The Modi factor.

If you are an AAP supporter there is stuff of your interest right at the bottom.

So elections are hitting most of the country tomorrow and we probably all believe that its “abki baar modi sarkaar” and 90% this is going to be the case. Well this is the best scenario for the country isn’t it? Mr. Modi certainly knows how to move a crowd, the BJP will bring about the development they have been talking about for ages now and well overall everybody believes it is going to be great for the country as what is done in Gujrat will be replicated in the nation.

  Well Lets just take a minute to analyze Modi and his party BJP. First of all,the so called hype over the development of Gujrat. A big reason for Modi love is, many of us think, wow, "Development" and "progress". "Modi really developed Gujarat - I want India developed". Again, the truth, as everybody has pointed out - is that nothing spectacular has happened in Gujarat in all these years of Modi rule.

Sure, Gujarat has done one or two things well; it is average or below average on loads of other things, and it is terrible on one or two things. You could perhaps grade the state government as a "C" on its report card. Average to below-average.

Many states, Bihar included, did far better. What you're seeing is a PR campaign, well-funded, and with a lot of print and TV fluffing it up. Oh, by the way, the HT owner - a Congress MP - has his child married into the Ambani family too, if you're looking for even more conspiracy fodder here . If you are actually looking for a CM who developed a state you need not look further than Nitish Kumar in Bihar. The state is India’s poorest state, yet along with developing infrastructure(which Gujrat honestly has done fantastically well) he has also developed health and education sectors which are essential to sustain growth over a period of 30-40 years and not 15 years. (Gujrat’s spending on these sectors is second lowest in India.)

  Then why many of us love Modi is purely because of the anti-congress wave in the country. The country is sick of corruption, scams and god knows what else. But lets just step back a minute even though the UPA terribly screwed up in the last 5 years, lets not forget their first term where they actually were very good for the nation. Furthermore please stop kidding yourself that the BJP is not corrupt! Heard of the Ambani family?

The thing is, we don't see deeper that the hidden figure behind the Congress' corruption - Mukesbhai - is the same guy who has since decided to support and bring in a BJP government, one that will again jump to its whims and fancies, till you get tired of it too, 5 or 10 years from now.

And Ambani has done it indirectly, through the media he owns: First Post, First Biz, CNBC, Lokmat, Awaaz, CNN IBN, NDTV, ETV, 9x and more.

And directly too, via his cousin-in-law, if there be such a term - Saurabh Patel - running the Petrol, Energy, Mines and Tourism industries in Gujarat - all of the more corrupt ones. The Mining Scam in Gujarat is a Rs. 2,000 crore loss to the state government, and the gas price scam is Rs. 25,000 undeserved crores every year in Mukesbhai's pocket. Arvind Kejriwal thus had every reason to file an police complaint against Mr. Ambani for the gas which should be sold at Rs.3-5 is being sold at Rs.15 per kg.

But we can and probably should leave even these issues aside as to be honest if miraculously the UPA does get a third term, there will be major screw ups from them too. The main point is the ideology of the man and the party he represents. Firstly if people say can you move on from the 2002 riots, I really don’t think I can move on from such a mass massacre, but in any case enough has been said about that. The thing is the BJP doesn’t want us to move on with Modi’s best friend Amit Shah asking us to vote for him if we want revenge for our Hindu brothers, well someone tell him the bloody national pledge which says “All Indians are my brothers and sisters.” Then there is Mr Shah and Modi again snooping on a girl for no rhyme or reason.

  Moreover you have to understand if there is a BJP candidate in your area who actually has done work and deserves to be voted for you should vote for him. But wait Mr. Modi says “aapka vote seedha mujhe aaega” I mean seriously?  Its plain to see that Rahul Gandhi is a “shehzaada” but its even more clearer to see that Modi is Hitler. He literally has no care for his party and the party increasingly has become a one man party. Its not abki baar bhaajpa sarkaar but Modi sarkaar, then you have leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Advani sidelined completely and a great man in Jaswant Singh banned altogether. It’s a shame that Vajpayee isn’t there anymore. In him you had one of the best PM’s this country has seen and I have nothing but respect for him. (He wanted Modi removed as CM of Gujrat in 2002. Just saying)

Then coming to the party itself, they really need to outgrow this Hindutva motto now. This is 21^st century India and you just cannot be about one religion and totally anti anyone else. The manifesto of the party said “If we come to power India shall be a home of persecuted Hindu’s.” Have the others really committed a crime by being of another religion. Then the BJP is perfectly fine with section 377 of the constitution and they have supported it on countless occasions, with party president Rajnath Singh saying “ Being gay is against being Indian.” Also a major issue is women safety  (the congress has failed pathetically here no doubt.) but you forget that it is the BJP and RSS who have said on countless occasions that girls in short skirts and sleeveless tops provoke the rapists and it is as much their fault as the rapists, and then they literally enter pubs and beat up women, saying women shouldn’t go to pubs. ( Beating up women is to be Indian!). Then there is the situation in Bangalore where for an eatery to be open after 10. Pm is illegal and they literally ask you to leave your meal mid way as the BJP workers break their shops if they don’t close.

Then it comes to leadership. "Man, what a commanding presence this guy is, what a leader." Well, Modi certainly seems to have turned India into a Presidential form of government, with every message - including "Ab ki baari" being about him and not the party or its principles or its candidates. While I don't have an issue with egoism itself - I personally dislike egoistic folks, but others seem to like such people - perhaps one should ask, who is leading him from behind, and where is this gent going to lead us to?

Is this leading to more money for Reliance? More freebies for Adani? The manifesto just came out today and it seems to be saying "We'll do quite a bit of what the Aam Aadmi Party says, plus in addition we're going to screw the Muslims".

6. Which probably brings me to the point that few seem to talk about. "Modi showed the damn Muslims." Many of my Hindu friends say it after a drink or two. It's some matter of pride, perhaps. Maybe Modi-love is really about Hindus taking revenge centuries after the Mughals screwed us over.

Which is also the perhaps the reason why the rabid RSS and even more rabid VHP have pushed Modi down the throats of the once-apparently-secular BJP. (Yes, yes, some fake account will come by and say "sickular" as though being secular is sick.It's in our constitution. You've heard of that thing, right?")

Modi is a RSS man, and will support every RSS belief. Being gay is a crime. So forget about Section 377 being repealed in the BJP tenure. Women being equal to men cannot be tolerated, because that idiot Manu said so in his Smriti. The country can't eat beef, because of some silly chant like "gaai hamaari maata hai", even though were were traditionally a beef-eating country.

All of this is just a Hindu version of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. And it's just as nauseating. This is Hindu Sharia - rule by the demented old farts in khakhi chaddis, and nothing else.

And remember, Modi's rise started only after the direct support, shielding and protection of the Hindus who killed over a 1,000 innocent Muslims in Gujarat. That wasn't a Hindu movement - it was a goonda movement in the name of Hinduism. That let him take the "Hindu Hriday Samrat" crown away from the equally racist Bal Thackeray. That made him the RSS's new point man for the Hindufication of India.

When it comes to that, I really have only one defence or alternative to suggest. If you're a rabid Hindu who believes India should be Hindu and the rest of Indians - Muslims, Christians, or even Atheists and Agnostics like me should not be tolerated, then say so openly. Carve out a different country for yourself, - and go there.

India's constitution doesn't support you and your beliefs.

And don't tell me you're a patriot. You're not. You're a Hindu zealot.

Sure, you can love Modi. You can even make him one of the darn Shankaracharyas if you like.  (sure you do know about all the wrong facts at his speeches.)

I suggest and of the personal view that probably AAP should win a certain number of seats so that everyone in this country actually does their jobs, knowing that if they don’t there is someone rising out of nowhere, For all of those who said AAP ran away from governance in Delhi. Here are some facts on AAP (Taken from Mahesh Murthy)

let's take this "AAP ran away from Delhi" allegation. Here are the facts, should you choose to consider them at all:

* AAP did not win the most seats in Delhi. It won 28 out of 70. The BJP won 31 and had 1 external support. The Congress had 8. No one had majority.

* The BJP declined to govern when it was asked to. It "ran away", and not the last time either as you'll see. The assembly was in limbo, if you remember. There was talk of re-polls.

* The Congress offered AAP support from the outside -do note, the AAP didn't ask for it. The AAP said "Hey, if you agree with us on the 18 laws we want to change, and if you agree in writing to support them, then we can break the deadlock and give Delhi a government. Else we are happy to stay where we are or go for a re-election."

* The Congress - perhaps fearing a re-election where they would win even less, said yes, in writing.

* The AAP formed the Delhi government with the outside support of the Congress. In the first 7 weeks they passed 16 of the 18 laws they had promised to pass. This itself is unprecedented, if you choose to see it as such, and some sort of proof of governance, again if you choose to see it as such.

* The two laws they could not pass, because of staunch opposition from Congress and BJP, were the Jan Lok Pal bill and the Swaraj Bill. The Congress by now had gone back on its written word, and they teamed up with the BJP who were also afraid of their corrupt netas and even more corrupt sponsor Ambani being found out, and opposed these bills.

* Perhaps the tipping point was the FIR filed against Mukesh Ambani and Reliance for attempting to steal Rs. 25,000 crores from the coffers through artificially inflated gas prices. In a clear show of who actually directs the Congress and BJP, both parties came together 3 days after the Ambani FIR to vote down the AAP-proposed bills and in effect, end the AAP government.

* Faced with this, the AAP had a choice - they could either compromise and govern Delhi under the proxy thumb of the Congress-BJP-Reliance combine - or they could resign and seek a fresh mandate from the people- and get the 36+ seats they needed, to rule Delhi the way the voters wanted.

* The AAP resigned and asked the Lieutenant Governor to call fresh elections right away to see if they could the full mandate to govern without compromise. This was a few months ago.

* At this point, both the BJP and Congress, in unison protested and said they were too busy doing other things to care about fighting elections in Delhi. In effect, both of them ran away again. So Delhi suffers under no rule right now - but this is not because the AAP ran away. It's because the BJP and Congress did.

* And currently that's the situation. The AAP wants elections in Delhi. It believes it can clearly win a majority by itself. The Congress and the BJP are the "bhagodas" in Delhi, unwilling to face the electorate for the state legislative assembly right away.

* What they are hoping for, perhaps, is to try to win some presence in Parliament and then buy AAP legislators over to their side later. They believe the more they can delay elections in Delhi, the more they can create fear, uncertainty and doubt to try to get voters back to them.

Now these are the facts about who ran away and who didn't. These might be useful, should you choose to get facts into your consideration at all, or should you want to share this note with others who might have a different understanding of what happened.

Nonetheless even if you do like Modi after all this, please do go vote. Because if you don’t vote you have no right to criticize anyone so do go vote.