How many of you have asked for a Promotion, Salary Hike or
Change of work (project, department, role) in your career and were denied? How
many of you asked for a toy that your father cannot afford, for a bike that
your father didn’t want to buy for you at that time or for joining a course or
program that your parents considered unnecessary? Do you still remember the ingenious
way your parents or manager or HR evaded the question? People resort to tricky
words and clever replies when they can’t give an honest answer.
I was made to remember of such instances of my life by none
other than our Prime Ministerial candidate Mr. Narendra Modi yesterday. I came
late from office and my wife was watching his interview with Mr. Goswami in
Times Now. I just joined her, and then happened to hear this cute little statement
– that when BJP said in their manifesto that they welcome all Hindu refugees
(and not Sikh or Jain or Muslim or Christian refugees), they meant Hinduism as
a “way of life” and they were just following the definition of the Supreme
Court of India.
Chooo Chweeet of him!!! Vasudaiva Kudumbakam. Vasudha Eva
Kudumbakam. Earth indeed is a family.
He made me to do some research. Which is this Supreme Court
judgement that he is talking about? What exactly is the statement from BJP’s
manifesto?
Mr. Modi is referring to a Supreme Court judgement involving
a case against Bal Thackeray. (http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=10197).
Mr. Theckeray had made the below statement – “"We are fighting this
election for the protection of Hinduism. Therefore, we do not care for the
votes of the Muslims. This country belongs to Hindus and will remain so."
Following are some relevant passages from the Supreme Court
judgement:
“Words `Hinduism' or `Hindutva' are not necessarily to be
understood and construed narrowly, confined only to the strict Hindu religious
practices unrelated to the culture and ethos of the people of India, depicting
the way of life of the Indian people. Unless the context of a speech indicates
a contrary meaning or use, in the abstract these terms are indicative more of a
way of life of the Indian people and are not confined merely to describe
persons practising the Hindu religion as a faith.”
“Misuse of these expressions to promote communalism
cannot alter the true meaning of these terms. the mischief resulting from the
misuse of the terms by anyone in his speech has to be checked and not its
permissible use. It is indeed very unfortunate, if in spite of the liberal and
tolerant features of `Hinduism' recognised in judicial decisions, these terms
are misused by anyone during the elections to gain any unfair political
advantage.”
“Our conclusion is that all the three speeches of Bal
Thackeray amount to corrupt practice under sub-section (3), while the first
speech is a corrupt practice also under sub- section (3A) of Section 123 of the
R.P. Act. “
So, after all, Bal Thackeray was punished by Supreme Court
for using that word for “misusing during the elections to gain any unfair
political advantage”.
So, what Mr. Modi claims is that BJP was using the word
Hinduism in the sense of “way of life of the Indian people”, not in the sense “persons
practising the Hindu religion as a faith”.
Ok. Granted. I am deliberately
forgetting the entire history or RSS, BJP and Mr. Modi. Now, let’s see what does
the BJP manifesto says. The statement in question comes under the heading
Foreign Relations. “India
shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to
seek refuge here.” So,
Modi’s claim is that the sentence is to be read as: India shall remain a
natural home for persecuted people who follow way of life of Indian people.
Now, I suddenly see another statement
in the same manifesto. The very immediately prior statement: “The NRIs, PIOs
and professionals settled abroad are a vast reservoir to articulate the
national
interests and affairs
globally.”
Who is an NRI? Who is a PIO? Are they
not “Hindus” in the abstract sense of the word? If yes, why are they not named
called as “Hindus”? If not, what is the difference between NRI, PIO and Hindu?
Intrigued by this, I do a search for
the term “Indians”. There are 41 places in which the word “Indian” is used in
that manifesto. There is only one place where Hindu is used. Why only one
reference to the word “Hindu”? If the intellectually-challenged explanation that the word processor failed to do a Grammar check is set aside, you would have to say that the two terms "Indian" and "Hindu" are not synonymous in the context of this manifesto. Then, Mr. Modi is saying that there are Indians who are not "Hindus (abstract sense)". Who are those people? And how different are those people who are different from "persons who practicing Hindu religion"? (Arnab didn't ask any of these questions, unlike the aggro he showed against Rahul Gandhi. I guess that isn't a surprise for anybody).
In a document where a set of people are referred
to as “Indians” 41 times, what if there was a 42nd reference that
says: “India
shall remain a natural home for persecuted Indians and they shall be welcome to
seek refuge here.”
OH, NO. THIS IS NOT GOING TO GET ANY
VOTES. THIS IS NOT GOING TO PLEASE THE RSS CADRE.
Mr. Modi, who are you trying to fool
here? In a general sense, everybody, of course. He can't say that he means what he really means and get away from possible constitutional repercussions. So, he just took the only way out. But that's not really fooling anybody. It is just an open trick. When a magician explains you a magic trick, you may appreciate the cleverness of the trick, but you are neither fooled by nor amazed at the trick itself anymore.
But, I am more intrigued by the question- are there anyone who will get really fooled by this?
Your party cadre? They already know that when you said Hindu, you meant
exactly that “persons practicing the Hindu religion” (as opposed to the
41-time-reference to Indians), and they are happy to hear that. No need to fool
them. Your detractors? Well, they are also already aware that you meant exactly
the same. So, who else?
Ok. Now, I get it. There are a set of
facebook-educated political activists that support you. They don’t want to see
the obvious. Yet, they worship you. And you can’t let them down. They are like a
9-year old boy who saw a nice red-colored toy car in a shop (that his neighbor uncle
owned) which his father cannot afford. He asked his father, and he said no. He
cried. He cursed. He didn’t eat. Then the father said he will buy the toy for
the boy the next day. Next day, they both went to the shop and the car wasn’t
there. The uncle told that it was damaged and the entire pack was returned. Boy
believed him. And was happy because he didn’t buy the car the day before. He
didn’t know then that the car was still there, undamaged. He didn’t know then that
his father asked the neighbor to hide it. He didn’t know then that he was
fooled.
Mr. Modi knows that India
is full of such people who can’t see the obvious, or don’t want to admit the
obvious. He also knows that they are 9-year olds intellectually and can be
fooled. He is playing a magic in which both the right and the left can see what the magician is doing. There are some kids at the center whom he is hoping to amaze. And, so far, he is doing a good job in the magic show.
