When I thought of canvassing vote for Modi to give him a second chance during the 2019 Parliament election, I thought of doing it by using the Indian concept of demanding ‘guru Dakshina’ (honorarium) by a guru from his disciples. So I sent a WhatsApp message to several of my shishyas but only those who live in North India as: ‘I need my guru Dakshina’. I never made this request to anyone in South India, because I know here in South the shishyas will argue with a guru rather than obeying his command or oblige his request.
Immediately several of them responded by writing ‘just give command, what is your Dakshina’. Then in response, I sent back the message: My guru dashing is your vote. If you agree, then vote for Modi. This is not a request but a command from your guruji. I am writing this not as a joke but seriously.’ Most of them responded positively and promised to vote for Modi. But one or two said that they are disillusioned by Modi in whom they had great trust. But he failed them. One said that he will vote for nota.
But I had another series of exchange of messages with one from South India who did not at all agree with me. I never asked this guru Dakshina from her, but it all developed in a different context. She gave all her reasons why we should not support Modi. According to her, she too trusted him when he was elected in 2014. ‘His ideology and politics have created so much division in the country that we don’t want to experiment for another term. Might need another 50 years to undo the damage he will cause’. It is too much to share all that we exchanged between us through WhatsApp messages. Then in final response to her, I wrote the following message:
Life can’t be divided in water tight compartments. Separating sacred from secular is an artificial division. Our bhakti in God should motivate us to engage in the contemporary issues which affect our lives. Expecting perfection is mere ideology. We are living in a corrupt and evil world. But we can’t deny our share in it. Our bhakti should motivate us to see the silver line around the dark clouds. There is light at the end of the tunnel. That is the reason for me to motivate others to vote for a right cause. We need not engage every day in politics. But when a crucial time like election comes, we can’t keep away in the name of our bhakti. In a democracy, we have no other option but to choose between two corrupt people. But who is less corrupt and keeps the interest of the nation first is the question before us. So think wisely and act prudently.
Though I wrote it, considering his personal record Modi is not a corrupt person, he never looted the country and pocket the money and promoted his family. Just giving one term of five years is not enough for Modi to prove his agenda for ‘inclusive growth’. The first five years went in clearing up all the mess created by the Congress rule in the past. One may have her personal reservation against his Hindutva ideology. When they trusted him in 2014, he had it that time also. It all depends upon our approach to the concept of ‘Hindutva’. Whatever might it be, it emerged as a negative reaction to the Congress ideology of ‘minority appeasement’ and pseudo secularism. If anyone should claim the credit of its birth, then Congress alone can do it. It has a long history and several books were written on it. I am not in favor of the Hindutva agenda particularly dividing the society on communal lines. But according to my understanding the concept of ‘religious minority’ is illogical in a secular democratic country. No single person following any kind of religious faith should be considered as a minority. But unfortunately Our Constitution gave the status of religious minority. But blaming any political party or organization like RSS is not the solution. We should remove this concept of religious minoritism from the mind of every Indian who believes in Secular Democracy. Considering the present scenario of facing various challenges from a neighboring country which keeps terrorism as its state policy and another one supporting it, we need a strong leader. I am patriotic. I want a strong and progressive India. For that we need a strong leader. Modi is not a perfect person. But he is better than Rahul. There are wonderful leaders in congress. I like Gulam Nabi Azad. I wish he could be our PM or Ananth Kumar Sharma. But Sonia family became like a dog which lies on hey stock, neither allowing the animal to eat nor human to take it to feed the cattle. {மாடு தின்னாமலும், மனிதன் தொடாமலும் வைகோலில் படுத்த நாய் போல} I am not anti-congress or pro BJP. But in the present scenario, we need a person like Modi and not Rahul.
My only response to those who oppose Modi is that in a democracy people have the final authority. If they don’t want a government, they can throw it out easily as done recently in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh by removing BJP governments. Before these state elections, one of my shishyas from south expressed his apprehension that by manipulating the electronic voting machines Modi will win. According to him, Ambani will do that for Modi. But the results of these state elections proved how he and several like him are wrong.
This does not mean that everything goes well with BJP or Sangh Parivar. I too agree with many who oppose the violent side of any politics. The killing of intellectuals who oppose their ideology, opposing artists like T. M. Krishna etc., cow vigilantism is the dark side of the Sangh Parivar. When I recently was talking with some RSS people, I made it clear that these fringe elements among them bring bad names not only to them and damage their cause of nation building but also bring down the reputation of India. Of course, it is an open secret that these fringe elements were created by the intellectual wing of the Sangh Parivar to silence their opponents by using violence. Then they can distance themselves from them. But we all know that the entire fringe elements in Sangh Parivar in whichever name they are operating are nothing but the violent proxy to them. Along with every sober and sensible person I too oppose it. There is no place for violence in a secular democracy. Silencing the opponents by violence will only degrade any ideology.
In a young democracy like India, we are learning so many things by trial and error. Now we are caught between the pseudo secularism which engages in minority appeasement and militant nationalism which creates the minority phobia by creating ‘the other’. But more dangerous between both is dynastic politics which prevents talented people from taking the leadership. At the same time I won’t blame Sonia family for this. This is again the creation of the Indian Congress leaders as they cannot stay together to provide the challenge to BJP. But we cannot blame them even for this. It is in their DNA. As Congress was started by a White man, Congressmen can stay together only under the leadership of another White person or someone who has white DNA in the blood. Sonia is the glue which holds the Congress together now. In several states, Congress almost disappeared. But this is not good for our democracy. Even Didi (Mamta) happily removed the word ‘Congress’ from the name of her party which now becomes ‘Teen mol party’ from ‘Teen mol Congress party’. Symbolically, she sent the message to dynastic politics which never allowed regional leaders to grow and strengthen the party.
Our desire for perfection is mere idealism. Considering our own corrupt nature as we fail in our own creed, there is no point in expecting it our system which is our own creation. Modi is not perfect; BJP is not perfect. No political party in India is perfect. But we have no other alternative before us. We must choose the less evil one. And we have the voting power with us to throw away when any political party uses the power to promote its ideology. This we recently witnessed in the State election in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. So considering the present scenario of several challenges, we need a person like Modi and he deserves a second term. In case if he cannot get the second term then loss is not for him. But I won’t regret it much. Because Indian democracy has the inherent capacity to overcome any challenges. Unlike Congress, BJP doesn’t depend upon a single Modi. If Congress continues to walk with the crutches of dynastic politics, soon it will be reduced to a regional party as the future young generation is wise enough to produce more talented leaders than depending upon one family show in Indian politics. Poor Rahul and Sonia family will be eternally blamed for that as they wrote the final chapter of Congress by making it a regional party.
Dayanand Bharati
5-04-2019
Note: Finally, I even managed to convince a Congress member after a long dialogue with him to vote for Modi. He sent his Congress membership but promised to vote for Modi but not in the State assembly election.
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