malice towards the commentator, if I may add one line at the end of #6: "And they lived happily ever after ..."