Mr.Modi’s
Somalia comparison has for the past one week caught up much attention in this
strip of land called Kerala (which , I’m sure historiographers(sic) of the
Hindutva party would want to believe was allegedly carved out from the sea by a
dreaded and conscientious warrior, a
Brahmin who detested Kshatriyas). The now infamous comment of Mr.Modi, who
excels in sonorous rhetoric, laced half truths, innuendos apart from blatant
lies and malarkey effectively aroused outrage in the State, but that seldom
crossed the Western Ghats .Folks up north and elsewhere in the country wondered
what the hullabaloo was all about and some may even have scampered to their
computers to Google and find if Somalia in far away Africa suffered any
tectonic shift. However the chorus of
protests over the PM’s comments did
create some reverberation in distant
Delhi among the minnows in the Modi government.
It was fun
days over the past week, with an abuzz social media lampooning Modi and
caricatures of his faux pass aplenty
flying all over. I must admit that I missed no opportunity in sharing and
commenting from my part- a contribution towards increasing the misery if I can,
of one of the most disagreeable and detestable person to wrest the Prime minister- ship of this country.
Strong words? Cannot find any stronger ones, I must confess.
Now what I
must address here is the allegation that Mallaus false pride was hurt by the
comparison Mr.Modi made of Kerala with Somalia. Eventually Mallus hit bed with
pleasure after satirising Modi’s comments with the economic and social index
statistics of Gujarat.
How true is the accusation? Indeed it is true to
an extent. It is truer that than the truth of the hurt Malayalee pride, in fact
it is the Mallus hypocritical heart that has been offended and hurt.
Keralites
live in a house of wax- a house that is bedeviled with castes, superstition, sleaze,
voyeurism, environmental destruction, cantankerous qualities and what not! On the flip side agrarian and land reforms
that communist ethos heralded, the social emancipation of a vast multitude of
low caste, an universal education system, commendable health care, yet, I
wonder if any Mallu even in his most ludicrous moment exclaim that Kerala is an
epitome of Shangri-La. Century and more ago Swami Vivekananda painfully
exclaimed that Kerala is a land of the insane. Many monsoons have since poured
down on the land- communist social revolution heralded social and economic
paradigm shift in the milieu, the Gulf boom created a tectonic transformation
in the economics of the State. Today Keralites contribute 40 percent and more
of the foreign remittances (i.e. Rupees 1 lakh crores). Ironically 3 million
plus expatriates from other northern and north eastern states work in Kerala.
All from States where IMR is abysmally pathetic let alone the plight of infants
among Scheduled tribes.
Where does
this place the Somalia of India?
As I
mentioned I reveled in lampooning Mr.Modi. But the act was not out of hurt
pride or obsessive hypocrisy , nor did I go to bed pleasurably for having
mocked Mr.Modi, his gauche and inappropriate misleading comments, thus hoping
to veil the supposed veracity of his statements. I savoured the pleasure of
mocking a man who have apparently befooled the country and whose malarkey was
laid thread bare by his own foul and boorish mouth and actions. A man who rode
on to become the PM of the most populous country through means that was heart wrenching,
and thrives on dispensation that is distasteful ,divide and rule.
The foremost
issue that Mr.Modi raked up and which en
masse the State took up in indignant chorus- was the mischievous and
spliced , selective comparison with one of the most dystopian territories on
the planet, “Somalia”. He claimed that “The unemployment in Kerala is at least
three times the national average. Infant mortality in Kerala among Scheduled tribe
community in Kerala is worse than that of Somalia. The State can meet only 13
percent of the requirement of their agricultural products. Even after 70 years
after Independence, Kerala depends upon other states for 70 percent of its
power requirements. Most of Kerala youth are forced to leave the State in
search of jobs. Only through overall development can the State be brought back
to its past glory.”
Past
glory? I wonder what he was referring to.
It only requires
little intelligence to understand that such has been Mr.Modi’s shenanigans and
ploy, whereby he subtly proclaims wrong statistical data and spliced, selective
data to mislead the audience. Instances during the previous general election
were abundant. The specious statement over what black money stashed abroad can
do to an individual Indian – who may stand to get Rs 15 lakh. More than a
mouthful to fool the gullible!
The current plight
of the Adivasis or the indigenous forest
dwellers of India- the original
inhabitants of the country even before the fair skinned Aryan invaders and
later, the sacerdotal Hindus and the lesser ones usurped their land is well documented
statistically. The glaring indifference that Adivasis face in India is not an
isolated case to be foisted on Kerala alone. True the mortality rate in Kerala
is high among adivasis, but less than the national average (though that is not
a status to pat one’s back). The fact is indifference to the original
inhabitants has been not endemic to political parties or to Kerala. And this Government with its mad Hindutva mind
set has no reason to shed tear for the aborigines. Once electoral exercise is
done with, scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and other non entities (as the
RSS would see them) will be relegated into the septic tank. For, for a racial
and religious purity that the Hindutva ideology calls for, there is no room for
lesser beings.
Orchestrated
bludgeoning of Universities & centers of learning and higher education is
something that has been consistently practiced by fascists’ mobs (governments).
This government under Mr. Modi has taken that exercise to newer levels. The
matter is afresh in our minds and the process of clubbing into silence is going
on.
As for the
other falsehood Mr.Modi trumpeted, statistics on the Central Govt’s web sites of
the economic survey gives enough information to rubbish his allegations. So
copying them here is of less importance. A bakth yesterday stated indignantly
that he doesn’t believe the statistics I quoted to rubbish Mr. Modi’s
assertions. I conveyed my empathy and
told him that indeed with the Government headed by Modi one cannot even trust
the official statistics to be true. For this government excels in rewriting and
concocting everything and anything from cows to videos to economic data.
No, not over-
his present government incessantly uses paramilitary and regular forces in the
central heartlands of India to drive out the indigenous forest dwellers from
their forest land so that the land can be given on a platter to his corporate
benefactors. Why doesn’t Modi weep for the many tribes driven out of the
Narmada valley when the monolith of a dam came across the Narmada to cater the
over indulgence of Gujarat’s big cities and to quench the insatiable needs of
big businesses?
Where is the
inclusive development he speaks of? Rubbish utter, utter falsehood this
comparison to Somalia!
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