Democracy - the Indian way !

I don’t often mention Indian politics on my blog. Not that I am not political, on the contrary, I am strongly political in my views. But when it comes to India, there are so many things to develop upon than politics, that too at the state level.

Much has been said about Indian democracy, said to be one of the world’s biggest and vibrant one. In India, democracy might be what it is defined in dictionaries, but not what it is envisaged as. Some time ago, when Economist termed Indian democracy as patchy, many people didn’t agree. I can’t see why, and the present case in point, one of the Western states of India- Gujarat. It is ruled by the worst person living - leader of the state BJP (a Hindu rightwing party).

Those who don’t know about Narendra Modi or his party BJP would not be able to understand my hatred for him. But he and his party were ruling Gujarat in 2002 - when about 2000 people were massacred.

The immediate reason for writing about him is this excellent article, carried again in Economist. I would just quote the lines from that article

“AS A cheerleader for the emerging India, a giant democracy with—at last—an economy to match, Narendra Modi is a disgrace.”

With the ongoing elections in Gujarat, Modi is again trying to keep his job. I have had only few Gujarati friends, so I don’t exactly understand the Gujarati mindset that elected him with absolute majority in 2002. The Economist article further mentions,

“Its last election, later in 2002, gave Mr Modi a thumping majority, biggest in those districts where the bloodshed was worst.”

The line above totally describes the voting pattern in 2002 elections of Gujarat and the following gives some hint about the average person who casts his/her vote in Gujarat.

“Meanwhile, few commentators have dwelt on the poll's most depressing aspect: Congress's own careful reluctance to mention the 2002 massacre—let alone Mr Modi's alleged part in it. This makes electoral sense. Attacking Mr Modi for failing to protect Muslims might remind Gujaratis why they used to like him so much.”

I don’t trust much the election predictions, not even those made by psephologist. If Narendra Modi gets to keep his job then I guess average voter of Gujarat will have lot of explaining to do.

Few even go so far to suggest that one day this hated person will become the Prime Minister of India. If this happens then the only thing I could do is to give away my Indian citizenship. It would be better than hanging my head in shame for the democracy, which would be India.