Politics of Pitting Patel to Run Down the Nehrus
BY RK MISRA
A good
diplomat is one who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually
look forward to the trip!. The same thing can be said for a potentate of a politician like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His
high-profile celebration of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s
first home minister stands out as a case
in point.
The
Sardar, it is widely felt in Gujarat, did not get his due for the critical role
that he played, both in uniting India and running the country after
Independence as it’s second most powerful leader. The ostensible aim in
restoring his standing is laudable, but the
objective in doing so could be far removed from truth. The quest for
‘appropriation’ of freedom struggle icons apart, the way Modi went about the plan makes it clear that
he was using the Sardar to efface the memory of
late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. What came in handy was that her death anniversary falls on the same day. By
doing so, Modi might also be seeking to build a constituency for himself.
While
virtually ignoring the sacrifices of the first- ever prime minister, one who
was assassinated while in office, Modi also played on the killing of the Sikhs
that had followed it. He announced
a fresh compensation of Rs 5 lakhs for the next of kin of each of those killed in the riots that followed the assassination.
The taint of 2002 notwithstanding, Modi, as a BJP prime minister, is today heir
to the legacy of a liberal like Atal
Bihari Vajpayee and there are those who argue that this ill behoves someone who mouths lofty idealism to paddle pedestrian
politics.
For a
journalist who has keenly tracked for over three
decades, the one-time RSS pracharak who rode pillion behind friend- turned - rival Shankersinh
Vaghela, the ‘injustice’ to the
Sardar was an issue which came in handy for Modi after
he took power as Gujarat chief minister in 2001.
Modi was
being hauled over the coals by the Congress opposition for his role in the 2002
communal riots that followed the Godhra
train carnage.
He resurrected the ‘Sardar’ issue to hit back at
his detractors ,seeking to provide historical linkage to himself and his
government, terming the injustice to the
Sardar as an injustice to Gujarat at the
hands of the Nehru-Gandhi family .He hung his own problems with the UPA led
Centre as a continuation of the same
injustice against the State. To cash in on the issue in the 2012 assembly
elections, he announced the ambitious
project to build a statue of the Sardar in Gujarat which would be twice the
size of the Statue of Liberty in the US. The move to collect iron for it from
every village formed part of his smart poll publicity campaign: and It paid
rich dividends. Modi swept the State Assembly elections. Simultaneously ,as he set
his sights to the 2014 General Elections,
the project was immediately scaled up
for a national repeat of the same campaign objectives.
The
Prime Minister has gone on record to state that Mahatma Gandhi would have been
incomplete without Sardar. And Gujarat Chief
Minister Anandiben Patel who succeeded him, has been quick to equate him with
Sardar Patel. While performing the bhoomi-pujan for the Rs 176 crore Shresth-Bharat bhavan slated
to come up near the venue of the Rs3000 crore Statue of Unity, She said that “in
the form of Narendra Modi we have got
Sardar Patel”.
Modi is
not the first politician from Gujarat to
aspire for the mantle of the ‘iron man
of India’. Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel
in his two stints in office was widely feted as the ‘chotte’ sardar for
taking on Medha Patkar and pursuing the construction of the Narmada dam. Hardliner
L.K.Advani who was the home minister and
later the deputy prime minister in the NDA government headed by the soft
hearted Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, widely invited comparison
with the Nehru-Sardar duo.
For all
the scaled- up sound and light to mark
the event in Gujarat, the run for unity in Ahmedabad was more of an official
event with policemen leading the show while the general public participation
was not of a high order. A lack of
popular participation was evident everywhere. Interestingly, none of the BJP
leaders, ministers or other VIPs
participated in the run.
Both
Gandhi and Sardar were epitomes of
simplicity with high standards of probity in personal life. The irony
is that an amount as high as Rs
3000 crore is being spent for the statue projects, which includes a sprawling
park as well, in the name of a deceased leader, who lived a simple life. Similarly,
the Rs 500 crore Mahatma Mandir, an
international level convention centre carrying the Mahatma’s name, has come up
in Gujarat’s capital. Can an opulent
structure built with public money ever be a monument to perpetuate the
memory of the Mahatma? The poverty stricken, slum-dwellers whose cause the Mahatma espoused stay cheek-by jowl with the Mahatma mandir, but their presence
is sought to be negated by a wall which
has been constructed to hide the sight. A
Rs 400 crore addition to the secretariat
was made in the shape of a special wing to house the chief minister and other
ministerial offices. The helipad less
than half a kilometre away was shifted to within the secretariat flanking the
CMs office. Do these two national icons
who were wedded to life-long simplicity
need opulent monuments to perpetuate
their memory? Or are these monuments meant to glorify some living leaders?
The people
of Gujarat would surely like to know why a chief minister who ruled the state for 13 years never thought of
something to commemorate Indulal Yagnik,
who led the Mahagujarat Struggle for statehood
and also had the gall to
challenge the then Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru. Yagnik was a simple man
who never owned a car or even a
bicycle but lived in the hearts of the people. A sea of humanity had
turned out on the streets when he died
but Modi never thought of erecting
a fitting memorial to him, Why? The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
Brilliant,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, heart-rending piece,,,,,,,,Does Modi have an answer?
ReplyDeleteWhere this better (worst for country) congrification of Modi will lead this nation?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder why nobody notoce Indulal Yagnik. There are very few people (1%) in new generation who lnow Indulal Yagnik. Yes Modi should have brought in focus lile he did about Varma.
ReplyDelete