Modi’s style

R. Balashanker says Narendra Modi is the new national icon and election victories in Gujarat...

R. Balashanker says Narendra Modi is the new national icon and election victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have enthused the BJP cadres. “The huge, unprecedented reaction of the netizens to Narendra Modi’s exquisite and comprehensive win is a manifestation of the hope it has evoked. Modi received maximum support from women and youth. He was able to marry his development record with the sense of security he provided taking his battle to the hideouts of terror modules and providing safety to life and property. He raised both the living standard and life of the people of the state. Sonia Gandhi’s acerbic, shrill harangue, prime minister’s weepy, dodgy, unsure skullduggery or Rahul Gandhi’s road shows were no match for Modi’s hands-on record of credible, clean and decisive leadership”.

“The mood was most appropriately summed up in the question put out by CNN-IBN in its Face the Nation programme: Is Modi the new face of India? The response was overwhelming, a whopping 92 per cent said ‘yes’. Such polls may not be accurate indicators of the public mood at the national level. But a series of other polls across the country before and after the Gujarat verdict pointed to one significant aspect: Narendra Modi, his style, his diction and delivery have struck a new resonance across the country. He has emerged a cult figure, a new national icon.”

End of history?

M.S.N. Menon writes on Islam. “The men who want to close the historical process and pronounce the ‘last words’ of history are most dangerous men. Beware of them! The Muslims were the first to do so. They foreclosed the future of man. Then came the Americans. The Communists were the latest… The books, alas, have turned out to be less and less reliable today! But the peoples of the books will not admit it, for to do so is an offence against their gods. No one in his right senses will do such a thing. So they repeat the lies in the books ad infinitum. But today even the Pope will not dare to say that the Bible is the ‘last word’. It is dangerous to say so after what the peoples of the books have suffered from their first folly.

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“But the Muslims are steadfast in their faith. M.J. Akbar writes: ‘Most Christians might simply shrug if asked whether they really believed that Jesus turned water into wine… Muslims, in contrast, do not doubt that the angels of Allah helped the Prophet at the Battle of Badr.’ The only country where Muslims were exposed to reason and logic was India, says Akbar…”

He continues, “Remember, the days of absolute sovereignty are over. Nations and peoples have to work within an evolving framework of freedom and democracy. Those who fall out of it will meet the fate of the Fascists, Nazis and Communists. What is happening in Iraq was bound to happen. The Arab people have failed to evolve the democratic process. In today’s condition, this will invite foreign intervention.”

Benazir’s promise

The Organiser editorial is on the situation in Pakistan. “Pakistan survives economically with dollars from America and politically on anti-India rhetoric. As far as Kashmir was concerned, Benazir did not break any new ground when she was in power twice. There was very little hope that she would have been different had she come to power a third time. But a democratic Pakistan, however fragile it might have been, would have spelt relative peace for India. And if Benazir meant what she said about fighting terrorism, she would have found a more than willing ally in India. And that it is a loss for India and the loss of an opportunity for Pakistan to correct its course, to join the countries of East Asia in its economic march… Benazir’s assassination is a tragic end to a life of promise. It is accentuated by the fact that she was a woman and women mass leaders take a long time building.”