Narendra Modi vs the Dynasty: Contrasting Ideas of India

[ramana]

Does Renuka Choudhary respect her own family?

[Supratik]

Well Raman seems like India-Today i.e. goes with the hawa. But he is right in one aspect - demonisation of Modi has made him a household name without the intended consequences. This reminds me of the 90s when demonisation of "Hindutva" actually brought the BJP to power.

[member_23658]

^ any chance this is on the net somewhere?

got it! http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/left-r ... -justadded

[Arjun]

Well Raman seems like India-Today i.e. goes with the hawa. But he is right in one aspect - demonisation of Modi has made him a household name without the intended consequences. This reminds me of the 90s when demonisation of "Hindutva" actually brought the BJP to power.

As far as I am aware, Aroon Purie who owns India Today has been a long-time supporter of Modi.

[Supratik]

I don't know about Purie's leanings but I have been following IT for long - it swings with the hawa - same thing happened with Vajpayee.
IT is unlike Outlook or The Hindu/Frontline i.e. it doesn't have an ideological agenda. BTW, I read Hindu/Frontline specifically for their excellent defense/space sector coverage.

[RamaY]

^ any chance this is on the net somewhere?

got it! http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/left-r ... -justadded

These very siculars tried to corner NM using western boycotts. Now that the boycott is ending, these guys are confooosed...

[SwamyG]

So does B.Raman still read BRF ?

Man, someone should tell him his photo looks as grumpy as him.

[nawabs]

Five-year project comes to fruition

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/five ... ition.html

There has been predictable schizophrenia over Narendra Modi’s speech earlier in the week in Delhi at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC). All of this was foretold back in 2011 and 2012 itself on why the debate over Modi will be sharp and polarised where everyone will be forced to take a stance of some sort.

Lost in this schizophrenia, however, is the real import or political significance of this speech at SRCC. I am neither referring to the breathless speculation in the media over the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate nor am I referring to the media hype over a faux hyphenation. There is no political parity between a successful three-term Chief Minister on the one hand and a genetically blessed but political under-achiever on the other hand.

The real political significance of the SRCC speech lies in the composition of the audience comprising young and potentially first time voters and in two Ideas articulated in the speech that the media in Delhi is only now taking note of.

First, let us get to the ideas that Delhi’s media has only now belatedly discovered.

A lazy columnist writing for The First Post has flippantly referred to the coinages of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ and ‘P2G2’ as somehow dumbing the down good governance in a Chetan Bhagat style. What this columnist and most other media observers have failed to note is that neither coinage is new nor dumbed down. These coinages do not also indicate some kind of branding or packaging with 2014 in mind as many in the media would have us believe.

Back in 2008 just having won a second term and when the political stakes were as low as they could get, Narendra Modi gave a keynote speech in Chennai at the annual readers’ event of Cho Ramaswamy’s Tughlaq magazine. This speech was barely reported or analysed by the media. Three things were noteworthy about the speech.

It was a rare extempore speech in English by Modi. Quite unlike the faux ‘authoritarian’ image that intellectually dishonest columnists like Ramachandra Guha and others are attempting to project, Modi revealed the liberal democrat in him to an audience that was neither expected to be voting on him nor expected to endorse him for anything. Lastly, this speech was for the first time that a mainstream Indian politician in our lifetime had expressed a clear Centre Right philosophy on the role of Government through the coinage ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’.

[Watch Modi speak in Chennai in 2008 on ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’ 4:49 onward]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDW4DaIZVc

What Modi said in Delhi in 2013 in what was perceived to be a high stakes speech and what Modi said in Chennai in 2008 in what was clearly a low stakes speech are one and the same. Therein lies the political significance.

The big debate after the elections in 2004 and 2009 was on the question of the relevance of the BJP’s past ideology to its political future. Celebrity TV anchors like Barkha Dutt have written more than one column posing abstract questions on “when will the BJP reinvent itself as a modern centre right party?” The reality is Barkha Dutt and others have failed to take note of the fact that Modi has already effected that reinvention by not just expressing a clear philosophy of governance but also forcing a public debate framed around the issues of governance.

Today if Modi is forcing a polarised debate on this country, it is not on the question of the BJP’s past ideology but on the question of his approach to governance and how it threatens the status quo both within the BJP and in a broader sense within the country.

The 2008 Chennai speech was no flash in the pan. The articulation of P2G2 as a more popular coinage of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance happened back in June of 2010, again in a politically low stakes year during a BJP summit on ‘Good Governance’. The popular articulation of P2G2 was also accompanied by a 25-page-long thesis on his philosophy of governance drawing on ideas from the Gita, Robert Putnam’s views on social capital, Gandhi and Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu. Little wonder this thesis in 2010 was also barely reported by Delhi’s media.

Today in 2013 it would not be an exaggeration to observe that Narendra Modi has over the past 5 years forced the BJP’s Centre Right reinvention.

Delhi’s media and perhaps many in the BJP as well are only now belatedly becoming aware of it. The frame of reference for political debates this decade and perhaps even the next one will be on the question of the role Government and on who has the best ideas to deliver governance.

This brings us to the last but most politically significant aspect of the speech in Delhi. The 18 and 19-year-olds in the audience will in a year’s time be called upon to exercise their franchise for the first time in their adult life. This is a generation born after the fires of Mandal and the fault-lines over Ayodhya. This is a generation that took the Vajpayee era boom for granted. This is a generation to which the Internet and the digital revolution was a given. This is also a generation that all through its adolescence experienced an India lead by a weak leadership drifting from crisis to crisis.

A key constituency within the aspirational neo middle class is the young and potentially first time voter segment.

What can be better for India’s future, their future than to begin their adult political life with a debate on strong leadership and over who has the best ideas for governance ?

Let me close with an anecdote from Lao Tzu that Narendra Modi in his 2010 speech on P2G2 recounts:

“If there is a king and people get things done and don’t know that they have a king it is the best type of Government. If there is a king and if people get their things done and if they know that there is a king it is a good Government. If there is a king and if people have to complain to the king to get things done then it is a bad Government. If there is a king and things don’t get done even if complaints are made to him then it is the worst type of Government.”

[RajeshA]

These very siculars tried to corner NM using western boycotts. Now that the boycott is ending, these guys are confooosed...

They have used the Western boycott as the ultimate morality and truth test, thus given the Western view some sort of godly halo. From where else can they derive their moral superiority? Hardly from Congress's view, as nobody really takes their view as something above politics! And the courts were just not playing along as they were exonerating Modi.

So the Western stand was really their only way of saying, here is reality - Modi is this, Modi is that! All other countries shun him!

Now even that fig-leaf is gone! So what happened in Gujarat in 2002 is now only a sickular claim and nothing more - the courts don't support the view, the "international community" doesn't support the view, and their own view is nothing because their standing is nothing.

2002 is dead!

[SwamyG]

You spend less than 15 minutes on the Internet, and one can construct a good narration...all public source information only.

------------
Nidhi Razdan is a television news anchor @ NDTV 24x7.
Her father Maharaj Krishan Razdan is the Editor in Chief of PTI.
Nidhi was married to Neelesh Misra who is also a journalist.
Neelesh is the Deputy Executive Editor of Hindustan Times.
Neelesh is now married to Yamini Misra (Tripathi).
Yamini works for Carving Dreams Entertainment (P) Ltd.
Nidhi after her divorce, has had 2 live-in relations.
Nidhi was rumored to have caught the eye of Omar Abudllah.
Omar is the CM of J&K, and has denied the rumors.
-------------

[Abhijit]

Also, wasn't this nidhi referred to as 'that bitch' by barkha dutt during the 26/11 coverage? this was when barkha was unaware of a live mike in her vicinity.

[Abhijit]

what is it with the razdan, varshney, katju types? If my memory serves me right, these are all Kashmiri Pundit surnames. Is there no basic identification and empathy with your own people? How can any Kashmiri Hindu ever become a bootlicker of the Congress when congress has been a eunuch-like spectator/co-conspirator to the grievous genocide of Kashmiri Hindus since 1948?

[vijayk]

You know when the nikkamma PRESSTITUTES start attacking the subjects, they know they are losing fight. They attacked Guujus and Gujju hindus relentlessly. Thank God! Majority of them did not fall for the trap.

Look here mediot PRESSTITUTE Askshay Mishra going nuts after young urban middle class.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/whats ... 18567.html
What’s so great about the ‘young, urban middle class’?
by Akshaya Mishra

Let’s get straight to the point. What on earth is this new beast on the block – the young, urban educated middle class – exactly? It is the media writers’ latest muse.

Where do you find this beast? You find it on the streets every now and then, expressing outrage over one thing or the other, in candle-light rallies near big city landmarks and in front of television cameras, and of course, in the virtual universe. It lords over the online space, that vast lawless territory where nastiness is an essential tool of sustenance and survival. Here, it expresses itself without inhibition or fear or respect, always ready to spill blood – virtual blood – at the slightest provocation. This many would interpret as sign of self-assuredness.

At a superficial level, this is the perfect class to lead the country into the future. Scratch deeper, the ugly reality hits you in the face. It is more foolish than intelligent, more illiberal than democratic, more communal than secular and generally, despite the huge availability of information at the fingertip, is more ignorant than knowledgeable. This is a class that is impressionable and would be easily swayed by demagogues. This is also a class totally confused about the world beyond their immediate circle.

The online world is supposed to be inhabited almost wholly by the young educated urban middle class. It is reasonable to assume that people who have access to and are comfortable with computers, have knowledge of the internet and can express themselves in English are members of this class. Now, study the character of the huge commentariat, the mob that habitually reacts to every written word on websites.

Read any post on politics in general. What strikes you immediately is, this is a crowd that is highly communal in its mindset. Modi could be trying to relaunch himself as the messiah of development, but his large army of supporters understands him primarily as a Hindutva icon. The sense is articulated in the rampant Muslim and Christian bashing while praising the chief minister.

What do you make of the intellectual strength of this class? Well, go back to the comments again. These are in general hateful, venomous, abusive and intolerant of any unfriendly viewpoint. We have a toxic crowd out there. It does not believe in healthy debates, exchange of ideas and mutual respect. There’s no sense of grace and dignity raising an issue. The good, reasonable voices invariably get drowned in the avalanche of hate. If this is what the young, educated urban India is all about, then God help the country.

Mr. Mishra! Reach for the burnol. Looks like your rear end caught on fire.Go Burnol!

When a whole state or even the whole population is hounded, caricatured, ridiculed, attacked and demonised, you know there is some thing wrong with the media which is doing the job. Their end is near.

[R_Kumar]

what is it with the razdan, varshney, katju types? If my memory serves me right, these are all Kashmiri Pundit surnames. Is there no basic identification and empathy with your own people? How can any Kashmiri Hindu ever become a bootlicker of the Congress when congress has been a eunuch-like spectator/co-conspirator to the grievous genocide of Kashmiri Hindus since 1948?

If some sikhs can be why not others. 84 was not a riot it was a genocide done by Rajiv Gandhi led congress not Hindus. I still wonder how congress even get a single vote in Punjab.

[vijayk]

Check these morons and their reaction to Rahul vs Modi


full article.

Modi came, spoke and conquered
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/modi ... uered.html

Check what people think...

[Supratik]

What’s so great about the ‘young, urban middle class’?
by Akshaya Mishra

Mr. Mishra! Reach for the burnol. Looks like your rear end caught on fire.Go Burnol!

When a whole state or even the whole population is hounded, caricatured, ridiculed, attacked and demonised, you know there is some thing wrong with the media which is doing the job. Their end is near.

This is actually old news. They are unable to explain why the educated section is not falling for their propaganda. Similar "analysis" came out in the 90s claiming the middle class were "Hindu fundamentalist" and tried to connect it with economic liberalization and then how NRIs were "Hindu fundamentalist" and tried to connect it with their prosperity. At a deep level it is frustration. Imagine you have demonised someone or some ideology and then the people voluntarily choose that person or ideology and you are unable to accept that the fault lies with you and not the other person - how frustrating that would be.

[Muppalla]

The premise pf my post is INC wants to stop NDA at Delhi and check Jagan in state. So can TSP check Jagan in state and support a Turd front to keep communal forces out of power? And get some development package?

Who are the levers on TDP from abroad?

Recall UPA was forged when Anil Ambani forced Mulayam Yadav to swallow his pride and support Sonia Gandhi's INC alliance.

So who are the levers for all the million sundry parties? We need to understand them.

This is the fundamental analysis that needs to be done to assess Modi's chances. Otherwise all Modi fans will just be depressed if even on this thread we don't go the bottom of this and just keep doing wah-wah. Modi is wah wah and there is no need for that education anymore. Trying to educate who hate Modi is useless and waste of time.

As a starter - EU made a statement, ny times had an article and slowly the Modi mania is creeping through. That means there will some back door maneuvering and positioning with Plan A, Plan b type stuff.

The fundamental line of the west is no to BJP, no to NDA and no to Modi for sure. Why and what can be discussed

Modi wave is sweeping and that does not mean in any way that BJP will cross 180 out of 540. A full heart out sweep will put BJP at 190 and there is no way in heaven or hell that BJP can cross 190. Bring that 190 to 272/300 is a coalition and it needs a lot of partners whose leavers are all over the world. This is the next battle that Modi ji's team needs to analyze and conquer one at a time.

The only advantage that Modi has and which eluded ABV and Advani is that his team can compete financially with any mikel-a-lal. Looks like he has the abilities to pull string from even mighty Ambanis. His team should be able to allocate at the rate of 200 croreper seat for all the seats where there is competition.

Added later:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/nare ... 49489.html
This looks like an allegation but I hope that is true. Unless you combine corporates interests with governance and a balance, he cannot win and also he will not succeed in his agenda of making a massive difference.

[Gus]

Great idea there Sherlock...berate people into modi camp.

[anmol]

January 16, 2013


U.S. Hindus Hear the Call of India

By MANU JOSEPH


NEW YORK — In a play that opened in New York last week, a Hindu god who drinks wine and uses foul language goes to Nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika from Hitler. The swastika, which for many has become a reminder of chilling human evil, is also an ancient and sacred Hindu symbol that is commonly found on doors and walls in Indian homes, and that women in southern India draw every morning on their porches.

When the play, “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, ” was staged in Australia in 2011, Hindus there protested, claiming to be wounded by the comic representation of the elephant-headed god, the length of whose trunk is used in one scene to allude to a vital male organ. Some Hindu groups in the United States, whose antennas often seem as if they are finely tuned to seek offense, are now contemplating how they should react to such a play in a land where complaints on religious grounds are largely subordinate to artistic freedom.

It is possible that there are many American Hindus who are not troubled enough by their cultural displacement to get too worked up about religion, India or myths of identity. But the most visible Hindus in the United States are the online fanatics who react instantly and with conviction to news developments and personalities in India. They are a part of the middle-class South Asian settlements in the United States that are growing disenchanted, whether discreetly or overtly, with the West and thus are becoming obsessed with their roots.

In a cafe in downtown New York, Sheetal Shah, a senior director at the Hindu American Foundation, told me that there was a distinction between American Hindus who were born and raised in India and those whose formative memories are in the United States. It is those in the former group who feel compelled to react to Indian politics, she said. The latter tend to be less interested in politics, but just as passionate about Hinduism and India.

Ms. Shah, who has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, has been active in the foundation’s “Take Back Yoga” campaign, which seeks to remind everyone that yoga has Hindu origins and believes the world should acknowledge this. Among Ms. Shah’s many other activities is an attempt to nudge Americans beyond “caste, cow and karma” when viewing Hinduism, and to perceive it as a great antique philosophy rather than merely a pantheon of paranormal deities. She was aware of “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich” but had yet to see the play. “I am not clear about our course of action” in its regard, she said.

Not very long ago, the “Nonresident Indian” was revered in India through the venerated abbreviation NRI. As there is a hierarchy in everything that Indians consider important, the American NRI was the most revered of all NRIs. In the late 1980s, there was always a commotion when an NRI visited family in India. The visitor would appear to have a glow of the good life, with a fragrance of something affluent and distant. From large, top-quality suitcases would emerge extraordinary objects with famous Western names.

As India became richer and its economy opened up to consumption of the most famous global brands, and as Indians began to travel to the West, the NRI became somewhat diminished but still respectable. In the past decade, though, there has been a change in what NRIs represent in India. They have gone from being considered part of the academic elite to being seen as amusing conservatives. They are among the great swarms that fill slots on the Internet where comments are free.

One of the major focal points for these swarms is a man called Narendra Modi, who arrived in the Indian national consciousness at the turn of the millennium. He has been the chief minister of Gujarat State for more than a decade and is a possible candidate for prime minister for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.

In 2002, Gujarat witnessed two horrific acts of violence. A passenger train filled with Hindu pilgrims was burned by a Muslim mob, killing at least 58 people. In the days that followed, a retaliatory attack that Mr. Modi claimed was “a spontaneous reaction of Hindus” resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Muslims and an unknown number of rapes. Since then, various human rights groups, journalists and public servants have accused Mr. Modi of being complicit in the riots, an accusation that he denies.

The political leaning of the majority of Hindus in the United States is liberal and Democratic, Ms. Shah said, but many of these same Hindus favor Mr. Modi. So while they are Democrats in the United States, they are also the wind beneath the right wing in India.

But there are also those, especially among younger American Hindus, who are repulsed by Mr. Modi. One young woman, who lives in New York and who once met Mr. Modi with her father, said: “I have fights with my father over Modi. I tell my father, ‘How can you? How can you love that man who did all that?”’

She is among the many daughters in this world who find it hard to understand the choices that some good men make.

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People.”

[anmol]

January 16, 2013


U.S. Hindus Hear the Call of India

By MANU JOSEPH


NEW YORK — In a play that opened in New York last week, a Hindu god who drinks wine and uses foul language goes to Nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika from Hitler. The swastika, which for many has become a reminder of chilling human evil, is also an ancient and sacred Hindu symbol that is commonly found on doors and walls in Indian homes, and that women in southern India draw every morning on their porches.

When the play, “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, ” was staged in Australia in 2011, Hindus there protested, claiming to be wounded by the comic representation of the elephant-headed god, the length of whose trunk is used in one scene to allude to a vital male organ. Some Hindu groups in the United States, whose antennas often seem as if they are finely tuned to seek offense, are now contemplating how they should react to such a play in a land where complaints on religious grounds are largely subordinate to artistic freedom.

It is possible that there are many American Hindus who are not troubled enough by their cultural displacement to get too worked up about religion, India or myths of identity. But the most visible Hindus in the United States are the online fanatics who react instantly and with conviction to news developments and personalities in India. They are a part of the middle-class South Asian settlements in the United States that are growing disenchanted, whether discreetly or overtly, with the West and thus are becoming obsessed with their roots.

In a cafe in downtown New York, Sheetal Shah, a senior director at the Hindu American Foundation, told me that there was a distinction between American Hindus who were born and raised in India and those whose formative memories are in the United States. It is those in the former group who feel compelled to react to Indian politics, she said. The latter tend to be less interested in politics, but just as passionate about Hinduism and India.

Ms. Shah, who has a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, has been active in the foundation’s “Take Back Yoga” campaign, which seeks to remind everyone that yoga has Hindu origins and believes the world should acknowledge this. Among Ms. Shah’s many other activities is an attempt to nudge Americans beyond “caste, cow and karma” when viewing Hinduism, and to perceive it as a great antique philosophy rather than merely a pantheon of paranormal deities. She was aware of “Ganesh Versus the Third Reich” but had yet to see the play. “I am not clear about our course of action” in its regard, she said.

Not very long ago, the “Nonresident Indian” was revered in India through the venerated abbreviation NRI. As there is a hierarchy in everything that Indians consider important, the American NRI was the most revered of all NRIs. In the late 1980s, there was always a commotion when an NRI visited family in India. The visitor would appear to have a glow of the good life, with a fragrance of something affluent and distant. From large, top-quality suitcases would emerge extraordinary objects with famous Western names.

As India became richer and its economy opened up to consumption of the most famous global brands, and as Indians began to travel to the West, the NRI became somewhat diminished but still respectable. In the past decade, though, there has been a change in what NRIs represent in India. They have gone from being considered part of the academic elite to being seen as amusing conservatives. They are among the great swarms that fill slots on the Internet where comments are free.

One of the major focal points for these swarms is a man called Narendra Modi, who arrived in the Indian national consciousness at the turn of the millennium. He has been the chief minister of Gujarat State for more than a decade and is a possible candidate for prime minister for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.

In 2002, Gujarat witnessed two horrific acts of violence. A passenger train filled with Hindu pilgrims was burned by a Muslim mob, killing at least 58 people. In the days that followed, a retaliatory attack that Mr. Modi claimed was “a spontaneous reaction of Hindus” resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Muslims and an unknown number of rapes. Since then, various human rights groups, journalists and public servants have accused Mr. Modi of being complicit in the riots, an accusation that he denies.

The political leaning of the majority of Hindus in the United States is liberal and Democratic, Ms. Shah said, but many of these same Hindus favor Mr. Modi. So while they are Democrats in the United States, they are also the wind beneath the right wing in India.

But there are also those, especially among younger American Hindus, who are repulsed by Mr. Modi. One young woman, who lives in New York and who once met Mr. Modi with her father, said: “I have fights with my father over Modi. I tell my father, ‘How can you? How can you love that man who did all that?”’

She is among the many daughters in this world who find it hard to understand the choices that some good men make.

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People.”

[rohitvats]

^ any chance this is on the net somewhere?

got it! http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/left-r ... -justadded

Thanks for sharing.

[vijayk]

January 16, 2013


U.S. Hindus Hear the Call of India

By MANU JOSEPH

As you can see, the sick PAID MAFIA is every where and attack any one who supports Modi: urban middle class, urban youth, American Hinduss, American India; use the worst form of stereo typing and demonize any one who dares to support him. The scumbag has the audacity to communalize Indians even in the US. These people will ifght tooth and nail just like the way they demonized Gujjus. I hope Indians all over the world stand like Gujjus against the vilification camapaign.

[dhruvM]

As you can see, the sick PAID MAFIA is every where and attack any one who supports Modi: urban middle class, urban youth, American Hinduss, American India; use the worst form of stereo typing and demonize any one who dares to support him. The scumbag has the audacity to communalize Indians even in the US. These people will ifght tooth and nail just like the way they demonized Gujjus. I hope Indians all over the world stand like Gujjus against the vilification camapaign.

Saar, I feel the sort of drivel we've been seeing in MSM will be the actual undoing of the present govt. Most intelligent people (and the Indian voter is intelligent) will see through the fog-of-war these people are whipping up. This sort of a hate campaign unmasks the holier than thou attitude of the Delhi intelligentsia and is +ve of the BJP imo.

I am worried about the ahmed patel led Congress skunkworks hard at work somewhere in a bunker. They might sense that all this hype about Modi's percieved failings is actually hurting them more than it is hurting BJP. What googly shall they throw? I must caution that the judiciary is not infallible to money temptations either. They can try to subvert the judicial process, fabricate evidence, and really play dirty. Don't underestimate the lengths the Congress can go to check Modi. Picture toh abhi baaki hai!

Also agree with Muppalla-ji's analysis. BJP needs to pull all the right levers and get its alliances right. Even with a Modi wave, it will be difficult to compete with Congress' direct cash transfer scheme and NREGA doleouts. Now that is definitely congress skunkworks patakha. Institutionalized voter bribery through biometric smart cards.

[Prem]

The Guy M. Jospeh is real BDY hidden EJihadi and writting against Indians since 90s.

Nareddra Modi VS Dynastic Dhobi
Real Head And Brain Vs Fake Bodii (chottee)
Fully Developed Man VS Baccah In Maa Ki Godhi
Symbol Of India Vs Videsh Ki Khotti

Soon, Khel Kahatam and Sing Karege Maaa Motti.

[ramana]

If Afzal Guru is hanged DIEnasty is feeling the heat of NaMo's Delhi raid/aka Lanka dahan.

Wish he visits dilli more often.

[Hari Seldon]

^^ Heh, heh. Just what I was thinking ....

The mere presence of NM pushes the polity, endogenously, to the right (even if ever so slightly). Wish he could prevail on UPA (indirectly of course) to be more right-leaning economically as well (as in, internally liberalize more sectors such as agri, edu, real estate and so on...if wishes were horses only...)

[pentaiah]

Does Renuka Choudhary respect her own family?

only for keeps sake

she double crossed TD went to the dark side and is now a vampire of the empire

[vijayk]

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/modis ... 19443.html

The common assumption so far has been that the Congress has much to lose in 2014, thanks to its complete mismanagement of the economy under an economist Prime Minister. This is why it is changing the goalposts.

There are several basic reasons for this shift in strategy.

Reuters
The first is Narendra Modi. Now that it is crystal clear that Modi will be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, the Congress knows it has a fight on its hands. It has, therefore, attempted to close off all opportunities for a political attack from the Right on the Islamic terror front by hanging both Kasab and Guru.

The Modi factor behind the hanging was obvious from the timing of Kasab’s execution in November – just a month before the Gujarat elections. The Guru hanging comes just before the Karnataka elections, where the Congress hopes to wrest the state away from the BJP. The BJP has now no chance of retaining the state, since even the floating BJP voter will find the Congress’s actions acceptable.

The second reason for Congress move is to shift the focus of politics away from economic failure to emotive issues like terror. Elections are not usually won on just positive agendas, but also in pandering to popular sentiment and fears.

The Congress knows that it has no chance of defending its economic record in UPA-2, not least because Modi is now painting himself as a development messiah and the nation has been willing to buy at least some of the latter’s achievements. Not only has growth slowed down, but inflation is making the life of the aam aadmi harder. The aam aadmi is angry with the government despite the UPA’s huge spending in his name. And the BJP and the regional parties were in a position to harvest some of this anger in 2014.

The third reason for the hanging is Rahul Gandhi. The Congress knows that Rahul is no vote winner. His wimpy leadership has neither enthused the Congress flock nor is it likely to provide any kind of counter to the virile attacks one can expect from Modi on the campaign trail.

The hangings thus provide the Congress a shelter to hide the weaknesses of their prime ministerial candidate.

However, this shift may come with a cost. The effort is to woo the Hindu vote that may be veering towards Modi, but it could also shift some Muslim votes away from Congress, possibly to regional parties. The question is whether the Congress can manage this balancing act cleverly in the run-up to the 2014 elections.

[member_23629]

January 16, 2013


U.S. Hindus Hear the Call of India

By MANU JOSEPH

As you can see, the sick PAID MAFIA is every where and attack any one who supports Modi: urban middle class, urban youth, American Hinduss, American India; use the worst form of stereo typing and demonize any one who dares to support him. The scumbag has the audacity to communalize Indians even in the US. These people will ifght tooth and nail just like the way they demonized Gujjus. I hope Indians all over the world stand like Gujjus against the vilification camapaign.

This guy is a Christian bigot and has been running a hate campaign against the Hindus. The Open magazine is owned by
RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (the owner of Ceat tires). The clueless Hindu owners deserve a kick up their backside for empowering an evanjihadi against the Hindus. For all the airs of Manu Joseph, the actual circulation of Open magazine is only 5,000 copies.

[Arjun]

This guy is a Christian bigot and has been running a hate campaign against the Hindus. The Open magazine is owned by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (the owner of Ceat tires). The clueless Hindu owners deserve a kick up their backside for empowering an evanjihadi against the Hindus. For all the airs of Manu Joseph, the actual circulation of Open magazine is only 5,000 copies.

Interesting information Varun. Can we see if there are other business groups behind some of the more rabidly anti-Modi publications ?

Two so far-

1. Hindustan Times - Shobhana Bhartiya (KK Birla group)
2. Open Magazine - Sanjiv Goenka Group

[Supratik]

3. Outlook - Raheja

[Sushupti]

This guy is a Christian bigot and has been running a hate campaign against the Hindus. The Open magazine is owned by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (the owner of Ceat tires). The clueless Hindu owners deserve a kick up their backside for empowering an evanjihadi against the Hindus. For all the airs of Manu Joseph, the actual circulation of Open magazine is only 5,000 copies.

Interesting information Varun. Can we see if there are other business groups behind some of the more rabidly anti-Modi publications ?

Two so far-

1. Hindustan Times - Shobhana Bhartiya (KK Birla group)
2. Open Magazine - Sanjiv Goenka Group

Real question is why these "Banias" sponsor leftist intellectuals?. With whom they have cut the deal to launch and sustain these poisonous snakes and in return for what?.

[Chandragupta]

NaMo cancels 12th February trip to Kumbh. Can't fathom why would he do that. Is he consciously steering clear of anything that would link him to Hindutva?

[Arjun]

Real question is why these "Banias" sponsor leftist intellectuals?. With whom they have cut the deal to launch and sustain these poisonous snakes and in return for what?.

Some of these Banias are clueless. But the other factor is that so far there has been a lack of genuine rightist figures in Indian journalistic circles who can also claim to have a lot of experience and are known as "intellectuals". The Indian landscape produced only leftists for about 50 odd years. But now the choice is widening...So guys like Venky Vembu and some others can now claim to have developed some fan following and hope to go across to Raheja or Goenka and negotiate an editorship position.

Having said that, it is important that these business groups face repercussions (boycotts etc of their other businesses) from consumers, so they realize which way the wind is blowing.

[devesh]

would be funny if, after all the adoration from Hindutva-vadis like us, he decides he will be a "modern secularist".

I wouldn't know whether to cry or laugh.

but good test nonetheless. if Modi walks that path, then we can be sure that BJP is not the party of the future. the search will be on for another structure, with realization sown that both BJP and INC are now two sides of same coin.

let's see how Modi progresses next.

[Sanku]

Modi will be secular in true sense, he already is, bjp is a perfectly secular party -- for the Hindu cause RIGHT NOW that is MORE than enough -- this space is needed for the revival -- later we will see.....

[Sanku]

But that still does not make bjp = Inc , Inc is a sold out entity, bjp is trying to be true to india as it is now

[fanne]

ya if NM really drops Kumbh (unless there is a security threat), it is a disaster move. Remember, it is good to get extra votes but at the same time it is important to have your own original base energized (that is a difference between 60% turnout vs 80%). And Kumbh is communal then I guess every living Hindu is Communal. The only way to be secular is to kill each of these I guess. That maybe the next demand. Will Modi do that?
rgds,
fanne

[ramana]

Susuhupti, In AP some of the richest landlords are supporters of the naxalites. Its a way to protect their interests. Same with these guys who fund leftists drivel.

[Arjun]

Shobha De's latest blog

While the just concluded Sahitya Utsav in Agra was relatively calm (the thick fog and biting cold dulled our senses somewhat ), some of the sessions did get pretty heated – thank God!

At mine, the ‘N’ word ( Narendrabhai) came up repeatedly. Vani Tripathi, one of Narendra Modi’s national level general secretaries, set the ball rolling by extolling her political boss’ many virtues. This was a couple of days before his ‘Ab Dilli door nahi’ visit to the Capital. Assembled invitees on the grounds of the DPS school, cheered her on and clapped each time she pointed out some khaas achievement of Modi’s. Initially, I was a bit stumped. We were in Yadav land. Mayawati’s shadow was also omnipresent. And yet, there were more taalis than gaalis for Modi. Something significant had obviously changed. And changed when no one was looking. Modi is suddenly kosher!It’s okay to praise him in polite company. It’s okay to talk about him as the next Prime Minister of India. It’s okay to nod approvingly when people point to the progress in Gujarat and give Modi sole credit for it. Hardly anybody brings up Godhra. And even if someone does ( as I did), people’s eyes glaze over and then it’s back to singing his praises as the only dynamic, progressive, results-driven leader in the country. As the man who delivers ( but… what?) .As a chief minister who has transformed his state and given a global vision to his people. Gujaratis themselves sound smug and super confident when they speak about Narendrabhai being the next prime minister ( “Choukkas thassey!”). It is almost a given. Now , Modi is being compared to Nehru! Sweet irony. Where does that leave Nehru’s great grand-son - Rahul Baba ? If even his legacy and lineage are going to be smoothly hijacked and snatched away, what will our Dimpled Darling fall back on?

Perhaps that is the whole point. Maybe Modi’s A-Team has come up with a simple strategy - strip the rival off the only attribute he possesses ( an accident of birth), appropriate his birthright ( dynasty still counts), and leave the poor man shivering in the unseasonal rain in Delhi. Brilliant! Modi’s managers have been hard at work rebranding the firebrand. That’s a pretty tough assignment, given Modi’s history. But after convincingly winning his third term as Chief Minister, Modi and his crew are on pretty strong ground. It is Modi’s time now, they insist. With his proven track record as an able administrator, Modi is the one who should rightfully claim that coveted kursi. For his part, he is shrewdly making all the right noises and moves. His much quoted reference to the half-full, half-empty glass has gone down well with the media. Never mind the hot air ( come on… it was a pretty manipulative analogy). But what has really stumped his critics and foes is the new assertiveness vis a vis Delhi. Modi is not playing coy anymore. He is out there, stating his ambitions straight up and doing so in Hindi, not Gujarati. His Hindi, in any case, is far better than Rahul’s ( let’s not embarrass Sonia by bringing up hers). And Modi has obviously worked hard on improving his rashtra bhasha. The effort is paying off. It is the first vital step he has taken to let the others know he means business.And his business has now relocated to Delhi.

Today, Modi is no longer viewed as a political pariah. His jadoo is working. Of course, the knives are still out for him. His personality is such. But even his harshest critics are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. This is unbelievable! The same man who was called the Butcher of Godhra not so long ago, is being feted and felicitated, not just in his own State where he enjoys the absolute support of hard core followers, but increasingly in Delhi, too