Indian elections and Narendra Modi

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

Hmm . . . What does that imply for relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh?

Foreign policy has featured little, if at all in the campaign. To the extent that it has, Modi’s statements have been that continuity in foreign policy is essential, but he has noted that security and self-respect are important. So I expect that he’ll want to project more assertiveness(for instance perhaps demanding that Pakistan take more action against terrorists before peace talks or trade talks move forward), but by and large it’ll be business as usual.

[bldysabba]

Sorry missed this remarkable claim from the Dalrymple article

Modi has survived several formal investigations by the courts without conviction, but he has never apologised for his government’s failure to protect the minority or shown the slightest remorse for what happened.

Modi released a highly publicised statement 3 months before Dalrymple wrote this article. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/narendra-modis-blog/entry/satyameva-jayate-truth-alone-triumphs

Within a mere five months however, the mindless violence of 2002 had dealt us another unexpected blow. Innocents were killed. Families rendered helpless. Property built through years of toil destroyed. Still struggling to get back on its feet from the natural devastation, this was a crippling blow to an already shattered and hurting Gujarat.

I was shaken to the core. ‘Grief’, ‘Sadness’, ‘Misery’, ‘Pain’, ‘Anguish’, ‘Agony’ – mere words could not capture the absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity.

On one side was the pain of the victims of the earthquake, and on the other the pain of the victims of the riots. In decisively confronting this great turmoil, I had to single-mindedly focus all the strength given to me by the almighty, on the task of peace, justice and rehabilitation; burying the pain and agony I was personally wracked with.

During those challenging times, I often recollected the wisdom in our scriptures; explaining how those seating in positions of power did not have the right to share their own pain and anguish. They had to suffer it in solitude. I lived through the same, experiencing this anguish in searingly sharp intensity. In fact, whenever I remember those agonizing days, I have only one earnest prayer to God. That never again should such cruelly unfortunate days come in the lives of any other person, society, state or nation.

This is the first time I am sharing the harrowing ordeal I had gone through in those days at a personal level.

However, it was from these very built up emotions that I had appealed to the people of Gujarat on the day of the Godhra train burning itself; fervently urging for peace and restraint to ensure lives of innocents were not put at risk. I had repeatedly reiterated the same principles in my daily interactions with the media in those fateful days of February-March 2002 as well; publically underlining the political will as well as moral responsibility of the government to ensure peace, deliver justice and punish all guilty of violence. You will also find these deep emotions in my recent words at my Sadbhavana fasts, where I had emphasized how such deplorable incidents did not behove a civilized society and had pained me deeply.

In fact, my emphasis has always been on developing and emphasizing a spirit of unity; with the now widely used concept of ‘my 5 crore Gujarati brothers and sisters’ having crystallised right at the beginning of my tenure as CM itself from this very space.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

I don’t see an apology for the failures of his government in there (leaving aside the issue of whether such was required.) Personal regret, sure.

[bldysabba]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

I don’t see an apology for the failures of his government in there (leaving aside the issue of whether such was required.) Personal regret, sure.

Latter half of the quoted statement was what I was pointing out.

Modi has survived several formal investigations by the courts without conviction, but he has never apologised for his government’s failure to protect the minority or shown the slightest remorse for what happened.

(bold mine)

And his stand on the apology is precisely about requirement. His stand is he did what he could, and an apology is not what is needed. He says if he did not in fact do all he could, an apology is meaningless and he should face criminal prosecution.

I’m not necessarily in agreement with that stand, but that’s what it is, FWIW, and at the very least it’s not inconsistent or prima facie ‘terrible’.

[BrainGlutton]

@Dervorin

With Bangladesh, it’s harder to tell. The illegal immigrant issue (or perceived issue) is certainly alive . . .

Bangladeshis have been sneaking into India?

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

Bangladeshis have been sneaking into India?

As Dervorin notes, the perception of illegal immigration from Bangladesh is certainly there. FWIW, I think the problem does exist. There are certainly Bangladeshis illegally living in India, particularly some urban centers, and some states near Bangladesh, like Assam. The scope of the problem is difficult to identify, in part because it’s…well…illegal, and (this may be just perception)in part because it is believed that the Congress encourages or at least turns a blind eye to this immigration because it can covert the immigrants (Bangladeshi muslims) into captive votebanks.

[bldysabba]

@anu-la1979

I’m curious to see how long Obama is going to wait to call him up.

News says it’s already happened

[Dervorin]

bldysabba, thanks for posting that. I’m away from a computer most of this weekend so I’ll have a good read through on Monday and respond then. Didn’t want to you think that I was ignoring your post, though!

[Hector_St_Clare]

@anu-la1979

Well, Modi won, with a clear mandate no less.

I’m Indian-American but married to a FOB. My husband is Aam Aadmi but it’s pretty obvious from FB that the rest of our family is 100% BJP…in spite of the fact that both my grandfather and his were Gandhians, socialists and separatist rebels. Things have changed a lot in India.

I’m curious to see how long Obama is going to wait to call him up.

I don’t think I have any family members in India who vote BJP, or would admit to it, except for one uncle (now deceased). Most of my relatives vote Congress, and a few favour the Communists.

Modi’s party seems to have exceeded all possible expectations, and both Congress and the Communists did horribly. To say I’m disheartened would be a big understatement.

[BrainGlutton]

Bob Dreyfuss thinks Modi’s election is something to worry about.

[Hector_St_Clare]

The BJP actually won seats in Tamil Nadu (where my family is from), as far as I can tell for the first time ever. That’s really disturbing. I would have expected that the legacy of the Dravidian Movement and its anti-Brahmin, anticlerical overtones would have inoculated the state against any Hindu nationalist party, but the BJP actually won three seats and its coalition ally (a breakaway faction of the Dravidian nationalist party, which has morphed into a vaguely conservative-populist cult of personality around its leader) won all the rest. This is really, legitimately, a landslide, in favour of the people I don’t like.

If nothing else, this election convinces me that India would do better with proportional representation (for that matter, I think most countries would, with a few exceptions).

[Hector_St_Clare]

Ah, sorry, apparently the AIADMK didn’t coalition with the BJP this time (it has in the past).

[BrainGlutton]

@Hector_St_Clare

If nothing else, this election convinces me that India would do better with proportional representation (for that matter, I think most countries would, with a few exceptions).

Is there any movement for it?

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

Bob Dreyfuss thinks Modi’s election is something to worry about.

Who’s Bob Dreyfuss, and why should anyone care what he thinks? Also, this business of the western press in particular constantly describing Modi as a Hindu nationalist strikes me as strange. What do they mean by it?

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

Is there any movement for it?

Nope. Nor would I be happy to see it instituted(or a movement towards it). PR has advantages in terms of representation, but it also has significant disadvantages in terms of accountability. India already has a problem with politicians not doing their jobs well. I would hate to see systemic changes that encourage them to do worse.

[bldysabba]

@Hector_St_Clare

Ah, sorry, apparently the AIADMK didn’t coalition with the BJP this time (it has in the past).

And is quite favourably inclined towards them in the present.

[BrainGlutton]

@bldysabba

Who’s Bob Dreyfuss, and why should anyone care what he thinks?

He writes on foreign policy for The Nation.

@bldysabba

Also, this business of the western press in particular constantly describing Modi as a Hindu nationalist strikes me as strange. What do they mean by it?

They mean the BNP is a Hindu-nationalist party, which it is. They mean this:

The BJP is the political heir of the 1970s-era Janata party, which ruled India for a few years under Morarji Desai. Aside from, and parallel to, the role of the BJP and Modi in sectarian strife putting Hindus against Muslims in India, the BJP and its allied organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have forces within them that believe that India under the Congress party and the Gandhis has lost sight of India’s glorious role as defender of Hindu interests. The RSS—whose name translates as “National Volunteer Organization”—is a right-wing, paramilitary group founded in 1925, which has long been involved in anti-Muslim violence and which has been banned several times in India’s history, including after one of its adherents assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. And though the leaders of the BJP have, lately, been careful to keep the RSS at arm’s length, the RSS jumped into the fray during the election with strong support for the BJP.

The BBC, in its profile of Modi, says in regard to the RSS:

Analysts say the reason Mr Modi remains unscathed is the strong support he enjoys among senior leaders in the right-wing Hindu organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS, founded in the 1920s with a clear objective to make India a Hindu nation, functions as an ideological fountainhead to a host of hardline Hindu groups—including Mr Modi’s BJP with which it has close ties. The RSS has a particularly strong base in Gujarat, and Mr Modi’s ties to it were seen as a strength the organisation could tap into when he joined the state unit of the BJP in the 1980s.

Recently, a rising tide of Hindu nationalism in India has led to worrying developments, especially for Muslims and secularists, including the banning in India of a recent book by Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History. Indian journalists who’ve reported on the role of Modi, the BJP and the RSS in recent sectarian violence have been threatened. And critics have felt the violent wrath of BJP supporters.

BJP supporters, of course, were blamed for Hindu-vs.-Muslim sectarian violence of 1992 and 2002 in Gujarat—where the population is about one-seventh Muslim—in which thousands died. In an interview with The New York Times after the riots, in which Hindus rampaged against Muslims, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, Modi—then Gujarat’s chief state minister—was brazenly unapologetic. In 2005, the United States banned Modi from traveling to the United States, though in February—having figured out that Modi and the BJP were likely to win the election in May—the US embassy reached out to Modi once again. (Modi also had reconciliation meetings with Britain, the former colonial power, and with the European Union.)

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

He writes on foreign policy for The Nation.

They mean the BNP is a Hindu-nationalist party, which it is. They mean this:

This is what the BJP website says about the matter of Hindu nationalism.

Cultural Nationalism: The BJP draws its inspiration from the history and civilisation of India. We believe that Indian nationhood stems from a deep cultural bonding of the people that overrides differences of caste, region, religion and language. We believe that Cultural Nationalism for which Indianness, Bharatiyata and Hindutva are synonyms – is the basis of our national identity.

Contrary to what its detractors say, and as the Supreme Court itself has decreed, Hindutva is not a religious or exclusivist concept. It is inclusive, integrative, and abhors any kind of discrimination against any section of the people of India on the basis of their faith. It rejects the idea of a theocratic or denominational state. It accepts the multi-faith character and other diversities of India, considering them to be a source of strength and not weakness. It firmly upholds secularism, understood as Sarva Pantha Samabhav (treating all faiths with respect).

However, the BJP unflinchingly holds that differences in faith cannot challenge the idea of India as One Nation or undermine our millennia-old identity as One People. This is why, we rejected the two-nation theory on the basis of which our Motherland was tragically partitioned in 1947. Thus, Cultural Nationalism is the most potent antidote to communalism, divisiveness, and separatism of every kind, and a guarantor of our national unity and national integration.

[Acsenray]

That statement is weird and troubling for someone who believes in democracy and secularism. It has a very “I’m not racist, but …” Feel to it.

[bldysabba]

@BrainGlutton

They mean the BNP is a Hindu-nationalist party, which it is. They mean this:

Nor does that section clarify what Hindu nationalist means. Why don’t you take a stab at it?