Governance, God and Gujarat

I am no expert with economics in general. But then, when I hear all the hoo-ha about all the great governance and the great economic strides that have apparently transformed Gujarat in a relatively short political span of 12 years- to me, it just somehow seems too good to be true. The sad part however is that to most us, all this seems to perfectly align, ipso facto, regardless of whether the 'facto' is actually existent or not and if at all existent, presents any corroborative evidence to this economic epiphany that Mr. Modi seems to have shown his people. Of course, if this stellar growth and development were true, the choice in the ongoing and upcoming General elections would be an easy one. But do they really all add up..?

BJP and Narendra Modi's electoral campaign has one main focus. Good governance and economic development; and of course the belief and make belief that he has been the one, and the only one, to have been true to all these promises in Gujarat. The argument, nonetheless losses quite a lot of its sheen in the light of some statistical data. The story of Gujarat's economic robustness is not unique to Modi. Gujarat has been outperforming the All India average GDP growth rate since the 1980's which of course is a testament to it industrious people.  To put it into figures, before Modi, Gujarat performed on average 1.1% higher than the national GDP figures and post Modi this average has been 1.3%. While being above average is always good and so is the improvement, I do not see this as stellar growth by a long shot. In my opinion, The Gaurdian, made a very objective observation about this, "Though Modi's stock is rising high, evidence for the success of Modinomics is unconvincing."  Then of course there is the rural electrification brilliance. Unlike the claims, Gujarat is neither 100% rural electrified and definitely not the first to be so. As of 31st January this year, according to a report by the Ministry of Power, 14 other states are ahead of Gujarat, mind you at 100%. There is also a power surplus theory afloat that people of Gujrat, even in the villages, have no idea of what a power cut is. I do not know what 11 lakh housholds, which roughly translates to about half a million people, think of this; as according to the 2011 census they do not have electricity as their primary course of illumination. Is it just me or can it be that there actually are power cuts or in some cases no power at all. 35 villages still to be electrified as per data by the way.

So much about the power surplus, lets talk about industrial investment - Modi's core competency - selling the idea of Gujarat to the world. Among Indian states, Gujarat ranks 5th. While fifth is not bad at all but why lie about facts. I assume, lies are not something that we desire from our prospective Prime Minister. And is economic development everything..? I would generally take Amatya Sen's and Raghuram Rajan's word over Narendra Modi's. Maybe because between the former two, they share a Nobel prize, great intellectual capacities, credits of having predicted the 2008 financial crisis or may be just because they do not need to use gimmicky "clever"  AK47 genre of punch lines to convey a point. Nonetheless, according to them, the HDI (Human Development Index) and the CDI (Composite Development Index) figures in Gujarat are quite disappointing to say the least. Google it for yourselves and realize the trickery first hand. I am no congress supporter but my voice is only against all this falsehood. BJP's constant refrain is that Congress has never done anything. Ever...! And supposedly, AAP has no 'vision' for the country. The irony however is that neither has the BJP made any clarifications on its own developmental blueprints. Their favorite phrase of course is "The Gujarat model of development" Well...whatever that is. No one really seems articulate enough to let us know. He often asks, "I have no family. Who will I be corrupt for?” I don't know, maybe his Public Relations Officer. He seems to have done a pretty good job with the hogwash.

Having talked about the 'less important' governance and growth, let us shed some light on India's favorite pass-time, Religion and the favorite board game of the Indian politician, Religious sectarianism. If you go to the New York Times website and search for an article called Timeline of the Riots in Modi’s Gujarat, one can plausibly see why Modi has been so unapologetic. An action will have a reaction is his reasoning because obviously rioting is the better thing to do ..!! As opposed to say, not setting fire to entire neighborhoods, killing people, killing children- born and unborn and mass raping women. Mr. Modi has a standard and in some ways a pretty decent counter for this- that of having been re-elected as Chief minister. This too, unfortunately, like a lot of his other 'facts' is a little too simplistic and really lacks some judicial reasoning. If winning elections were to exonerate someone of  blame, why have courts at all. Lets all decide convictions on opinion polls. The thousands of cases pending in court could obviously use some help. Then of course you have the court verdicts which have 'exonerated' Modi. But no one questions on what grounds and circumstances. The court suspects but has "Not enough evidence for conviction" I hope at least a few of you have heard/read the chilling confessions by Babu Bajrangi, "Narendrabhai got me out of jail…… He kept on changing judges…. He set it up so as to ensure my release, otherwise I wouldn’t have been out yet... ". You think a person who has say over "changing judges" has no control over the lowly constable or an SI who does the investigative 'errands' for the Gujrat police. Who are we trying to fool..? Religious divisiveness sometimes just stoops to really ridiculous levels in the Modi stable. In Kerala, for instance during a campaign he said, "Kerala the nursery of terrorism". No doubt, there are serious concerns but I have experienced social cultures from 5 states in India now and being a Malayali myself. While things are not rosy, its is far from a nursery of terrorism. 

I can't, by the way, speak of Modi, without speaking about the RSS. That was after all his training ground. In the onset I'd like to say, I am not completely against the RSS, especially for the kind of relief work their young members have done in the past. However, currently living in Germany, I cannot but stop the Hitlerjungend (Hitler youth) picture baring down on my thought process because RSS's founding was  inspired by The Fascist regime in Italy. RSS also holds Hitler in high regard for his staunch adherence to the principle of racial and cultural purity. This is not rambling by the way. Those interested can read the, Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups" - Stephen E Atkins. It is not my intension to paint a bad picture of the RSS but only to bring an objective view on its ideas and principles, because some charity here and some volunteering there is not what you are in your entirety. The principles you stand for, are to me, a major factor. RSS intellectual M S Golwalkar put it down plainly. Vaisudhaiva Kutumbakam and Indian values- which in itself is a good idea to start with. The problem is when they assume their idea of India to be the only idea and that this idea is so good and therapeutic that it is worth shoving down peoples throat. I hope they realize that the very diversity of India that they are so proud of is the reason why a monochromatic India is neither healthy nor justified. I am a Christian by religious faith but I think of myself a little more Indian than Christian because things to do with me and my maker are personal to me. However, my being Indian and the sense of pride associating its history, culture and ancient civilization is very public. Despite this, when history text books in Gujarat call Christians, Muslims and Parsees foreigners, it pinches pretty badly. I am not sure how many understand this but the promise of a better economy does not help. Really, it does not! It just feels a little servile and cheap to me. "We will call you foreigners in the textbooks. In exchange, the economy will be better and  your monthly salary will eventually see better days." You know, it feels quite demeaning, not despite, but precisely because of the promise of better economic sense.

Probably this voice of mine comes too little, too late and maybe not too many will like or even read it but then, that is never a reason to shut up. Whether you vote for Modi or against Modi - no matter. But let it not be based on knowledge via the grapevine. Research well, vote wisely.

Love and Hate

I’m writing this for one: not to forget that I can/ I do write some spiteful stuff. And secondly, to vent out this sense of limitless frustration credited to a harrowing time I have had off late. Some related, some not. My head is such a storm its probably stupid to bind it in words. Stuffed. Stifled. Enraged. Bogged. My head is such a storm with so much of random annoyance that I can’t seem to figure out a structure to this piece that would even start to make some sense; So much that you don’t want me to get started. Or maybe you do, because you all, like half a billion other people in this country, me included, put up with so much of ridiculous shit everyday with no accountability or justification or even a basic wakefulness of shame on the part of the ones we rely on: Government, Brethren or Ourselves.

1. Recent Rambling

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp makes roughly 1.5 rupees as profit for every kilometer it runs which I hardly need to tell (unless you are a complete imbecile), is an awful lot of money. I pay 20 rupees up from my flat to my office and 20 rupees back. It’s a distance just over 8 kilometers at the other end of which I reach my office at 9. Strikingly, I would now have been one and a half hours in traffic, jostling human beings, human-like beings and outright devils, all damned to a fate similar to mine. I deserve better. Enough said..? No! I stand; Almost all the while, almost all the days. I can’t hand over a ten rupee note to pay the bus conductor five bucks. Lest, Lo and behold: the over lord yells, snarls, grins, swears, (farts?) among other gestures repeating the phrase ‘change daena boss’ at least three times to reemphasize his authority and my stature as a monetary retard. All this in return to the crores and crores of rupees we contribute to the exchequer. All this in return to a requirement of paying 20% more tax if you don’t possess a PAN card! Very particular don’t you think. Inflation, Taxes, looting auto-rickshaws with meters as decorations, bribes: Nothing ever seems to get the constructions to finish, the dust to settle, the crowd to diminish, spay the littering stray dogs, calm reckless raging drivers, stop the air to literally stink from the open drains, stop every single day from being a maddening adventure to keep oneself in one piece. And I’m still talking about one of the most ‘cosmopolitan’ cities in the country. How do we manage to put up with all this? Wrong question. Why? Be extra cautious; you might just land up in shit here, in every sense of the word. Not trying to paint macabre images into your head, giving you an objective view on reality; if you didn’t notice you know.

2. Religion, Region and the Rest

I don’t hate India. I’ve been a passionate Indian all my life. I wear blue for an India match: hockey, badminton or cricket. I cheer for Force India, even though there is so little Indian about it except VMallya & NarainK, debated and sometimes even fought with foreign nationals, mostly white guys (no offence) for my national pride. I’ve been a big ass lover of India. I will remain so because I choose so. A bit too passionate sometimes. Although even in a secular country like ours, you sometimes need to wear your patriotism on your sleeve if you are not a Hindu. No No! Don’t give me that! No communal jargon here. I know better ‘coz I’ve been asked once to address my problems to Bill Clinton. I know better ‘coz my parents have been notified, more than once, that their Hindi sucks because well, they are Christian. Yes! To clarify however, both of them are Keralites, or popularly/derogatorily Mallus. So as per me, they can speak much better Hindi than most of Hindi speaking India can speak Pashto, Cantonese or Bulgarian. Dodge this: “Teri Englisss toh achi hogi… tu Christian hai na !” I mean, where do I start to explain things to someone who starts a dialogue with a statement like that? With a punch to the nose?!

I’m a rather dark skinned; malayali Christian who’s lived almost his entire first eighteen years in Varanasi; home to a so called ‘fairer skinned’; demographically Hindu and linguistically Hindi dominated ancient civilization. So word for word, I’m a fairly rare breed, having quite some hands on experience on the famed Indian diversity. The great melting pot of history, today I feel, is boiling to the brink. We have seventeen languages written on every Indian currency note which I once proudly explained to a German who said Germany was an extremely diverse nation. What is pride in an alien land is the source of political plundering back home. Demand for as many as 10 new states presently exist: so much so, one could make a famous, historic, founding father kinda political career out of a regionalist agenda: I don’t even want to get started with religion. I wonder how long it will take them to pillage this nation over region and religion; I hope it takes a wild blue yonder in eternity. But why point fingers at the ones who are always pointed at. We ourselves are no mean replicas of the devil himself. ‘Saala madrasi’, ‘jahil bihari’, ‘UP wale bhaiyya’, ‘a complete behenji’, ‘illad hi rahega’ are perhaps a few examples of a ‘tolerant, civil India’. Although proud of its better faces, it’s a dirty diversity in some ways, which in no measure rises above the level of racism over which the western world is so brutally patronized. In a society which still conforms to castes, religious stereotypes and even untouchabilty, we carry out the worst form of racism. Yeah, I heard you, “Common, no untouchability anymore. At least among educated”. Advice: Google ‘Doms of Banares’ and try speaking to one if you ever get a chance to. It will change your life. No one of the majority of India, dead or alive, can do without him, but no one will treat him human.

I have so much more to stab the rosy picture with. Cinema, respect for history-tradition, sports, language, the Indian typecast, friendship, love, intimacy. I will sometime, when I am overwhelmed again with a fit of rage for a nation I so love.

Bangalore

3March, 2011