India, a secular democracy or a theocracy?
In a secular democracy, as is professed by India, the state should not interfere in the personal beliefs of its citizens. The freedom of faith or religion is the right of an individual. So, it follows, in a truly secular state, all its citizens ought to be perceived by the state as one and the same. No favour and no discrimination should be meted out on the basis of birth or belief. Thus in a secular state there just cannot be any ‘religious’ minority, unless we are all talking mumbo jumbo without knowing what ‘secularism’ is, or we are talking of theocracies, the states that are ruled not by the law of humans, but by the law of a god.
However, we are talking of India, our own country, a democracy, with its fabulously continuing culture that originated in the remote past. A nation that is seen as a real mother by its citizens, a notion that is enshrined in the concept, Bharat Mata. No nation on earth except India can boast of an unbroken civilisation that is still intact despite the collective assault on its culture for centuries. Let alone the physical assault that the subcontinent absorbed in the last 1500 years, alien ideologies that are hardly more than stone-age ethical sentiments came to settle here in various ways, entailing diabolical restraints on the freedom of thought and expression.
The value of a culture and civilisation is not determined by the amount of restrictive laws legislated by a nation, but the degree of liberality (freedom from law) it can afford its citizens. In this respect we should be proud of our cultural inheritance and the ancient land that gave deliverance and a home to millions of foreigners fleeing persecution, thus saving their skins from savage onslaughts on alien shores in different eras of time.
Muslims and Christians in India are not foreigners and except for a wispy streak of foreign blood in a negligible portion of their collective population, all of them descend directly from the same ancestors as the rest of their compatriots whom everybody calls Hindu. All Indian Muslims and Christians are converts from the various Hindu communities stratified by ethnicity or profession. Any Indian regardless of his/her religious persuasion is primarily regarded by an ordinary foreigner (as opposed to a professional religionist) as a Hindu pagan. This means the “religious minority” politics played out in India does not reflect the real identity of an Indian in the global milieu. We Muslims, Hindus and Christians are all put in one basket by the foreigner, because civilizational background and culture matter more instinctively in every human being than one’s personal belief. The true culture of Muslims and Christians of Indian origin is therefore Hinduism, the tolerance of diversity. One’s personal belief could be very different from the cultural values one imbibes from the family and the environment.
In this background, Narendra Modi’s ‘India First’ slogan appeals to all Indians alike, no matter what their religion is. Let us now see whether Narendra Modi is really an anathema for the Muslim and Christian.
For whom does the Christian or the Muslim matter?
Born in a Christian community in Kerala more than a decade past the bloody partition of India, this question never arose for me or any of my Hindu or Muslim friends in those days of growing up. And that was the case with the vast majority of ordinary Kerala Muslims and Christians.
Conversely, Christians and Muslims or anybody with a different belief system were characteristically viewed by Hindu communities as members of just another community like themselves, but following different traditions and rituals. However the imperialist and fascist impulse of certain international organisations by claiming superiority and exclusivism in certain religious ideologies and doctrines is bringing to surface the wide ideological chasms that divide the people of the same blood. The tolerant and pluralistic cultural outlook of the Hindu worldview clashes with the intolerant and exclusivist ideological strains promoted from alien lands.
In general, there are two groups of people for whom being a Muslim or a Christian matters the most.
The first is the professional religionist (clergy) of all nationalities, whose life and vocation, bread, butter and rice is all religion and for which he is ready to kill or even die for. I am not talking about the sanyasi or the fakir who has left society for his own spiritual welfare, but the religionists who are more concerned about the spiritual welfare of others and proceed to interfere in other people’s lives. These religionists are not elected representatives of their own religious communities, but are members of international organisations, mostly nominees of a handful of people sitting overseas, some in places as far away as Rome. For such select people who work for global organisations with an anti-Hindu cultural agenda, the success of their own action plan depends on dividing the people in India on the basis of religion and caste.
The second group is led by the unscrupulous politician and his acolytes who join hands with the above-mentioned, self-proclaimed religious leaders for gathering votes. The moment these two vested interests are out of the political scene in India, it would be like the removal of a stinking dead rat that had been lying in the attic for ages, which will inevitably bring a whiff of fresh air to the whole of India!
The Muslims and Christians in India are politically kept away from their Hindu compatriots by these two groups by engineering an ideological and cultural divide between them. The existing cultural differences between these groups were deliberately introduced and promoted by foreign imperial interests who stand to gain by dividing India, just like they did during the colonial times. Operating under secular names and banners, these Western non-governmental organisations are channelling funds to fuel the anti-Indic industry. An atmosphere of fear and mistrust is disingenuously sowed by foreign agents through their henchmen on the ground like Kancha Ilaiah, John Dayal, Cedric Prakash and the Owaisi brothers, names that ought to find mention in the Disgrace List of any self-respecting Indian.
It is this nexus between the corrupt politician and the clergy powered by international resources that makes the ordinary Indian Muslim and Christian helpless pawns in the game their self-proclaimed religious leaders play for gaining or keeping power. This explains why unelected Muslim and Christian leaders appear in public for press releases on political issues and talk on behalf of “minorities” or speak against Narendra Modi.
Modi phobia
In any discourse right now in Indian politics or in academic circles, there is both a sense of elation as well as a phobia among different segments of the population whenever Narendra Modi is mentioned. His name springs up spontaneously on everyone’s lips even when engaged in petty talk. We can rightly place the elation as a sign of hope amidst desperation.
But Modi phobia, which presupposes a current complacent state among those afflicted, assumes manic proportions in the authoritarian clergy and corrupt politicians. The actual situation today is: there has been no time like the present when the political situation in India is so grim that doing nothing to change things would be condoning the dismantling of a great civilisation and a great nation. Because, its people cannot see themselves as belonging to one nation, but only as Christian or Muslim or Hindu.
Narendra Modi is viewed as a true nemesis by undemocratic religious brokers (clergy) who want to have an illicit share of power in India for ideological reasons. Is a bishop nominated by the Vatican (an independent foreign state) entitled to make pronouncements on local politics in India? But, almost all bishops do that to get their sponsored candidates (the second group) elected, so that they can get an illicit share of power in diverting and breaking down a democracy for ideological purposes.
Moreover, there are several minuscule groups of academicians who are terrified of Narendra Modi, for they perceive they have everything to lose when Modi comes to power. This group also called “eminent historians” and their other partners in the academia have been enjoying uncontrolled access to state policy and control on education and mass communications. In return they supply ideological support to their political masters and slaves through skewed scholarship. This latter group has genuinely something to worry about, because their concocted history would itself be history when the UPA government is gone and their noxious work erased forever from school textbooks. To this group one may also add foreign academicians who have made Indian culture and civilisation their butter and bread, a study whose foundations were laid by bible-thumping missionaries who were all out trying to evangelise the Indian masses during the colonial period.
The common thing that all the three groups would face if Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India is loss of power. All three groups are inherently undemocratic. So, Modi’s electoral victory would be the defeat of undemocratic forces. Particularly the religious professionals with an international agenda know the power equations and do whatever they can to control the way the Muslims and Christians in India think and act. For this reason they sow the fear of Modi in ways and kind that would amaze anybody for their ingenuity and ruthlessness.
The perception that it is the exit door for corrupt politicians and clergymen from Indian politics when Narendra Modi becomes the Prime Minister of India is pure speculation, but it monopolises the minds of these groups, though I would bet with them and hope Modi will take note. This will ensure that their growing power in Indian polity is curtailed. It will also jeopardise their centuries-old plan of demolishing the last remaining ancient culture on earth and superimpose a queer, but pop worldview that does not correlate with reality.
The hollow tactic of demonising Modi
We are told that Narendra Modi is evil, he killed thousands of Muslims and he will kill again over and over again. He is a Hindu nationalist, a right-wing extremist, beware, he will kill all of you! I am sure not many people believe all that they hear, but it is natural to have misgivings. Hearing this Goebbelsian refrain one is ought to think: what if riots broke out when Modi comes to power, either he or his villainous opponents will kill all of us! It is incredible how infective a repeated lie is among the masses. But has Modi killed anybody?
When Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, disaster struck twice in close succession. More than 20,000 people were killed due to a severe earthquake in 2001 followed by the planned massacre of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims in Godhra and the subsequent riots that claimed almost 1000 people in 2002.
The way Modi handled the Gujarat riot situation and its aftermath is a model lesson for future rulers, when he reached out to every Gujarati without caste and religion and got their cooperation to achieve a common end – peace and prosperity. Watch Modi’s appeal to the people of Gujarat made immediately after the Godhra massacre to refrain from violence and how the media twisted his words to tarnish his character. Modi gets elected by his fellow Gujaratis time and again not for killing Muslims, like some people would have us believe. And he has been doing what a genuinely secular, elected ruler should be doing: governing his state without corruption, favour or discrimination, leading his people from the front. Not by handing out doles come election time, as we have been long used to, but by creating infrastructure, jobs and trade, enabling the poor to break the cruel cycle of poverty and lead an active and dignified working life.
Undaunted by utmost calamity and worldwide ignominy piled up on him merely for professing to be a pagan Hindu by his allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Narendra Modi brought an ancient state back on its feet and to full glory. Gujarat is the only state in India where an ordinary man can fix an appointment and meet a Chief Minister. It is the only state in India that promotes a sincere work culture and encourages young people to work hard and excel. Modi by his own example inspires youngsters from all castes and religions to work, persevere and overcome, even in the face of cruel adversity. Good things about Modi’s effective style of governance and redressal of grievances are in public domain, though sectarian media has chosen to ignore it for obvious reasons.
What the political fathers and mothers of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh did to handle the riots that presided over the partition of an ancient land, would pale in comparison to Modi’s deft handling of the riots. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in India in communal riots since 1947 to the present day (excluding Gujarat 2002) and our media have not named even a single one of the chief ministers or prime ministers who were ruling at that time and none of the rulers past and present was able to quell these riots as well as Modi did.
Modi the man
Narendra Damodardas Modi, born in 1950 in a poor family from a backward community, worked hard even as a child. In a corrupt political and social climate, when one had to be filthy rich as well as associated with a political dynasty in order to be successful, Narendra Modi rose in politics by the dint of hard labour and sheer determination. His idealism and desire to serve his country took him to the RSS and then to the BJP, where he proved himself with an impeccable record. Incorruptible and result-oriented, he set standards in conduct and governance in his own party and then in his own state. Modi is a hard worker by nature and we can reasonably expect him to work harder once he becomes the Prime Minister of India.
If you are indeed in the mood to judge Narendra Modi as a man, you have to go by what he has actually done and is doing rather than rely on hearsay and repeat what the dubious mass media is vomiting. The only charge against Modi that is repeated over and over again from the rooftops is that he is a murderer. This irrational and contemptuous charge is completely fabricated and rooted in a hatred of India. You can confidently believe he is innocent because his powerful enemies – all suspicious, slimy characters that include the UPA government with all its state machinery and deceptive foreign agencies operating in India through their proxies – have been exhausting themselves, desperately trying to frame him in vain for culpability in the riots.
Another evidence that exposes this blatant lie is the UPA government’s own official version, according to which about 30% of those killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots were Hindu and died in police action to quell the riots and many policemen too died. Then how can Modi’s government be held responsible for a riot that was engineered through the Godhra massacre perpetrated by Muslim members of the Congress party?
George W. Bush, whose government denied a US visa for Modi on the charge of persecuting Muslims, was responsible for killing tens of thousands of innocent Muslims in just a few days. The Obama administration tows the same line committing atrocities against Libyans, Egyptians and Syrians. And tens of thousands of innocent Muslims are shot down, beheaded or hung in Islamic countries, from Pakistan via Saudi Arabia to Egypt, on a daily basis, but the media can regurgitate only the Gujarat episode, because their intention is not to find justice to a wrong, but to destroy a Hindu pagan who challenges the global imperial order imposed on India. None of the media ever mentions this aspect of disparity. This is the kind of pseudo-secular hypocrisy that is enacted at a global scale by the widespread use of cheap media and that finds a counterpart in India through the cancer-like network of the anti-Hindutva coalition.
There is too little of Modi’s private life in public domain just like ordinary Indians, and in his public life we haven’t yet heard of any relative of his setting up shop to capitalise on his good office. He walked away from everything personal to pursue his true calling of offering his life in the service of the nation. After spending two years in the Himalayas in a spiritual search, Narendra Modi joined the RSS. It is outrageous and outright incredible to accuse Narendra Modi of even killing a fly, let alone a human being.
There is also absolutely nothing to indicate that he harbours a hatred against Muslims or members of any other religion. We have no grounds for harbouring such suspicion, for he has so far performed his duties like a hundred percent Hindu following the immemorial tradition and attitude of his ancestors, which I may remind is the true tradition of all Indians, namely Hindutva, wherein true secularism is the flesh and blood of Rajya-dharma (code of governance). The personal faith of a ruler has no significance in the ancient code of law of our ancestors, the Dharmasastras.
Modi the “Hindu nationalist” visits a temple only once a year on Gujarati New Year’s day, but this didn’t stop him from demolishing 200 Hindu shrines built illegally in public spaces in Gandhinagar, even causing a rift with the VHP in the process, but he competently saw the job of an administrator to the end, dutifully and forcefully. Without going into the merits of Modi’s decision, his dispassionate action showcases a truly secular leader while setting a benchmark of neutrality for future leaders to follow without sectarian colourings and flavourings. Modi’s slogan “India First” chimes very well with his actions. He has produced excellent economic results for all communities as a sincere ruler, which none can deny.
A detractor of Modi might say at this point that Narendra Modi’s progress is negative in terms of the Human Development Index. If this accusation is even partially true, you can’t blame Modi for neglecting the nutrition and health of those who elected him. First of all, this kind of indexes are prepared in Western countries by natives or westernised Indians like Amartya Sen and the limit values that are applicable in those countries are invalid in an Asian country like India. For example, the healthy weight of a European according to his height need not be very healthy on an Indian frame even at the same height. The highest priorities of the HDI are life expectancy and time spent at school – two factors that are entirely dependent on the wealth one possesses. So, once an overall economic feasibility is achieved, healthy life and education are a given for anybody. Here too, Narendra Modi is on the right track.
Secularism or pseudo-secularism
Narendra Modi’s opponents are primarily members or allies of the Congress party (overt and covert like some regional parties in UP or the Communists in general) and the rest, like the AAP and its overseas backers, are those who are only intent on dismantling what is left of the ancient Indian civilisation. The chief accusation of this motley crowd is that Modi is anti-secular. Since none of Modi’s actions or statements has been religious enough to be considered anti-secular and the only accusation against Modi has been the killing of Muslims, we can correctly surmise that these detractors practise a kind of religious minority appeasement which they call “secularism”.
Incidentally, this phenomenon was noticed and expressed as soon as our nation was born by a professional religionist, Reverend Father Anthony Elenjimittam, who appears to have deviated from his professional obligations and versions due to his overwhelming love and respect for his own original, native civilisation. In 1951, the reverend coined the term “pseudo-secularism” to describe the stark hypocrisy of India’s rulers who appropriated power when the British left. In his book, Philosophy and Action of the RSS for the Hind Swaraj, Elenjimittam appreciated and lauded the wonderful work of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) in reestablishing the ancient cultural heritage in India, which had been the object of severe tampering and tinkering by Christian missionaries sponsored by the British colonialists. Elenjimittam’s accusing finger was pointed at Jawaharlal Nehru for his unadulterated pseudo-secularism, favouring Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir and then trying to scuttle the action plan of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who took pride in his own civilisation.
Narendra Modi’s anti-secular credential is supposed to be his membership in the RSS. Father Elenjimittam had this to say about Nehru and the RSS: “While the veteran Congress leaders, with Pandit Nehru at the top, continue to shout from the housetops in and out of time about their new fad of pseudo-secularism, it is the conscientious and thoughtful youth of the RSS and allied patriotic forces which work and worry, strive and strain to preserve the quintessentials of Dharma, Culture, Religion, Philosophy, which are inestimable gifts of India to the world at large”.
Jawaharlal Nehru, we may note, is the father of pseudo-secularism in India and which hypocritical feature, like a bad canker, established itself at the root of polity to the detriment of the whole nation. It became the primary official policy of the Congress-led governments in India and perpetuated to this day by the UPA government, becoming as it were the bane and curse of one of the most dignified of nations.
We have only to look at the state of affairs of the nation today to note that the so-called minority as well as the majority are ultimately in the same boat that is doomed by the vomit-inducing storm in a teacup called pseudo-secularism. All dignified folks regardless of faith and caste suffer without exception when the nation is afflicted by a malignant disease. All those who thrive prosperously in such condition are the disease-causing germs – the criminals who pilfer and loot in the name of governance and commerce.
The Congress party and the UPA coalition pose themselves as the lord and saviour of the “religious minorities” in a “secular” India. It is generally assumed (and also true to a certain extent) that Muslims and Christians as a rule vote en masse for the Congress party, and overtly religious parties like the Muslim League and the Kerala Congress (Christian regional party) invariably ally themselves with the Congress. However, except for the extreme elements in these indigenous groups who never fail to exploit such hypocrisy, minorities as well as majorities suffer extremely badly chiefly from poor governance.
The pseudo-secularism is ultimately found to be merely a cunning instrument that fetches votes in the elections. With the Hindus split irrevocably in terms of caste through official dispensation, and Muslims and Christians isolated from the rest by the stiff boundaries of minority politics, the pseudo-seculars have reduced the Indian exercise of democracy to a musical chair where only members of one family and their cronies get chairs to sit on. Rest of the people are supposed to clap hands and cheer the ruling family and friends and endlessly vote for them without absolutely any sense of what this is all about.
The so-called guardians of secularism – the Congress-led parties and the Communist parties – have been ruling us so far by dividing us into castes and religions and with absolutely no sense of being citizens of one single country. People in general are ashamed to say one is a nationalist for the simple reason that it is scorned at by internationalist neo-colonialists who have interests in every part of the globe where there is some resource or the other to make money with. Using foundations operating in Western countries, the imperialists give generous cash awards along with titles, which in the long term turns out to be too cheap as real mercenary fees.
Jawaharlal Nehru’s pseudo-secularism expanded itself into an exclusive club that excelled in self-effacement. The ethnic clones of Macaulay came to throng this club with internationalist credentials rather than nationalist ones, became it also meant money and prestige bestowed through the connivance of foreign intelligence agencies. The role of CIA money in the so-called ‘Liberation Struggle’ led by the church to oust a democratic government in Kerala in 1959 gives an indication as to what is happening right now with the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party). Its leader Arvind Kejriwal is a staunch member of the pseudo-secular club and has been recipient of benefits from organisations with known ties with the CIA. The paradox is you will not find a single, real “aam aadmi” (common man) either in this party or the pseudo-secular club in general. It is also worthwhile to note that it were the organisations (NGOs) affiliated to the CIA that first began to spread lies against Narendra Modi.
Seven reasons to vote for Narendra Modi
First, Narendra Modi has excellent secular credentials. He is a Hindu, a member of the oldest civilisation and religion in the world that has preserved diverse other religions and religious practices and traditions and ethnic minorities through time immemorial by its inherent principles. No other religion can boast of this magnanimous credential. Adhering to the principles of the RSS and claiming to be a Hindu nationalist is enough reason to consider Modi as a secular administrator, which none of the sectarian and exclusivist religionists or Communist can claim.
Second, Narendra Modi has proved in Gujarat that it is possible to rule and progress in India and that too without corruption or crony capitalism. Socialists, communists and pseudo-secular intellectuals like Arvind Kejriwal might not like the development achieved by Modi, but they are certainly not the ones benefitted by Modi’s agenda. It is the real common people who are at the receiving end of the fruits of Modi’s style of governance.
Third, it is high time for India and the new generation of Indians to get out of the yoke of Western dominance. India has been aping the West in all fields from education and technology to philosophy of medicine, believing our own traditions and philosophy are inferior to these. India under the pseudo-secular Nehruvian yoke means playing second fiddle to the so-called developed nations. Look at all the international organisations and the order of international power hierarchy. Five permanent members in the Security Council to decide all that is needed to be decided all over the world. All others are spectators to see the exploits of the big five in the Council who are there in the first place by virtue of their bigger guns. Narendra Modi is the only leader in India today capable of leading India without an inherited colonial baggage, for which he and ourselves should thank the RSS. He is the only Indian leader who has the stature and the qualities to guide the Indian nation to the forefront of world nations.
Four, by voting for the Congress or the UPA or Kejriwal you are not doing anything to change the governance of India. Whereas Congress knows how to loot amidst anarchy, Kejriwal knows how to make that anarchy and leave the voters alone to fend for themselves. Voting for either of them means you are voting for the nation to be doomed and helping advance the destructive agenda of the CIA-affiliated organisations like the Ford Foundation. Any meaningful change calls for a strong leader and there is none in India at the moment who is stronger than Narendra Modi.
Five, by voting for Narendra Modi you are affirming the world’s view of India’s rising prominence in world affairs. Modi is one Indian leader who got international recognition the hard way. Emerging unscathed out of the acrid cloud of misinformation and outright lies, Modi now commands respect by his uncompromising honesty and hard work. One after the other, the UK and the USA, who once cried for Modi’s blood and shed crocodile tears for the Muslims of Gujarat and not for their own innocent victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt and Syria, are turning back to Modi like sulking hyenas, smelling a change for the better in Modi’s stature and fortunes.
Six, by voting Narendra Modi to power, we are playing the only ace that we have to stand our ground in international business and commerce. Modi represents the renowned Gujarati business acumen, which is precisely what India needs at this moment to regain her ancient wealth and a lion’s share in world trade. There is no Indian politician who can match Modi in business sense and it would be utter stupidity to ignore Modi and bet on the likes of Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal who can’t hold a steady job even temporarily.
Seven, by voting for Narendra Modi, we are going back to the fountainhead of our civilisation and making a deliberate choice for Hinduism, to take pride in our sterling heritage of liberality and generosity. We are affirming that we are Indian Christians and Indian Muslims, which is our real identity. We also make a point here that the real Indian trait of tolerance for all religions and faith is not an imported idea, but rooted in Dharmasastras, the code of laws of our ancestors. The freedom that we have to believe what we want to believe is enshrined in this code of laws, and therein lies the glory of our ancient Indian civilisation.
Narendra Modi at the helm of Indian polity will be the best remedy for an economically and socially ailing nation. He is the best man to oversee India’s transition from a country that also ran to a world leader. For Christians and Muslims in India, this is a rare opportunity to ward off international pressure and stand up on their own feet and assume direct responsibility and political empowerment. By voting for Modi, it is a win-win situation for Christians and Muslims: freedom from international yoke and laying a ground wire to our own civilizational depths. – IndiaFacts, 24 March 2014
» George Augustine has a master’s degree in English language and literature and is an independent writing and editing professional who works in Kerala and Germany. He has written numerous articles on faith and religion on internet forums and blogs. His interest in science and technology is nurtured by professional translation assignments.
