Thank you Gujarat

 "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity." 

                                     ---- Nehru                         (A Tryst with destiny)

         And so it was... 

        The verdict in Gujarat 2007 changes everything. It shows that we, as a people, can discern the promises of the future from the trappings of the past. 

   Narendra Damodardas Modi, the man of the moment, has to face countless questions, both from India and the rest of the world. Let us keep the big questions apart from the small ones. In his hour of victory, the man who had dedicated himself to the development of Gujarat showed a humility and grace that earned him praise even from his enemies. Could this be the face of India's future? Can India become a superpower; a generous friend and a terrible foe? 

Modi has already answered the small questions: yes; our leaders have the constitutional machinery to make a difference to our people, yes; good governance does make good politics and yes; it is possible for us to sink our petty differences and vote for a larger cause. The Gujarat verdict told us all that.               

                     

     Gandhi gave the Indian freedom struggle its unique character which, ever since, became the model for political mobilization in the democratic world, from the Civil Rights Movement in the United States to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. On the eve of our independence, Sardar Patel prevailed on 565 odd princely states to merge with the country, a diplomatic tour de force that has been referred to as the single biggest achievement of the Government of India. In the tumultuous years following independence, when the new nation sought to isolate itself economically from the world (using the so called "license, quota, permit Raj"), the Gujaratis, who fanned out all across the country and across the world, played a lead role in establishing indpendent Indian innovation and industry. When the gag was finally lifted in the 90's, India Inc. followed. In the post-9/11 world, Modi has shown that it is possible to create a terrorism free democratic state that is awash with prosperity. Those who cannot see beyond the gruesome events of 2002 should remember that Modi is only the third Indian in history, after Maharana Pratap and Shivaji, to prove that Islamic invasion can be held at bay. 

     That this verdict came from Gujarat must be destiny. It is a fitting crown to all that this golden state has given to this country.  

Waiting to explode

The Raje government has lived up to its promise of efficiency, only this time, they might have shot themselves in the foot(or have they?) . Panels and commissions are a firefighting tool by themselves and who does not know that! 

Apparently, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje doesn't. Or else she would not have let the Chopra panel turn down the Gujjar bid for ST status with just a year to go for the elections. Or perhaps, it's sheer bad luck that the one bureacrat she picked out of the legions of babus was actually in possession of a 2007 calendar. 

Understandably, with Sonia ji on a mission to bridge the communal divide in Gujarat, the task of dividing Rajasthan along caste lines has fallen on Sachin Pilot's young shoulders. The Dausa MP has drawn the line in the sand.

    Sachin Pilot is one of the many princes of the Congress Party. His time would have come in due course, coinciding with the coronation of Rahul. In order to get a piece of the excitement, he has plunged into a caste struggle that looks more like a zero sum game. By doing so, he has relegated himself to the junkyard category of caste leaders too early in his career. But then, some species of geese are genetically programmed to follow the first moving thing they see when they hatch, aren't they? 

   The BJP does not want to deal with this. And who can blame them? They have tossed the live grenade into the Centre's court. The Gujjars make up, after all, just 5-6% of the population. The Jats and the Meenas account for much more and they form the backbone of the BJP's vote. Given the rabid opposition to Gujjar appeasement from the Meena community, the BJP is trying to turn a negative into a positive. If the Gujjar agitation is not able to pin the blame on either the State nor the Central government and the Meenas predictably hold on to their prejudices, the BJP's gambit might just pay off. 

   That said, one should note that this is not the first time a caste based movement has looked poised to move the underpinnings of Rajasthan politics. Early in 2003, ex-BJP leader (late)Devi Singh Bhati mooted the idea of upper caste reservation, thereby threatening to snatch the BJP's core supporters. By making inane speeches at impressive rallies, Bhati got all the media attention he could have wanted. However, on election day, not a blade of grass stirred and the state fell quite tamely into the BJP's lap.  Col. Bainsla's antics could go down as yet another instance of the same.  In summary,

   There are two mules parked on the Delhi-Jaipur highway; a Gujjar mule and a Meena mule. Which one do we kick? Both deserve a kick and richly so.

  The last word: It is reprehensible that large sections of the people of our country have not achieved the level of sophistication that they can see the impracticability of having affirmative action for every community. Generations of Indians have been bred on freebies from the government and they are unable to stop asking for more; even as millions break away from the stereotype and strike out a path for themselves in the free world. Political parties do not have the political courage to stand up to these forces because we are unable to give a courageous mandate. People need to join school and stay in school and take very good notice of their science textbooks. Perhaps, that way they will know better than to define themselves by caste. Until that happens, we have only ourselves to blame for our sluggish political system.

  

    

Can Gujarat redeem the nation?

  The campaign guns have fallen silent across Gujarat and the voter has made up his mind. Thanks to the paranoia of the Election Commission, the liberal thinkers have one more week to fool themselves about the outcome of this election. The bad news for them is that they are dead wrong. The good news is that no matter how bad their judgement is, their reputations are secure. 

The most impressive man in this election has, of course, been Narendrabhai Modi himself. Not only has he negated candidate level anti-incumbency, he has distanced himself decisively from the murky politics of caste. Gujarat 2002 allowed the people to answer an important question: If a man walks through your drawing room door and slaps you in the face, would you sit down with him and assuage his grievances? Or would you just plant a heavy foot in his backside? The people of Gujarat made a choice. 

But in Election 2007, the stakes are higher. Thus far, vikas (development) has never been a potent tool in the hands of an incumbent government. The BJP chose to talk about their development record at their own peril in 2004 and they got mauled, badly, with the heaviest losses being inflicted by the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav! Lalu, the rustic genius of Indian politics, showed conclusively that one could, by freezing the progress of his state, freeze time itself and lock in his mandate. In Election 2007, Modi has thrown the gauntlet yet again. What is the model for successful politics in India? Is it the Lalu model? In order to carry the people with you, what do you stop: progress or corruption? 

A big round of applause is also due to the mainstream media. A one sided election does not excite people enough to make them tune in to news channels. They have indeed done a handsome marketing job of convincing the rest of the country that this election is going down to the wire. With unashamed losers like Yogendra Yadav manning the opinion poll front, the media embarked on a conscious strategy to make the Gujarat election story saleable. With some help from Sonia Gandhi's speech writer and of course, Modi himself, they have raked in their TRPs. The media can, much like the liberal thinkers, afford to be wrong. All they have to do is stop talking about their own failures and people will forgive them. Talk about enjoying power without responsibility. Fortunately, there are limits to what the media can invent and smart journalists respect those limits. That explains why no one tried the "reality control tricks" with Bengal 2006. 

The issue is not whether Modi will win, but whether the people of Gujarat can give him a landslide. Can the people of Gujarat make development relevant to politics? Can they redeem us of the sins of 2004? Let me put a few words into Sonia jis mouth, in Modi's style:

Sonia : What do you do to a man who talks of making India into a first world country?

Crowd: (India 2004) Kill him! Kill him!

Sonia: Well that's it. That's what I am doing. I dare Modi to hang me for it.

Crowd: (Gujarat 2007) ????