Saturday 17 May 2014

Victory of Hope over Fear: The NaMo effect

Dear All

In one of my messages in this blog, I did write about Narendra Modi, as the choiceless choice. The verdict of election 2014 vindicates this fact making NaMo the 14th Prime Minister of India. Well it is for the historians of contemporary times to judge on this traverse in our political landscape, but , I would like to discuss on a key element of this NaMo movement.

At a time when the aftershocks from the recession and Lehman crisis made the average American blink at a bleak future , a leader emerged with HOPE, with a clarion call of WE CAN. Similarly in India on the back drop of a series of scams and economic slowdown, a leader emerges with HOPE with his clarion call ‘’ Ache din anewale he (Good times to come...). On the contrary the congress leadership embarked on FEAR as the theme. The fear of an iconoclast in power.  A young and vibrant India chooses HOPE over FEAR. Its History now, Narendra Modi, as I wrote before, is proved to be the choice less choice.

Finally what is leadership all about? It is nothing about HOPE and TRUST. When he said, good times to come and ‘’ Mere uper Bharosa rakho” (Have trust in me), as like any leaders of the yesteryear's he was giving Hope for a population. This was what Mahatma Gandhi did, this was what Martin Luther king or Nelson Mandela did, energizing a population to work for a cause with hope…..


2014 will go in India’s History as a watershed year, a year where we have an opportunity to prove that, what Nehru and his family said were not necessarily right and there is always an alternative path, a new path for development. 

Let us  embrace it and follow ……..

Sanyasi

Saturday 3 May 2014

Bedroom Media

Dear all

This was a phenomenon, normally seen during the presidential election in the US, where political opponents scoops out sizzling details of personal lives of politicians and candidates. This US model has now come on stage in the India’s political landscape also. It started with Narendra Modi’ s marital status, and rumors of his abandoned wife Jashodaben. However there was nothing sizzling in this news as all of us knew that it was a case of an abandoned relationship from a child marriage, and there are no issues of any morality in it. The Gujarat chief minister remained a bachelor throughout his adult age and continues to be so.
The sad story of Shashi Taroor ,  the yesteryear's drama of NTR and Lakshmi Parvati, and the Illegitimate paternalism  of N D Tiwari , all falls in the same series  , but  more masala was seen in the confessed relationship of the 67 year old Dig Vijay Singh with the 43 year old TV anchor Amrita Rai. Well upon the flashing of this affair in the social media, both confessed to the relationship and have proclaimed to get married soon, as unfortunately marriage is the only sanctimonious institution to claim  legitimacy in our social milieu.

Well Dig Vijay Singh- Amrita Rai episode is made to be titillating only because Mr Singh is a politician and vociferous in his utterances, but the larger issue is on how much we debate on personal issues of public figures. While I am not going into the physiological aspects of  such  Apoorva- Raagangal, ( Tamil word meaning abnormal affairs), it need to be admitted that cupid  strikes anywhere any time and it is meaningless to look at it through the kaleidoscope of morality . Are we all Sati-Savitri s (read chaste) living with dreams and passion on our spouses? It is hypocritical to say so, as if not in action, in thoughts we are immoral if not always at least once. So what is the big deal in all this? For the media, it is an opportunity for stories and news and they have no qualms  in running around slinging mud on public figures . In fact I am proud of the former MP Chief Minister and his anchor heart throb as both have admitted the truth than being hypocritical. Best wishes to both of them. 

Sanyasi