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Bihar is blessed with a land more fertile for revolutions than any in India. Why has it fallen so far behind then? Constant obsession with politics is at the root of its destruction.
Meanwhile, the prestigious think tank Freedom House which tracks the state of democracy over the world downgrades India from “Free” to “Partly Free”. I cite their recent report “Freedom in the World 2021 : Democracy under Siege
“India, the world’s most populous democracy, dropped from Free to Partly Free status in Freedom in the World 2021. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to COVID-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs. Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism” Ref: bit.ly/3sNRWnI
“Under Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all,” Ref: bbc.in/3kI5D4K
Clearly, an enabler of Modi’s authoritarianism is the cultivation of a cult that sees in him a man who can do no wrong. And this cult will justify pogroms, ethnic cleansing, lynching of innocent Muslims, stripping Muslims of citizenship and other atrocities merely because the Messiah cannot be wrong. Eerily similar to Germany of 1930.
Data: In true Adolf Hitler fashion, when you bray:
“.. MODIJI must focus on education and population control of all communities strictly even if it means large scale violence as INDIA is more important than fundamentalist beliefs ..”
one now has a rough idea of the the extent to which bhakths like you would be willing to go to indulge in ethnic cleansing in India.
It seems to have escaped you Mr Data that, the Hitlerian “Final Solution” for non-Hindus beginning with Muslims has indeed started under Modi and Amit Shah. After all, like Hitler’s concentration camps, your RSS man has built detention camps in Assam hasn’t he ? And when you realise that Hitler’s Nazi ideology and Mussolini’s fascism lie at the core of the RSS philosophy and worldview and that the PM is an alumnus of the RSS, well, there are ample reasons to be alarmed.
But Hitler was the visible apex of a vast network of Nazi organisations such as the Hitler youth wing (Hitler Jugend), the thuggish Brownshirts (Sturmabteilung), the League of German Maiden (Bund Deutscher Mädel) etc. who went about intimidating Jews and political rivals. Sort of like the Sangh Parivar network with the RSS at the apex, and motley outfits like the Bajrang Dal, the ABVP, the Ram Sene, various gaurakshak gangs and other thuggish criminal gangs that lynch Muslims. And aided, abetted and applauded by blinkered, bigoted bhakths like you Mr Data.
Golwalkar, one of the führers of the RSS wrote in his book “We Or Our Nationhood Defined”:
“…To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of Semitic races – the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by ..”
Clearly Mr Data, it is hard to believe that even the educated Modi members of the cult such as yourself actually want your Messiah to indulge in “large scale violence” and are so casual about it. And I do think that that could indeed be a reality. Given the pedigree of the RSS, the pogroms of 2002, the detention camps in Assam, all this talk of throwing Muslim termites into the sea and the everyday violence against Muslims, it is not hard to connect the dots Mr Data.
As the German philosopher Georg Hegel (1770-1831) said:
“We learn from history that we do not learn from history”.
PM Modi and his bhakths like you prove that Hegel was right.
“ .. I wonder if the author realizes that the word “cult” is usually considered pejorative. ..”
Yes, the word cult was used in a pejorative sense when referring to the insane Modi cult that people like you and assorted bhakths seem to adhere to. Of course, unlike the semi-literate, itchy-testicled bhakth from BIMARU whose “valour” is displayed against hapless Muslims, you are an erudite man who signed up to sacrifice your life for India. Including for the lives of said cretins from BIMARU. And yet, you park your intellect aside when it comes to critically examining the actions of this flawed man from the organisation that produced Golwalkar and Godse.
And why shouldn’t the word cult be used pejoratively about the RSS man Colonel saab ? Indeed, why should any leader in the political arena be given some sort of a demigod status? Particularly a deeply flawed man associated with a fascist, organisation called RSS, a man with a pogrom under his belt, economic ruin as his calling card, the gradual destruction of democracy as his vision for India and the rubbishing of the Constitution as his target?
Colonel saab, you deify a man who in these trying economic times directs scare resources into vanity projects: building an unwanted, unasked for new Parliament building; buys not one but two expensive Boeing 777 planes to the tune of Rs 8500 crores; builds a Ram Mandir; constructs a wasteful statue to Sardar Patel who in reality sent Modi’s RSS predecessors to jail. Worse still, the PM prioritises the protection of cows rather than that of citizens; depletes India’s soft power reservoirs; compromises Indian interests by cosying up to and betting India’s future on a flawed right-wing, racist demagogue called Donald Trump and is hellbent on turning India into a Hindu version of Pakistan. Disgust, not deification and deference is the emotion that should have come to your mind. But sadly, you too, like the blinkered, blind, shaka going, lathi wielding bhakths would rather worship this man than judge him by his actions and accomplishments – or lack thereof .
You go on to say that this man deserves respect because he has been democratically elected and demeaning him is tantamount to demeaning the “whole electorate”. Well fact is, only 37 % of the electorate voted for this RSS alumnus who also claims to be a Delhi University alumnus. Indeed, the bulk of India’s voters rejected the pogromwala, especially in more well-educated South India.
You also forget that getting democratically elected does not give any leader carte blanche to destroy the Constitution or become a dictator. Even Adolf Hitler initially came to power through democratic means before he convinced many Germans that Jews needed to be slaughtered on an industrial scale for Germany to prosper. Indeed, that very ideology of Nazism was what inspired the RSS and its various führers. And you see the effects of that ideology in the violent actions of the RSS and its drive to attain ethnic and religious purity through its murderous rampages.
The Modi cult is no different from the various other cults that one has seen in the course of history. In the US, one sees the Trump cult that flourishes on the most atrocious of lies; the QAnon cult; the Mao Tse Tung cult in China in the 1960s; the Gaddafi cult in Libya; the Kim Jong-un cult in North Korea and so on. Alas, democracy cannot function when the unchecked, unquestioned deeds and mis-deeds of one man are the cornerstone of the polity.
Sad indeed to see an ex-soldier salute such a man.
As astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-96) once said:
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Thank you for your perspective. I value it. It also demonstrates that India is a free country where the right to choose and speak is unfettered.
Rgards
Thanks for the response Colonel Viswanahan !
Alas, I must again disagree with you when you claim :
“It also demonstrates that India is a free country where the right to choose and speak is unfettered”
That is codswallop. Press freedoms in India have diminished under the regime of the pogromwala and his ragtag army of saffron thugs. You don’t have to take my word for it, let us look at the work done by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières, RSF) and what they have to say. Ref: rsf.org/en/india)
Of the roughly 180 countries surveyed, India is ranked at an abysmal an 142 whilst Pakistan is ranked at 145. Indeed, over the past few years, India is inching closer and closer to Pakistan as Modi transforms India into a Hindu carbon copy of the mullah and military run Islamic Republic of Pakistan. And here is what they write about India:
MODI TIGHTENS HIS GRIP ON MEDIA
“With no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018, the security situation for the country’s media might seem, on the face of it, to have improved. However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials. Ever since the general elections in the spring of 2019, won overwhelmingly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, pressure on the media to toe the Hindu nationalist government’s line has increased.
Those who espouse Hindutva, the ideology that gave rise to Hindu nationalism, are trying to purge all manifestations of “anti-national” thought from the national debate. The coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva followers are alarming and include calls for the journalists concerned to be murdered. The campaigns are particularly virulent when the targets are women. Criminal prosecutions are meanwhile often used to gag journalists critical of the authorities, with some prosecutors invoking Section 124a of the penal code, under which “sedition” is punishable by life imprisonment .. ”
The odd comment in online publication (which few read anyway) is no litmus test of Indian press freedoms. As they say:
“One swallow does not a summer make”.
And one more request Mr, KJ,
I respect your views and try to learn from your perspective. My request is that you refrain from personal attacks and references (like signing away my life etc..) which robs the the little sheen from your points. You know me only from what I write and so the logical way to act is to be crtitical or appreciative of what I write and not what I am or what may be in your perception. That will be a more civil way to discuss issues.
Thanks & regards
Highly exaggerated, one stadium renamed being connected to all these day dreaming, journalism cant be so irresponsible. Where are the facts!
Such an immature article. The author has completely misrepresenting the facts against RSS and has weak articulation of facts. Granted that she is a left wing which I have no problem but if she wants to criticize,criticize properly. What problem does the author have with Bhagwad Gita? Doest she know that Gandhi was an admirer of RSS? Poorly written article
Mr Pranay Gupta: Are you an admirer of the RSS ? A Nathuram Godse worshipper like many BJP MPs? An admirer of Savarakar, the man who plotted to kill Mahatma Gandhi ?
Kili first come in original name ..we like Rss a lot then other organisation because it save Hindus from you type of Duplicates .Thanks
Zainab Sikander has allowed her imagination to get ahead of her. While she is perhaps attempting to bring out the megalomania of Modi, she is being peurile in her writing. It is true that we are saddled with a man who considers him Emperor, but then he has been bestowed the crown by the Electorate. Till the people do not see through the shallowness of the man, he will continue to enjoy his unbridled run as India’s quasi-dictator. And Zainab with her inspid writing will sadly not be able to make a difference in the scheme of things.
While I agree with her essential premise, she needs to learn from her boss Shekhar Gupta the art of writing candidly yet correctly.
Unfortunately this distant distopia does not seem that distant anymore.
Every day it gets harder and harder for everyone who doesn’t align with BJP.
Such shame.
India or rather Modistan is rapidly being transformed from a democracy into a cult based leadership much like Kim Jong-un’ North Korea. Indeed, even more than loyalty to the BJP, it is loyalty to Prophet Modi that seems to matter. You see the same developments in the Republican Party in the USA – party members and many Americans are loyal to Trump rather than to Republican ideals. The Republican Party is Trump’s party. You had the same state of affairs in Stalin’s Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany – veneration of a single, deeply flawed man and the institutional damage and carnage that such cult worship left in its wake..
Germany recovered from its Nazism and became a true democracy. But that is an exception. Stalin’s Soviet Union did not and you now have a Stalin clone viz. Vladimir Putin. Trump’s attempts to destroy American democracy through a “thousand cuts” and a putsch on Jan 6th nearly succeeded. But American democracy and its more robust institutions survived a Trump takeover, at least for now. India may not be that lucky – Modi’s takeover of the judiciary, the legislature and the executive have done lasting damage to India. Even the press is now a fawning extension of Modi’s propaganda machinery. Sadly, all this occurs with the connivance of the educated upper middle class and upper caste Hindus who conflate Modi’s violent, Nazism inspired philosophy of Hindutva for Hinduism. And vote for this flawed, false Prophet even as their own future becomes bleak, the economy tumbles and even Bangladesh overtakes India in per capita GDP terms.
Yes Sir, as you correctly point out, that distant dystopia is lurking around the corner. But try telling that to the blinkered, brainwashed bhakth. He will abuse your religion if he do not have a Hindu name and call you an anti-national if you happen to be a Hindu. Or both. That indeed is the sad state of affairs in India.
Hope to read more of your insights Sir.
AM just waiting for the upcoming “complaint button”, it’ll be fun…..tooo much fun……!!!! Hahahah!!
In one video, Arfa was talking to Arif Lhan and was complaining about Hindu extremism. Arif Saab asked her why she dies not mention about Muslim extremism and Arfa was quiet. Most Muslins would never accept they have a problem. This author is no better.
It is unlikely for a national political leader to become a cult figure years later if only 37% of voters voted him in. It is a pity that a sarcasm of this sort is literally believed true by a Bhakt.
Sadly, this is what happens when you stop thinking, stop seeing facts but fall into the web of deception spun by an unscrupulous bunch of Gujaratis and their slick propaganda machine. In fact, there was one commenter here in The Print who wrote that he was willing to sell his kidney to support the re-election of Modi !
As Josef Göbbels, Hitler’s propaganda Minister said:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”
Clearly, in a country like India, even the well-educated middle classes who swear by Modi even as they lose their shirts to the flawed economic policies of this Delhi University alumnus validate what Göbbels said.
Dear Zainab…we understand your our sentiments, but like mentioned below your article.. These are just your views….not to be taken seriously….jai Modi….jai hind…Vande mataram….
Unfathomable that people like you would associate a flawed, inept man with a pogrom under his belt, crony capitalism as his calling card and the conversion of India into a Hindu Pakistan as the symbol of India.
Did the Gujarati deposit Rs 15 lacs in your bank account perhaps?
Jokingly yours
KJ
Dear Zainab…we understand your our sentiments, but like mentioned below your article.. These are just your views….not to be taken seriously….jai Modi….jai hind…Vande mataram….
Shashi Yadav: Nobody asked you to read the Print, let alone comment on articles published in it. But clearly, the article has hit home and you are powerless and intellectually impotent when it comes to refuting the ideas advanced by Ms Sikander’s. I suggest you stop reading The Print and instead switch to the RSS publication Organiser where they only sing praises to Prophet Modi. If hearing praises to Modi gives you an orgasm, go for the Organiser !
Haha, such deep rooted intolerance and hatred in every sentence of your article! Please don’t term this as journalism! Maybe, just maybe, maintain a scrap book instead ?
I wonder if the author realizes that the word “cult” is usually considered pejorative. If the meaning is known and is used deliberately for a democratically elected leader by one of “We the people”, in the least it is, in way, demeaning the whole electorate.
We will let it pass as a case of ignorance.
Probably the author means that section of the electorate are following leaders loyally overlooking transgressions. But then this what makes leaders the world over – from the days of mythology to this very day even in the oldest democracy. Thankfully we, including the author, are free to choose.
Also we look forward to more erudite opinions in these columns than discussions on Namo, Raga, Gandhis and Shas.
RSS needed a leader to show to their young generation. They created modi with the help of Ambani and Adani.
He took India as far right as he could. Muslims are still there and will always be there. RSS toned town their anti Muslim rhetoric as India needs good relations with the Muslim world.
There will be no more anti Muslim tv debates. No more lynching will be tolerated. He will now distance himself from far right politics of yogi.
Modi “baba” has not given Kashmir to India. India still has the same Kashmir that it had during the time of Nehru.
RSS needed a leader to show to their young generation. They created modi with the help of Ambani and Adani.
He took India as far right as he could. Muslims are still there and will always be there. RSS toned town their anti Muslim rhetoric as India needs good relations with the Muslim world.
There will be no more anti Muslim tv debates. No more pograms and longings will be tolerated. He will now distance himself from far right politics of yogi.
Modi “baba” has not given Kashmir to India. India still has the same Kashmir that it had during the time of Nehru.
Mr Kasiviswanathan Krishnan: Care to explain why you thrash this article ? In fact your comment, where you fail to come up with one counter-argument against the author proves that you are the one talking trash. Indeed, your intellectual impotence is so bloody evident that you are unable to justify why Modi is the great Messiah people like you believe he is. Maybe Modi deposited Rs 15 lacs in your account ?
Uni-directional extrapolation are not norms of politics, rather reversion to mean. Cult is the least efficient ideology- when personality trumps substance- it only keeps the converted in the fold and repels everybody. Cult cannot be repeated- it can only be milked with declining return.
Another regular rant from leftists and fundamentalists. Just like if modi comes into power after election that would be last election types.
They are having burnol movement for sending BHAGVAD GITA into space. We have to understand this they are very insecure about their believes, hence when something other than their beliefs comes up, they start freaking out. Had some other book that doesnt not belong to sanatana dharma would be have been sent into the space, they would have been celebrating by busting Oxygen emitting fire crackers.
It’s a simple funda if they can make people believe what people have is bad or inferior or false and theirs is the truth, superior and good people can be enslaved easily. The same funda used by invaders/colonisers to rule people of this region.
Mr Harsh: Once again, the blinkered, blind, bigoted Modi bhakth in you takes over your faculties and turns you into a zombie that only obeys commands from your Gujarati paymasters. In other words, the definition of being in a cult – you suspend your thinking and allow some a bunch of cretins to do the thinking for you applies to you.
So here is some basic political science for you Harry saab. Having regular elections alone is no litmus test for democracy. The Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Cuba etc. have regular elections but are certainly not democracies. One of the many features of a true democracy is separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of a government and the presence of true independence for these institutions. Can you say that India has an independent judiciary under the Modi regime? Or an independent executive ? Or for that matter even a free press?
So rather than talk about invaders colonising natives, I suggest you go find out who has colonised your mind.
I would love to see Modi as the PM for the next 20 years just so I can enjoy watching this jihadi sister getting more and more unhinged with heartburn.
When there is Modi worshipping by bhakths like you, why can’t there be legitimate criticism of the pogromwala Mr Varun Patel ?
The issue is not personality cult – after all every politician worth his salt wants people to be voting only for him all the time. The real issue is what are people letting the politician with the personality cult get away with. Here there is reason to worry. The cavalier inattention to economic upliftment of ordinary Indians, deliberate degradation of institutions and selling the family silver to one’s favourites in the name of privatisation do not bode well for the future. Nehru and Mrs Gandhi were popularly elected leaders after all, not appointed viceroys. The commentators who are running them down should realise that their own ancestors would have once voted for Nehru and Mrs Gandhi. If you are cursing them today, you are indirectly blaming your own ancestors for the choices they once made. Tomorrow your descendants may blame you thus for your actions in building and maintaining a leader’s ego at the cost of the country and it’s peoples well-being.
Based on these comments, all of which are by Hindus, a majority of this country is a hate driven country. History will repeat someday when hate filled Hindus will again be slaves
The author is not political observer but Modi basher. In India the biggest cult is ”Gandhian” which she definitely deliberately forgot to mention, considering the cult followers led for India’s independence non violently. Hence, just pointing out osho, asaram and ram Rahim, shows her default position of what is called as Modi Basher. I don’t understand how SK allowed such biased writing. Isn’t there any editorial check happens?
Very pleased to see Jihadists crying loud, a very pleasant sight to watch.,just refreshing myself with Islamic Brutalities, the partition of India, and still Muslims had all fun, kicked Hindus out of Kashmir, now finally karma is catching up.
It’s clear that a certain community who is continually praying and during sermons constantly being told that HINDUS are IDOL worshippers hence are infidels.
This community hates MODI because he is a practising HINDU but ignores his delivering of development to all Indians irrespective of their FAITH.
But MODIJI must understand that a certain community who is obsessed with religion may not be actually interested in education and science which they think is taking them away from their religious beliefs.
This community wants to overwhelm HINDUS by increasing population in mission mode.
MODIJI must focus on education and population control of all communities strictly even if it means large scale violence as INDIA is more important than fundamentalist beliefs like GHAZWA E HIND.
Idol worshippers can be from any community dont spot a particular community Its their faith and belief in a living God who died for all.So dont presume that they hate Any community They pray for the nation
This is what we can expect from Liberando Jihadist….. Wonder whether the author has the balls to write about Kashmiri Hindus who were wiped from their homes or the Uyghir Muslims in China. For sure she’d be Fatwaad….. Sick Journalists
Meanwhile, the prestigious think tank Freedom House which tracks the state of democracy over the world downgrades India from “Free” to “Partly Free”. I cite their recent report “Freedom in the World 2021 : Democracy under Siege
“India, the world’s most populous democracy, dropped from Free to Partly Free status in Freedom in the World 2021. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to COVID-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs. Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism” Ref: bit.ly/3sNRWnI
“Under Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all,” Ref: bbc.in/3kI5D4K
Clearly, an enabler of Modi’s authoritarianism is the cultivation of a cult that sees in him a man who can do no wrong. And this cult will justify pogroms, ethnic cleansing, lynching of innocent Muslims, stripping Muslims of citizenship and other atrocities merely because the Messiah cannot be wrong. Eerily similar to Germany of 1930.
Data: In true Adolf Hitler fashion, when you bray:
“.. MODIJI must focus on education and population control of all communities strictly even if it means large scale violence as INDIA is more important than fundamentalist beliefs ..”
one now has a rough idea of the the extent to which bhakths like you would be willing to go to indulge in ethnic cleansing in India.
It seems to have escaped you Mr Data that, the Hitlerian “Final Solution” for non-Hindus beginning with Muslims has indeed started under Modi and Amit Shah. After all, like Hitler’s concentration camps, your RSS man has built detention camps in Assam hasn’t he ? And when you realise that Hitler’s Nazi ideology and Mussolini’s fascism lie at the core of the RSS philosophy and worldview and that the PM is an alumnus of the RSS, well, there are ample reasons to be alarmed.
But Hitler was the visible apex of a vast network of Nazi organisations such as the Hitler youth wing (Hitler Jugend), the thuggish Brownshirts (Sturmabteilung), the League of German Maiden (Bund Deutscher Mädel) etc. who went about intimidating Jews and political rivals. Sort of like the Sangh Parivar network with the RSS at the apex, and motley outfits like the Bajrang Dal, the ABVP, the Ram Sene, various gaurakshak gangs and other thuggish criminal gangs that lynch Muslims. And aided, abetted and applauded by blinkered, bigoted bhakths like you Mr Data.
Golwalkar, one of the führers of the RSS wrote in his book “We Or Our Nationhood Defined”:
“…To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of Semitic races – the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by ..”
Clearly Mr Data, it is hard to believe that even the educated Modi members of the cult such as yourself actually want your Messiah to indulge in “large scale violence” and are so casual about it. And I do think that that could indeed be a reality. Given the pedigree of the RSS, the pogroms of 2002, the detention camps in Assam, all this talk of throwing Muslim termites into the sea and the everyday violence against Muslims, it is not hard to connect the dots Mr Data.
As the German philosopher Georg Hegel (1770-1831) said:
“We learn from history that we do not learn from history”.
PM Modi and his bhakths like you prove that Hegel was right.
Col KL Viswanathan:
You write:
“ .. I wonder if the author realizes that the word “cult” is usually considered pejorative. ..”
Yes, the word cult was used in a pejorative sense when referring to the insane Modi cult that people like you and assorted bhakths seem to adhere to. Of course, unlike the semi-literate, itchy-testicled bhakth from BIMARU whose “valour” is displayed against hapless Muslims, you are an erudite man who signed up to sacrifice your life for India. Including for the lives of said cretins from BIMARU. And yet, you park your intellect aside when it comes to critically examining the actions of this flawed man from the organisation that produced Golwalkar and Godse.
And why shouldn’t the word cult be used pejoratively about the RSS man Colonel saab ? Indeed, why should any leader in the political arena be given some sort of a demigod status? Particularly a deeply flawed man associated with a fascist, organisation called RSS, a man with a pogrom under his belt, economic ruin as his calling card, the gradual destruction of democracy as his vision for India and the rubbishing of the Constitution as his target?
Colonel saab, you deify a man who in these trying economic times directs scare resources into vanity projects: building an unwanted, unasked for new Parliament building; buys not one but two expensive Boeing 777 planes to the tune of Rs 8500 crores; builds a Ram Mandir; constructs a wasteful statue to Sardar Patel who in reality sent Modi’s RSS predecessors to jail. Worse still, the PM prioritises the protection of cows rather than that of citizens; depletes India’s soft power reservoirs; compromises Indian interests by cosying up to and betting India’s future on a flawed right-wing, racist demagogue called Donald Trump and is hellbent on turning India into a Hindu version of Pakistan. Disgust, not deification and deference is the emotion that should have come to your mind. But sadly, you too, like the blinkered, blind, shaka going, lathi wielding bhakths would rather worship this man than judge him by his actions and accomplishments – or lack thereof .
You go on to say that this man deserves respect because he has been democratically elected and demeaning him is tantamount to demeaning the “whole electorate”. Well fact is, only 37 % of the electorate voted for this RSS alumnus who also claims to be a Delhi University alumnus. Indeed, the bulk of India’s voters rejected the pogromwala, especially in more well-educated South India.
You also forget that getting democratically elected does not give any leader carte blanche to destroy the Constitution or become a dictator. Even Adolf Hitler initially came to power through democratic means before he convinced many Germans that Jews needed to be slaughtered on an industrial scale for Germany to prosper. Indeed, that very ideology of Nazism was what inspired the RSS and its various führers. And you see the effects of that ideology in the violent actions of the RSS and its drive to attain ethnic and religious purity through its murderous rampages.
The Modi cult is no different from the various other cults that one has seen in the course of history. In the US, one sees the Trump cult that flourishes on the most atrocious of lies; the QAnon cult; the Mao Tse Tung cult in China in the 1960s; the Gaddafi cult in Libya; the Kim Jong-un cult in North Korea and so on. Alas, democracy cannot function when the unchecked, unquestioned deeds and mis-deeds of one man are the cornerstone of the polity.
Sad indeed to see an ex-soldier salute such a man.
As astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-96) once said:
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Thank you for your perspective. I value it. It also demonstrates that India is a free country where the right to choose and speak is unfettered.
Rgards
Thanks for the response Colonel Viswanahan !
Alas, I must again disagree with you when you claim :
“It also demonstrates that India is a free country where the right to choose and speak is unfettered”
That is codswallop. Press freedoms in India have diminished under the regime of the pogromwala and his ragtag army of saffron thugs. You don’t have to take my word for it, let us look at the work done by Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières, RSF) and what they have to say. Ref: rsf.org/en/india)
Of the roughly 180 countries surveyed, India is ranked at an abysmal an 142 whilst Pakistan is ranked at 145. Indeed, over the past few years, India is inching closer and closer to Pakistan as Modi transforms India into a Hindu carbon copy of the mullah and military run Islamic Republic of Pakistan. And here is what they write about India:
MODI TIGHTENS HIS GRIP ON MEDIA
“With no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018, the security situation for the country’s media might seem, on the face of it, to have improved. However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials. Ever since the general elections in the spring of 2019, won overwhelmingly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, pressure on the media to toe the Hindu nationalist government’s line has increased.
Those who espouse Hindutva, the ideology that gave rise to Hindu nationalism, are trying to purge all manifestations of “anti-national” thought from the national debate. The coordinated hate campaigns waged on social networks against journalists who dare to speak or write about subjects that annoy Hindutva followers are alarming and include calls for the journalists concerned to be murdered. The campaigns are particularly virulent when the targets are women. Criminal prosecutions are meanwhile often used to gag journalists critical of the authorities, with some prosecutors invoking Section 124a of the penal code, under which “sedition” is punishable by life imprisonment .. ”
The odd comment in online publication (which few read anyway) is no litmus test of Indian press freedoms. As they say:
“One swallow does not a summer make”.
And one more request Mr, KJ,
I respect your views and try to learn from your perspective. My request is that you refrain from personal attacks and references (like signing away my life etc..) which robs the the little sheen from your points. You know me only from what I write and so the logical way to act is to be crtitical or appreciative of what I write and not what I am or what may be in your perception. That will be a more civil way to discuss issues.
Thanks & regards
Highly exaggerated, one stadium renamed being connected to all these day dreaming, journalism cant be so irresponsible. Where are the facts!
Such an immature article. The author has completely misrepresenting the facts against RSS and has weak articulation of facts. Granted that she is a left wing which I have no problem but if she wants to criticize,criticize properly. What problem does the author have with Bhagwad Gita? Doest she know that Gandhi was an admirer of RSS? Poorly written article
Mr Pranay Gupta: Are you an admirer of the RSS ? A Nathuram Godse worshipper like many BJP MPs? An admirer of Savarakar, the man who plotted to kill Mahatma Gandhi ?
Kili first come in original name ..we like Rss a lot then other organisation because it save Hindus from you type of Duplicates .Thanks
Zainab Sikander has allowed her imagination to get ahead of her. While she is perhaps attempting to bring out the megalomania of Modi, she is being peurile in her writing. It is true that we are saddled with a man who considers him Emperor, but then he has been bestowed the crown by the Electorate. Till the people do not see through the shallowness of the man, he will continue to enjoy his unbridled run as India’s quasi-dictator. And Zainab with her inspid writing will sadly not be able to make a difference in the scheme of things.
While I agree with her essential premise, she needs to learn from her boss Shekhar Gupta the art of writing candidly yet correctly.
Unfortunately this distant distopia does not seem that distant anymore.
Every day it gets harder and harder for everyone who doesn’t align with BJP.
Such shame.
Very well said Mr Bharmoria !
India or rather Modistan is rapidly being transformed from a democracy into a cult based leadership much like Kim Jong-un’ North Korea. Indeed, even more than loyalty to the BJP, it is loyalty to Prophet Modi that seems to matter. You see the same developments in the Republican Party in the USA – party members and many Americans are loyal to Trump rather than to Republican ideals. The Republican Party is Trump’s party. You had the same state of affairs in Stalin’s Soviet Union and in Nazi Germany – veneration of a single, deeply flawed man and the institutional damage and carnage that such cult worship left in its wake..
Germany recovered from its Nazism and became a true democracy. But that is an exception. Stalin’s Soviet Union did not and you now have a Stalin clone viz. Vladimir Putin. Trump’s attempts to destroy American democracy through a “thousand cuts” and a putsch on Jan 6th nearly succeeded. But American democracy and its more robust institutions survived a Trump takeover, at least for now. India may not be that lucky – Modi’s takeover of the judiciary, the legislature and the executive have done lasting damage to India. Even the press is now a fawning extension of Modi’s propaganda machinery. Sadly, all this occurs with the connivance of the educated upper middle class and upper caste Hindus who conflate Modi’s violent, Nazism inspired philosophy of Hindutva for Hinduism. And vote for this flawed, false Prophet even as their own future becomes bleak, the economy tumbles and even Bangladesh overtakes India in per capita GDP terms.
Yes Sir, as you correctly point out, that distant dystopia is lurking around the corner. But try telling that to the blinkered, brainwashed bhakth. He will abuse your religion if he do not have a Hindu name and call you an anti-national if you happen to be a Hindu. Or both. That indeed is the sad state of affairs in India.
Hope to read more of your insights Sir.
AM just waiting for the upcoming “complaint button”, it’ll be fun…..tooo much fun……!!!! Hahahah!!
In one video, Arfa was talking to Arif Lhan and was complaining about Hindu extremism. Arif Saab asked her why she dies not mention about Muslim extremism and Arfa was quiet. Most Muslins would never accept they have a problem. This author is no better.
It is unlikely for a national political leader to become a cult figure years later if only 37% of voters voted him in. It is a pity that a sarcasm of this sort is literally believed true by a Bhakt.
An excellent comment Mr Raghuraman.
Sadly, this is what happens when you stop thinking, stop seeing facts but fall into the web of deception spun by an unscrupulous bunch of Gujaratis and their slick propaganda machine. In fact, there was one commenter here in The Print who wrote that he was willing to sell his kidney to support the re-election of Modi !
As Josef Göbbels, Hitler’s propaganda Minister said:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”
Clearly, in a country like India, even the well-educated middle classes who swear by Modi even as they lose their shirts to the flawed economic policies of this Delhi University alumnus validate what Göbbels said.
Dear Zainab…we understand your our sentiments, but like mentioned below your article.. These are just your views….not to be taken seriously….jai Modi….jai hind…Vande mataram….
Dear Cartoon,
Unfathomable that people like you would associate a flawed, inept man with a pogrom under his belt, crony capitalism as his calling card and the conversion of India into a Hindu Pakistan as the symbol of India.
Did the Gujarati deposit Rs 15 lacs in your bank account perhaps?
Jokingly yours
KJ
Dear Zainab…we understand your our sentiments, but like mentioned below your article.. These are just your views….not to be taken seriously….jai Modi….jai hind…Vande mataram….
To the author: Doob ke mar jaa re chullu bhar paani mein
Is abuse the only form of debate they taught you in your shaka “Aslam Siddique” ?
print is just hell bias media. you should be shamed of you. we will never read your opinions and news.
Shashi Yadav: Nobody asked you to read the Print, let alone comment on articles published in it. But clearly, the article has hit home and you are powerless and intellectually impotent when it comes to refuting the ideas advanced by Ms Sikander’s. I suggest you stop reading The Print and instead switch to the RSS publication Organiser where they only sing praises to Prophet Modi. If hearing praises to Modi gives you an orgasm, go for the Organiser !
Haha, such deep rooted intolerance and hatred in every sentence of your article! Please don’t term this as journalism! Maybe, just maybe, maintain a scrap book instead ?
I wonder if the author realizes that the word “cult” is usually considered pejorative. If the meaning is known and is used deliberately for a democratically elected leader by one of “We the people”, in the least it is, in way, demeaning the whole electorate.
We will let it pass as a case of ignorance.
Probably the author means that section of the electorate are following leaders loyally overlooking transgressions. But then this what makes leaders the world over – from the days of mythology to this very day even in the oldest democracy. Thankfully we, including the author, are free to choose.
Also we look forward to more erudite opinions in these columns than discussions on Namo, Raga, Gandhis and Shas.
Col KL Viswanathan: I have replied to you and my reply appears a few inches above your comment.
Happy Reading !
Some comments made by author may be true, but I can’t help but notice the deep rooted hatred of author.
So much for the “most peaceful religion” of the world. Ironically majority of its followers are mentally unsettled. Be it modi or not.
If it was truly the most peaceful religion in the world there would be no need to keep reiterating it like a constant reminder.
The autor had dreamt at night & next day he wrote this article. Highly immature article. Try to improve & have some oraganic content.
RSS needed a leader to show to their young generation. They created modi with the help of Ambani and Adani.
He took India as far right as he could. Muslims are still there and will always be there. RSS toned town their anti Muslim rhetoric as India needs good relations with the Muslim world.
There will be no more anti Muslim tv debates. No more lynching will be tolerated. He will now distance himself from far right politics of yogi.
Modi “baba” has not given Kashmir to India. India still has the same Kashmir that it had during the time of Nehru.
RSS needed a leader to show to their young generation. They created modi with the help of Ambani and Adani.
He took India as far right as he could. Muslims are still there and will always be there. RSS toned town their anti Muslim rhetoric as India needs good relations with the Muslim world.
There will be no more anti Muslim tv debates. No more pograms and longings will be tolerated. He will now distance himself from far right politics of yogi.
Modi “baba” has not given Kashmir to India. India still has the same Kashmir that it had during the time of Nehru.
Khudi ko kar bulund itna, ki har taqdeer se pahile,
Khuda bande se khud poochhey, bata teri raza kya hai.
By far the best world leader. Jealousy is the green serpent, biting this political observer.
Maybe you need a burnol I guess. Other than that article isn’t worth commenting. Just full of verbal sh!t.
Dear Shri Shekhar Gupta, can you please get Begum Zainab Sikandar a job at Muslim Mirror? Her rants are more appropriate there.
Mr. Subhasis, Can you please try to get your job of commenting to OpIndia? Your rants are more appropriate there.
the article is a piece of thrash and reflects more on the writer than modi.
Mr Kasiviswanathan Krishnan: Care to explain why you thrash this article ? In fact your comment, where you fail to come up with one counter-argument against the author proves that you are the one talking trash. Indeed, your intellectual impotence is so bloody evident that you are unable to justify why Modi is the great Messiah people like you believe he is. Maybe Modi deposited Rs 15 lacs in your account ?
Uni-directional extrapolation are not norms of politics, rather reversion to mean. Cult is the least efficient ideology- when personality trumps substance- it only keeps the converted in the fold and repels everybody. Cult cannot be repeated- it can only be milked with declining return.
cry baby cry
Always fun to read her articles, weekly dose of entertainment.
Another regular rant from leftists and fundamentalists. Just like if modi comes into power after election that would be last election types.
They are having burnol movement for sending BHAGVAD GITA into space. We have to understand this they are very insecure about their believes, hence when something other than their beliefs comes up, they start freaking out. Had some other book that doesnt not belong to sanatana dharma would be have been sent into the space, they would have been celebrating by busting Oxygen emitting fire crackers.
It’s a simple funda if they can make people believe what people have is bad or inferior or false and theirs is the truth, superior and good people can be enslaved easily. The same funda used by invaders/colonisers to rule people of this region.
Mr Harsh: Once again, the blinkered, blind, bigoted Modi bhakth in you takes over your faculties and turns you into a zombie that only obeys commands from your Gujarati paymasters. In other words, the definition of being in a cult – you suspend your thinking and allow some a bunch of cretins to do the thinking for you applies to you.
So here is some basic political science for you Harry saab. Having regular elections alone is no litmus test for democracy. The Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, Cuba etc. have regular elections but are certainly not democracies. One of the many features of a true democracy is separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of a government and the presence of true independence for these institutions. Can you say that India has an independent judiciary under the Modi regime? Or an independent executive ? Or for that matter even a free press?
So rather than talk about invaders colonising natives, I suggest you go find out who has colonised your mind.
I would love to see Modi as the PM for the next 20 years just so I can enjoy watching this jihadi sister getting more and more unhinged with heartburn.
Opinions like this convince even fence sitters to be a Modi Bhakt
you are right.
Feel Extremely Sorry For U Librandu….
This is pure Modi bashing. Writer seems not to have any political insights. Very very poor excuse for political journalism.
When there is Modi worshipping by bhakths like you, why can’t there be legitimate criticism of the pogromwala Mr Varun Patel ?
The issue is not personality cult – after all every politician worth his salt wants people to be voting only for him all the time. The real issue is what are people letting the politician with the personality cult get away with. Here there is reason to worry. The cavalier inattention to economic upliftment of ordinary Indians, deliberate degradation of institutions and selling the family silver to one’s favourites in the name of privatisation do not bode well for the future. Nehru and Mrs Gandhi were popularly elected leaders after all, not appointed viceroys. The commentators who are running them down should realise that their own ancestors would have once voted for Nehru and Mrs Gandhi. If you are cursing them today, you are indirectly blaming your own ancestors for the choices they once made. Tomorrow your descendants may blame you thus for your actions in building and maintaining a leader’s ego at the cost of the country and it’s peoples well-being.
Based on these comments, all of which are by Hindus, a majority of this country is a hate driven country. History will repeat someday when hate filled Hindus will again be slaves
TRY MUSLIM MORON. GOT GUTS????
The author is not political observer but Modi basher. In India the biggest cult is ”Gandhian” which she definitely deliberately forgot to mention, considering the cult followers led for India’s independence non violently. Hence, just pointing out osho, asaram and ram Rahim, shows her default position of what is called as Modi Basher. I don’t understand how SK allowed such biased writing. Isn’t there any editorial check happens?
I totally agree with your comments.
Yes. I agree the article smacks of Modi bashing. What about Gandhi cult, Nehru cult and Indira cult.
Two words, Chacha Nehru!
Very pleased to see Jihadists crying loud, a very pleasant sight to watch.,just refreshing myself with Islamic Brutalities, the partition of India, and still Muslims had all fun, kicked Hindus out of Kashmir, now finally karma is catching up.
It’s clear that a certain community who is continually praying and during sermons constantly being told that HINDUS are IDOL worshippers hence are infidels.
This community hates MODI because he is a practising HINDU but ignores his delivering of development to all Indians irrespective of their FAITH.
But MODIJI must understand that a certain community who is obsessed with religion may not be actually interested in education and science which they think is taking them away from their religious beliefs.
This community wants to overwhelm HINDUS by increasing population in mission mode.
MODIJI must focus on education and population control of all communities strictly even if it means large scale violence as INDIA is more important than fundamentalist beliefs like GHAZWA E HIND.
Idol worshippers can be from any community dont spot a particular community Its their faith and belief in a living God who died for all.So dont presume that they hate Any community They pray for the nation
Poor liberal , pray for your speedy recovery
This is what we can expect from Liberando Jihadist….. Wonder whether the author has the balls to write about Kashmiri Hindus who were wiped from their homes or the Uyghir Muslims in China. For sure she’d be Fatwaad….. Sick Journalists