This blog entry has been inspired by incidents shared by me and many of my
friends when they expressed their support of Narendra Modi. The trigger
event for this post was a blog with a similar title published in
indianexponent.com and shared by many people across social media.
Me: Hey there! Wassup?
X1: I am fine. Are you following the Indian elections? Whom
are you supporting?
Me: Well, for 2014, I am supporting Modi.
X1: Oh! Is that so. Let me guess, you are a Namo Bhakt, and you think he is gonna be
the next PM, right?
Me: Dunno about whether he is gonna be the next PM. His actually
becoming PM has got nothing to do with me supporting him. But hey, what's a 'Namo Bhakt'.
X1: Oh, you know what I am talking about. A Namo Bhakt is someone who believes Modi
is God and he is always right.
Me: I see. I don't think I am a Namo Bhakt. But, yes, I am a big fan of him and, as I said before,
am a Modi supporter.
X1: Really. Why do u support him?
Me: cos of many things, eg:...
X1 (cutting me short): 2002 riots?
Me: Sorry?
X1: Yes, 2002 riots. You heard me. So, lemme guess. You
think he was not responsible for the riots, right?
Me: I don't know. I cannot know. And frankly speaking that
question is orthogonal to me supporting Modi in 2014.
X1 (totally offended): Are you kidding me? 2002 is the only
parameter by which I am gonna vote in 2014. He did it. We all know it. Even the
courts acknowledged it. Shame on you for supporting him.
Me (aghast by the vitriolic response, the personal attack,
as well as by the factual inaccuracies of the reply): Hey, that is not what I
meant. I meant...
X1 (again cutting me short): Well, let me ask you something.
Are you a proud Hindu?
Me (totally perplexed): What??
X1: Are you proud of being a Hindu?
Me: Never thought about it this way. Hinduism is my
religion. And I am neither ashamed nor apologetic about it. So, yes, I
am a proud Hindu.
X1: There you go. You are communal.
Me (taken aback): What are you saying? HOW CAN YOU SAY THIS? How does me being an unapologetic Hindu implies that I am communal?
X1: Yes, you are a communal person. What’s more, you are an
RSS, Bajrang-Dal, VHP, Shiv-Sena types. You are a Hindu nationalist as well as
a Hindu extremist. And what’s more you are.... [all the -ve adjective you
can think of]...
Me: I don’t know what you are talking about. I have never
interacted with any of ...
[and before
I could point out how inherently biased the person was, well, the person left
the meeting place]
Me: What was that?
X2 (X2, who has been silently listening to my conversation
with X1, decides to step-in.): No, but seriously tell me, why do you support Modi?
Me: Frankly speaking, I was against Modi till about 2006. I
went in blindly with what was given in the print/mainstream media. But, with
the advent of YouTube, I began watching his interviews/speeches online. I found
out he is a person with clarity of thought, a leader with a vision, and perhaps the only politician who talks about
solutions & implementations to the problems -- rather than just the
problems. And the fact that he also walks his talk helps. There are many many other reasons, and if you want, we can talk about them.
X2: Oh common, you seriously can’t believe in all the hype
about the Gujarat development work.
Me: No, I am not going with that hype. My experience is
based on talking to many Gujaratis as well as by visiting rural and tribal
areas of Gujarat.
X2 (didn’t have any reply to my response, so decides to
expand the topic): Yeah, whatever. Let me tell you why I do not support him. [And goes on to give a n-point list enumerating his reasons for not supporting Modi].
Me: [Giving a point-by-point opinion on all his
n-points].
X2: It is clear that you will not change your mind.
Let’s end this discussion.
Me (seriously confused by this time… wanted to say so many
things, but end up saying): Ok. As you wish.
X9 (yeah X9… you see, by this time, there was a crowd
already gathered): I can't believe you are such a person.
Me: What can't you believe?? What kind of a person am I?
X9: You know what I am talking about. You people don't let
our missionaries do the charitable and good work they are doing in your country?
Me: Excuse me. I don't think we have met. I am XYZ. And you
are? [Believe it or not, I had never met this person, but here he was, hurling wild accusations at me].
X9: I am ABC. And please answer my question.
Me: Of course. Can you tell me what did you mean by 'our
missionaries'.
X9: I meant Christian missionaries.
Me: Oh, I see. But, I have never said anything against Christian
missionaries?
X9: Then why do you people stop them from doing good work? I
feel proud to say that our missionaries are doing a great service to the 3rd
world country people.
Me (thought about asking him if he was a proud Christian,
but refrained from doing so): From what I know, there was some resistance on
the illegal conversions that was happening in the rural parts of India.
X9: First of all, a conversion is never legal/illegal.
Me: Fair point. But then, I am aware of stories in which your missionaries fool the tribal
people into conversion.
X9: Oh yeah! You people have fooled your own people based on
the caste system for centuries. And when our people try to help you guys, you don’t
let us do the work.
Me: Well, lets not get there. Because I can say similar
things about your country as well.
X9: You cannot. My country is the best. God bless my
country. (Walks off as well).
By this time, I am seriously left wondering if supporting
Modi and/or proudly claiming that you are a Hindu is a crime. And what's more, I am forced to ask myself what really is the definition of secularism (and by extension communalism). Shouldn't it be as simple as:
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