India’s Elections: Why Modi matters
His blunt style could galvanize India. Voters have high expectations of his ability to boost the economy, but many Muslims are nervous about the right-wing Hindu nationalist.
India’s P.M. Narendra Modi
New Delhi. India.
Never has India had a prime minister like Narendra Modi.
The right wing Hindu nationalist who swept to power in parliamentary elections, according to official results Friday, is a proud outsider. A self-made man whose father sold tea at a railroad station, his blunt style, poor English, and disdain for social graces have made him as distasteful to India’s traditional ruling class as he is popular elsewhere.
“He is breaking the door down,” says Tavleen Singh, a political columnist. “He is the wrong caste, the wrong class, the wrong everything.”
Mr. Modi, a barrel-chested man with a neatly trimmed white beard and mustache, is the first leader of a provincial state to win India’s top political prize. He campaigned hard on his record of economic success in the western state of Gujarat, promising similar benefits for the rest of the country under his leadership. [Read more]
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Comments
This report by the Christian Science Monitor has a few significant inaccuracies.
1). Muslims are NOT 19% of the population of India, but just 13.4%. The 19% (actually 19.5) includes ALL non-Hindus. Hindus are 80.5%.See this link:
http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/india-population/
2). 2,000 Muslims were not “massacred” in 2002 in Gujarat during Modi’s gov’t. Only 790 Muslims while 254 Hindus (or over 24%) were killed in obviously riots. Indeed, this is a terrible cost in lives for both sides and the reputation of India and Modi. See here for numerous links to substantiate these numbers, which were reported in the Indian Parliament. http://www.gujaratriots.com/index.php/2008/05/myth-1-2000-muslims-were-killed-in-the-gujarat-riots/
What the “Christian” Science Monitor (and numerous other media reportings) fail to do, in order to slam ‘uncivilized’ Hindus and India, is that they all ignore the catalyst for the riots. A train of Hindu pilgrims was returning from Ayodhya (Lord Rama’s birthplace) when it was stalled and incinerated by Muslims at the Godhra station resulting in the fiery end to mostly 60 women and children (described in the Toronto Star by a former Editorial Page Editor, Haroon Siddiqui, as ‘Hindu fundamentalists’). So, no wonder Sri Modi is sidelined by the US. These countries’ foreign policies are influenced heavily by Judeo-Christian-Islamic viewpoints about ‘polytheistic heathen Hinduism’ ignoring her world-moving contribution such as Yoga, Meditation (even the Beatles went to India to practise), Ayurvedic therapies, and, yes, The Decimal Number system which we all depend on for daily commerce and scientific calculations (without which, Einstein remarked: ‘no meaningful scientific achievements would have been possible’ (certainly, not with Roman Numerals).
If you want to see who massacred whom, read what happened to Hindus in 1971 in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh (but was India pre-1947 partition to create an Islamic state). Reporter, Anthony Mascarenhas, who was embedded with the West Pak military which carried out the pogrom/genocide of 1-2 million Hindus made a report to the London Sunday Times, June 13, 1971 and is reproduced here. (Even senator Edward Kennedy reported on the genocide of Hindus). http://tarekfatah.com/genocide-the-june-1971-article-about-pakistans-mass-murders-in-east-pakistan-by-tony-mascarenhas-in-londons-sunday-times-that-woke-up-the-world/ .
And this slaughter of Hindus is only part of what took place in India. The Muslim invaders, going back to the 7th C., inflicted scores of millions of loss of Hindu lives. The Catholic Church Goan Inquisition did its share as well; as did the British imperialists…..
Veda Nath Mohabir
vedamohabir@rogers.com