Thought Box

MODI & KAPIL – THE TRUMAN SHOW?…

MODI & KAPIL – THE TRUMAN SHOW?…

by Vinta Nanda April 22 2014, 6:20 pm Estimated Reading Time: 8 mins, 58 secs

”BJP… I dont support ur plan to make Pakistan secular by sending secularists there…..please do not send secularists to Pakistan… they will be killed there by the followers of peaceful religion…. secularists are good people and I like them a lot…. they just suffer from selective amnesia… we can bear these people… but in Pakistan…. they will be treated in same way as minorities get treated there…. btw minorities exist there? The last time I heard that the Muslims have start killing each other… seems like all Hindus… Sikhs… Ahmediya… are already killed…. so no sending secularists to Pakistan… it’s a pretty dangerous place for them….” A Facebook post by someone I just un-friend-ed last night.

The above are words written by someone on Facebook, as a reaction to one of the prominent leaders of BJP in Bihar, Giriraj Singh, a member of the legislative assembly who until recently held a ministerial post and who created a controversy today by saying that all those who don’t support Modi in present elections, India; will be packed off to Pakistan when Narendra Modi is elected the Prime Minister of India.

Close to its heels came news breaking in about another leader; this one holds high post in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organization that has a strong hold on the BJP led by Narendra Modi; Pravin Togadia who made hateful and inciting remarks against minorities in India and asked Hindu’s of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, to throw all Muslims out of their localities and ensure that they cannot buy properties in areas predominantly inhabited by Hindus’. All Modi’s men say repeatedly across Indian media that Modi has always been against the views of Togadia; but strange that Modi himself does not come out openly to condemn him?

As though this wasn’t enough; the next video to hit screens in every home in India today was that of a rally held in Mumbai; the financial capital of India, where Narendra Modi of BJP and Uddhav Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, its alliance partner, presided the stage on which another Shiv Sainik by the name of Ram Kadam spilled venom against Muslims and openly proclaimed that once Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India, Muslims will be packed off to Pakistan. Both Modi and Uddhav Thakeray watched the proceedings without making any move to stop the man from his shameful vitriolic outburst.

Amidst news reports of feverish campaigning by various political parties representing different cultures, ethnicities, religions, languages and ideologies; these comments made by men who hate anybody other than those who follow their religion, hits hard.

All this at such a time, when Narendra Modi himself is seen as leading his party and contesting the 2014 elections on a moderate agenda; and he is appealing to the people of India with the promise of development through economic progress; and by providing social justice to all; also pleading to voters to elect him if they want to save their nation from the clutches of corrupt leaderships across party lines. I have watched most of his interviews on Indian Television and heard him say at many a rally, that if given a chance, he will not run the government on a fundamental Hindu agenda and that he will be inclusive of minorities; as well as follow the practices of democracy which are enshrined in the constitution of India.

So the thought that comes to mind when Modi’s supporters are speaking a completely different language to what he is saying, is this: If what he (Modi) says is to be believed; is it that he will disappoint all those who are supporting him so aggressively at present?

That is a BIG question that needs to be answered.

The worshippers of Modi are mostly driven by hatred for primarily the Muslims and then those other minorities which do not conform to the religious practices and doctrines of Hinduism. Their principal objective is to prove that if progress, resources, business and economic advancement of any kind is to be distributed, then the beneficiaries should be the Hindu’s at first and the surplus then can be distributed among others; also that the Ram Mandir should be built at what is believed to be the Ram Janam Bhoomi in Ayodhya; whereas Varanasi should be developed as the seat of Hinduism; like what the Vatican is to the Christians and Mecca is to the Muslims. I really have no problem with the last wish, as long as the huge enterprise to convert Varanasi to a place of worship for the Hindu’s as well as those who believe in Hinduism all over the world; also includes in the process the clean-up of the holy river Ganga.

All said and done, what excites those supporting Modi and also those waiting with bated breath for him to become the next Prime Minister of India; is the fact that they believe that in his (Modi’s) coronation is the fulfilment of their dream; that of India finally becoming a Hindu State. In electing Modi as their Prime Minister, they see a victory of a battle they believe that their ancestors have been fighting since the early eleventh century when Mahmud of Ghazni launched seventeen expeditions into South Asia and expanded his empire from Kurdistan in the West to Samarkand in the Northeast and from the Caspian Sea to the Panjab.

In 1030, Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at age 59.

As with the invaders of three centuries ago, Mahmud’s armies looted temples in Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, Somnath and Dwarka.

Now, this is the time for revenge!

For over sixty years now, RSS has established itself and created a network that spreads across the country with a single point agenda; that is to finally take control of the nation; which once upon a time, much more than 10 centuries ago, belonged to them.

So while the rest of the developed and democratic world goes global, and reconstructs its societal structures to adapt to multicultural evolutions, we must first go way back in time, as far back in time as the 10th century AD, settle matters, and then start to look ahead from there.

Meanwhile, of course, it is to be noted that to settle matters way before 2002 and 1992, even before 1984 or the emergency in 1977 and India’s independence which saw our first partition in 1947, the spend on media, on the campaign for the BJP to achieve a sweeping victory; is more than Rs. 10000 crores.

If that be true even if the amount is cut by a couple of thousand crore rupees, it can be safely said that the whole existing media space, in film, television, print, online and offline, has been bought over by one ideology.

One of the leading Indian dailies, Hindustan Times wrote:

“The strategy, apart from carpet bombing voters with BJP’s message, is to block out all other political parties across the print, television, online and offline media irrespective of cost,” said a media planner from Madison on condition of anonymity.

“The party has booked 15,000 hoardings across India for up to three months. The cost: From Rs. 2-3 lakh per hoarding per month in cheaper locations to as much as Rs. 20 lakh per hoarding per month in Mumbai’s Nariman Point. The total cost: Rs. 2,500 crore.”

Therefore touching upon all irrational extremes of the contradictions within the beliefs in context to Hinduism; while fanatic Hindu’s are bent on going back centuries before they allow the country to go one step forward; the manic media scene in India has suddenly blown itself out of proportion and brought us to the times of the Truman Show of the United States of America when actor Jim Carrey had once merged the real with the reel and created an anomaly; a deviation in which men and women mirrored each other to the extent that they could laugh at themselves and feel sorry too; while they watched actors perform in a show that enveloped their own world within itself.

Never before has gentry in such large numbers filled up screens as audience; ironically classified economically as against a conscious attempt to divide them across religious lines; never has a polity within its politics been caricaturized as the heroes planted inside and outside the box in resemblance to each other; never before has an electorate been more self destructive and masochistic than this.

Aap ki Adaalat with Modi and Aap ki Adaalat with Kapil; the first on India TV and the second on Comedy Nights with Kapil on the TV Channel Colors; both at the same day and time a couple of weeks ago, and both protagonists interviewed by the infamous Rajat Sharma; is a moment in time to encapsulate and hold for a bit, because it makes history of a situation in India which has gone way beyond a comedy as well as that of a tragedy; a farce beyond comprehension.

No tale from the Roman Empire; neither Greek Mythology; nor any Indian saga can compare to such a bizarre story; when the audience within merged with the audience outside; but more important than that is to note that the characters; the stand up comedienne Kapil and the candidate for Prime Ministership of the BJP, Narendra Modi; both blended in that one hour each, although on different channels, to a composite behaviour because of the identical reactions of the audiences in their respective studios; and thus that the experience itself can be bracketed as the biggest aberration in the history of time.

Whoever is spending all that money being poured into the campaign to bring India to its most frightening moment of truth; and whosoever is making profits off it, one fact is clear; that the return on investment has already been calculated by the investors, and it must be so huge, that the audiences inside as well as outside the studios, who are gripped with this unholy upsurge have no idea of what lies in store for them.

Is it our forests… rivers…our land… our resources…? God alone knows what it is that we stand to lose in the bargain made here….

My point is; that if all the money spent on this campaign, had been spent instead on education, infrastructure, primary health care, social uplifting and development; wouldn’t Modi have won hands down in these elections anyway? Isn’t India’s voter smarter than what the campaign creators and managers think them to be?




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