Defender of Faith and Renaissance Man of India

The 2024 Parliamentary election is only a couple of months away. Looking back, in the last 10 years, it has been a golden decade for India. The credit should indeed go to BJP Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi. I am sure this kind of approbation of Modi’s rule will ruffle the feathers of BJP’s bete noire, the Left liberal members of the Opposition.

But, let me begin with a parable told by Kahlil Gibran as my answer to those who ruled us after independence from 1947 to 2014 before Narendra Modi arrived as Prime Minister.

One nightfall, a man travelling on a horseback towards the sea, reached an Inn on the roadside. He dismounted and confident in man and night, he tied his horse to a tree beside the door and entered the Inn.

At midnight, when all were asleep, a thief came and stole the traveller’s horse.

In the morning, the man awoke and discovered that his horse was stolen and grieved for his horse. Then his fellow lodgers came and stood around him and began to talk.

And the first man said, “How foolish of you to tie your horse outside the stable.”

And the second man said, “Still more foolish, without strapping together the legs of the horse.”

And the third man said, “It is stupid at best to travel to the sea on a horseback.”

And the fourth man said, “Only the lazy and the slow on foot own horses.”

Naturally, the traveller, who was the victim of theft, was much astonished at the remarks and comments of other lodgers. At last, he cried, “My friends, because my horse is stolen, you have hastened to tell me my faults and my shortcomings. But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.”

In the above parable, imagine the traveller to be the Rajas of different countries within Hindu India in the beginning of the 10th century ACE. The horse that was stolen to be their kingdoms. The lodgers of the Inn to be the Left liberals and those who ruled us from 1947 to 2014 after we got independence in 1947. As an Indian, specially if you are a Hindu, what would be your feeling? Same as that of the victim — traveller in the parable.

These Left liberals are the ruling parties of India who found fault with the Hindu kings and Hindu people of this country for losing the war against foreign conquerors. Strangely, not one word of reproach has been uttered by the Left liberals and the ruling parties about the foreign invaders who stole the kingdoms of these Hindu kings.

The rulers of independent India compromised the evils perpetrated to the virasat (heritage) of Hindus and did not enable Hindus to reclaim their important temples that were destroyed by the Muslim invaders.

Be that as it may, after independence the Hindus had one golden opportunity to reclaim their lost heritage with regard  to their temples, names given to the old Hindu kingdoms, important places and roads. So also with regard to the British and Persian names that are in the land records. There is Moghul and Colonial influence in criminal and civil laws that was crying for change to affirm the fact that India is an independent, sovereign country with a Hindu majority.

Unfortunately, it did not happen for several decades because the first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who ruled for more than 16 years did not countenance efforts of the victims of destroyed temples to reclaim them for reasons best known to him.

The rulers of independent India considered the majority Hindus of the country as a burden on the minority and its impact was seen in the government’s discriminatory policy on education, temple management and criminal and civil laws.

It is axiomatic that the British India was divided in 1947 on the communal political principle of Hindu majority and Muslim majority provinces. The majority Hindus of truncated India believed that they could reclaim their virasat (heritage) and then pursue the path of vikas (development) once the Muslims were granted their demand for Pakistan.

Surprisingly, the Congress leaders who became the rulers of divided India could not influence or convince Nehru to be considerate towards the aspirations of Hindus. It is now revealed that such attitude by the then rulers in dealing with the Hindu question after independence had a political purpose (Remember there was a ‘Muslim question’ before independence!). It was a hidden vote bank agenda of the ruling Congress party and there being no strong Opposition party, there was no one to speak for Hindus.

Defeated, denied, oppressed and even humiliated in a gradual manner for over thousand years, it was but natural for the Hindus to reclaim their lost inheritance and heritage when they got freedom.

However, due to the electoral politics played on the hidden rules of caste, creed, religion and also money, the Hindu majority continued to languish without seeing the new age of renaissance and resurgence.

Fortunately, by sheer serendipity, in 2014 Parliamentary election a miracle happened both for India and for Hindus. The BJP with NDA partners got an absolute majority in the Parliament and also a Prime Minister Narendra Modi like an avatar mentioned in Bhagavad Gita. This helped in reclaiming Hindu virasat and boosting India’s economic growth which took a quantum leap that many thought would be impossible. And the man who made this impossible possible is our Prime Minister Modi.

Though the going is good for the country and its people, both the majority and the minority, it is important to pause and ponder about our democracy and its healthy growth. Presently, the political ethos across the country is eclipsed by a disparate Opposition bereft of political ideology anchored by a weak and fatigued Congress party.

The Opposition seems to suffer not only from a policy paralysis but also from a leadership crisis. Fortunately for the country, the BJP does not suffer from these two major deficiencies and therein lies its strength for now.

In a matured democracy, there must be a strong Opposition in the Parliament. It is for this reason, the Prime Minister too had expressed his desire in the Rajya Sabha for a good constructive Opposition in the Parliament.

Fortunately, the forthcoming 2024 election does not seem to be complicated or complex. Therefore, we can expect a healthy mix of the Ruling and the Opposition parties in the new Parliament functioning from the new Parliament House.

In the midst of all this, we hear a discordant note coming from an MP from Karnataka D.K. Suresh sowing the seed of another partition of the country as North and South for the frivolous alleged reason of the Centre not giving Karnataka its share of tax. The PM was much upset about the MP’s threat and said in Rajya Sabha, “What is this language being spoken? Stop creating such new narratives to break the nation.”

Hearing the utterances of some of our politicians from across the political parties, it seems necessary for them to read the history of India — ancient, modern and the present. Only then they will know how India was conquered and ruled by foreign invaders and traders. Only then they will know how important it is for India to stay united and thereby stay strong so that history will not repeat itself.

Reflecting on the statements made by Congress MP D.K. Suresh and some DMK leaders about our country’s unity, I am reminded of what Dr. B.R. Ambedkar said in Bombay in early fifties at a public meeting when the then Chief Minister of Bombay B.G. Kher concluded his speech saying, “I am an Indian first and Maharashtrian last.”

When Dr. Ambedkar’s turn came to speak, he alluded to Kher’s concluding remark and said, “We should always think we are Indians first and Indians last.”

Let us hope our present day ambitious and parochial politicians will hear Dr. Ambedkar’s advice and think themselves as Indians first and Indians last. Dr. Ambedkar also said in another context, “If India loses who wins.”

History of the world tells us that at all times and circumstances, war, peace, famine or pestilence, as the Leader so is the Country. When you have a good leader, keep him.

Jai Hind.

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