A look at the messy electoral data, and reflection on the Modi-campaign, reveals something rather obvious at one level, but curiously ignored by some anti-Modi, anti-communal thinkers: this election is first and foremost a milestone in the Hindutva project. The problem of how to create an overarching Hindu identity - overriding but not dismantling caste and regional identities - obsessed the early Hindu nationalists. Creation and spread of a sense of Hindu-ness appears both as a means and as an end in their writings - it is both a pre-requisite for, and the definition of, "dharma rajya", the hazily defined "Hindu nation". And in this election it seems the Sangh Parivar has provided a proof of principle - they have shown that manufacturing an over-arching Hindu identity may be possible on a grand scale. What data backs up such a claim?...
"...But when an admirer of Narendra Modi as ardent as S Prasannarajan makes the comparison between Narendra Modi and Adolf Hitler to underline his commitment to the cause of Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat, Uber Alles, then I do have to sit up and take notice. And I would urge you all to do the same. A Modi acolyte is telling us that his master is like Hitler, and is doing so on the cover of a mass circulation English language news magazine.
Submitted by narendramodifacts on Sat, 05/17/2014 - 04:30
Will Amit Shah have all his cases (murder, extortion, kidnapping) dropped? Can Modi's right hand man really end in jail?
Will D. G. Vanzara, encounter killing specialist in jail since 2007, be released? He named Modi and Shah as his masters, and phone records showed close contact with Shah. But he has been silent for a while - could a deal be made?
"Have we crossed the moral line? Has 2002 been forgotten and forgiven? Our turn to say sorry to the world? I think so. We should if we believe democracy is not just about electoral arithmetic. For concepts like human rights, civil liberties, rule of law, constitutional governance, democracy to have any meaning, they must have universal jurisdiction, respect no national boundaries...
"If the struggle of Narendra Modi for power is the struggle of forgetting over memory, his victory represents a collective leap towards an uncertain future. Mr Modi’s remarkable election campaign may have been fuelled by unprecedented sums of money and magnified by the logic of the first-past-the-post system — which converted a 12 percentage point difference in vote share with the Congress into a 600 per cent difference in seats – but it has helped him banish, for all intents and purposes, the lingering shadows of a darker past..."
"...Modi appears to have been democratically elected. But, as his record in Gujarat indicates, he has exhibited a propensity to wield power in an undemocratic way and for undemocratic ends. Within his own party, he prevents emergence of independent leadership, making sure that potential rivals are politically finished. He encourages defections from other parties, rewarding defectors with party tickets, undermining the legitimacy of opposition.
"...Modi is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary Hindu nationalist organisation inspired by the fascist movements of Europe, whose founder's belief that Nazi Germany had manifested "race pride at its highest" by purging the Jews is by no means unexceptional among the votaries of Hindutva, or "Hinduness". In 1948, a former member of the RSS murdered Gandhi for being too soft on Muslims. The outfit, traditionally dominated by upper-caste Hindus, has led many vicious assaults on minorities.
"French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on India and some on Pakistan, is considered a leading authority on Hindu nationalism and caste politics in India. He is a senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London, Princeton Global Scholar and non-resident scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace..."
"Terming the ambitious river-linking plans of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as 'extremely dangerous', party MP Maneka Gandhi has said it was she who had stopped former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee from going ahead with it. The idea of inter-linking of rivers was floated during the NDA government headed by Vajpayee. Replying to a question on linking river Gomti with Sharda at an event here last night, Gandhi, who is sitting MP from Aonla, said "I had stopped Atalji from this rubbish (Maine hi Atalji ko roka tha is bakwaas se). Such plans are nothing but rubbish...
"In Manoj Mitta’s new book The Fiction of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra, published by Harper Collins India, Mitta argues that if there has been no real attempt to get to the truth of Modi’s actions during the riots, it’s because of the “cavalier” approach to justice. Through extensive documentation, Mitta shows that Modi might be on trial today, as opposed to campaigning for prime minister, if only he had been asked the right questions about his role in the riots..."
