Modi is back!
The last I wrote on Prime Minister Narendra Modi was five years ago, when he first assumed the humongous responsibility of running the affairs of a country as diverse and complicated as India is. India has come a long way since, with Modi's reelection speaking for itself.
Now, Modi 2.0 is back, with much to do in terms of completing the tasks that he set out to do in NDA's first term, and taking India further ahead. It is no easy task to get the diverse country grouped together, progress and match up expectations, not just because of the enormity of carrying over a billion dreams on a larger-than-life image, but more so on account of the collective unlearning of the past and unwinding from the misdoings of the colonial era that stretched beyond India's independence into the decades of rule by the Indian National Congress (INC).
The sorry state of Rahul Gandhi and Indian National Congress
The BJP's was in no mood to relent its charging 2019 election machinery against the Indian National Congress - INC has been reduced to being more of a regional player than the party of first choice that it once was, and Rahul Gandhi, the last ray of hope that INC has been banking on for years now, had to seek refuge in a so-called safe seat in Wayanad, dominated by the minority communities of India. And this, after Rahul was thrashed from his home constituency of Amethi by Smriti - could there be a safer constituency than home? Apparently, there is, for Rahul, in Wayanad, his new home away from home.
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| Rahul Gandhi Wayanad Campaign - IUML Flags Source: https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2019/4/3/Dont-use-Muslim-League-flags-in-Rahuls-rallies-in-Wayanad.html |
However, the safe seat of Wayanad doesn't come without compromises for Indian National Congress. Scenes of IUML flags being flourished during Rahul Gandhi's election rally in Wayanad would haunt the Congress Party, which tries desperately to project what Shashi Tharoor would call "soft Hinduism" as against hardline Hindutva, up north.
Redefining Hindutva
Clearly, INC is rattled and wants to go down the same path of confusing Hindus through fake posturing, and propagating the media-peddled distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva. If it calls Rahul Gandhi's temple hopping as Hinduism, what would it call the fledgling dynast's embracing Wayanad in a desperate, last-ditch measure to survive in the harsh terrains of Indian politics?
You are either a Hindu, Mr Gandhi, or you aren't. If skullcaps were what you were after, how did you hope to find them through temple hopping and posturing to mislead Hindus? You should have headed straight to Wayanad and wagged the green flags instead.
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| https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/after-2km-long-trek-pm-modi-reaches-kedarnath-cave-to-meditate20190518173233/ |
So, were the elections polarised? Yes, they were. But was Modi the divider in chief, as Time would like to declare?
Modi, the Uniter in Chief!
Modi has successfully united India's majority who have been divided for centuries by onslaughts from the Middle East Asia, and from the East India Company in the West, a feat not accomplished by any leader in Indian history over the years of pillage, plunder, and bloodshed. Indian National Congress had taken the wrong lessons from their colonial masters, dividing Hindus again, and appeasing the minorities to such an extent that major demographic changes have occurred in states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, parts of Tamil Nadu, and the North Eastern states. For instance, Hindus are expected to become minorities in Kerala as early as in 2025!
The divisive games have been on for centuries in India, so it is surprising that the Time magazine sees divisions in India as news in 2019 - for, it refuses to look beyond Modi for divisive forces.
The takeaway from elections 2019 is clear - the decisive Hindu has spoken from the land of Dharma! He has realised how he had been treated over the centuries, announced how he has been deprived of his right to self-respect through concocted history and malicious propaganda, resented how he was made to feel inferior for even being a Hindu, and declared how Hinduism deserves its rightful place in the land of Dharma!
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| https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-bjp-starts-regrouping-to-repeat-2014-victory-in-2019-lok-sabha-polls-2696150 |
Those who look at Indian elections 2019 in isolation as against a flow in time may deliberately not want to know how history shapes the future. Those with a divisive agenda may want to call Modi the "Divider in Chief". Those who resent the election results 2019 may call him just a marketing machine and not much else.
Notwithstanding the multiple opinions in a diverse nation grounded in Sanatana Dharma, history is shaping the future of India right now, as Modi's swearing in ceremony for a second term is set on the 30th of May 2019.
Modi's responsibilities as a leader remains just the same as they were after 2014 elections - Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, with an emphasis on winning the confidence of the Indian population through Sabka Vishwas. He would be accountable to the people of this great nation, and committed to the interests of all sections of the society.
But the decisive Hindu has spoken of his right to reclaim his place in time. 2019 elections are as much about the future as they are about the past!