Modi - The Real Game-Changer

In a few weeks it will be the tenth anniversary of the Godhra incident. Ten years! And as with the past ten years the media will be there with the usual suspects on February 27 with special programmes to target Narendra Modi in a fresh effort. In the past decade the media, aided by Congress, rogue cops, NGOs formed overnight and hate engineers have tried their very best to send Narendra Modi to jail. So it was with great disappointment that the media greeted the judgement of Gujarat High Court rejecting a petition seeking Modi’s appearance before the Nanavati Commission probing the riots. In the same period Modi has gone from strength to strength with the development agenda in Gujarat. Most people who targeted Narendra Modi have painted themselves with indelible taint of wrong doings. Teesta Setalvad with fake affidavits, Barkha Dutt with Radia tapes, Rajdeep Sardesai with Cash4Votes, Sanjiv Bhatt with false affidavits and a lot more. Other actors like Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, Javed Akhtar have fallen by the wayside.

To put the record straight the Gujarat HC has merely observed that the Nanavati Commission has the discretion to call Modi to testify if they considered it necessary and the court need not direct the commission. Naturally, the crusaders for justice at NDTV and CNN-IBN had to sell this bad news. So we first had Sandeep Phukan of NDTV explaining how there were so many adverse judgements against Modi which Congress had tried to use to politically malign him. Is that so? Now, how many “adverse” judgements were passed against Modi? The SC had dismissed the one petition seeking Modi’s prosecution by referring it back to the lower courts last September. Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavits have been more or less thrown into the dustbin by the courts. The Lokayukta judgement by the Gujarat HC is also been quoted as a “setback for Modi”. The latest petition to summon him at the Nanavati Commission has been rejected. So the lies that media spreads about adverse judgements on Modi is another myth that has been propagated over the years. Truth is, there isn’t a single FIR or a single case against Modi to even have any grounds for adverse judgements. The “Setback for Modi”, “Blow to Modi” are headlines concocted by the media to imply that each time Modi is just another step away from prison.

Well, if NDTV is on the prowl its twin sister CNN-IBN isn’t too far behind. On this day their reporter, Meghdoot Sharan, went far enough to state that the riot victims have lost faith in the Nanavati Commission after the HC judgement. Well, as always, it’s not justice unless it is the justice the media wants. What about HeadlinesToday? A few days ago HT carried the results of a survey which indicated people preferred Narendra Modi as PM over all others. Now, in a Sadbhavna meet at Anand in Gujarat Modi mentions this survey in his speech and Rahul Kanwal quickly terms it as Modi’s PM ambitions. Not that there is anything wrong with such an ambition but a reference to their own survey had Rahul Kanwal spreading lies that Modi was “baring his PM ambitions”. Having created the lie, Kanwal then goes on to discuss this spurious topic with panelists from BJP and BJD trying to sow seeds of disharmony, political speculation and another attempt at tarring Modi.

As if the media’s comedy wasn’t enough the Congress first releases an ad about Gujarat which also lists Modi’s achievements and his skill and ability as an organiser. Then Delhi CM, Sheila Dikshit, further confounds her party and the media by praising Modi before retracting the praise. Never mind all that. Its election year in Gujarat and one can expect the Congress, aided by a servantile media, will come up with more fake stories and allegations. Both have been unable to digest the series of electoral losses in Gujarat. The CBI has been thrown into Gujarat with cases against Amit Shah, former Home Minister, and every attempt has been made to concoct false affidavits through rogue cops and NGOs against Modi. What if the BJP were actually defeated in 2002 or 2007 in Gujarat? One just has to imagine how many fake cases would have been filed in the state to destroy Modi. The entire state machinery would have been used to politically destroy what has not possible to do legally. It is in this context that the emergence of Modi as a serious contender for the PM job is disturbing for the media. Ten years of maligning him has only made him emerge stronger and be recognised for the development agenda in Gujarat.

There isn’t a single state in India where CM candidates and political parties have been able to win elections without quotas and freebies. It is only Modi who has dumped the out-dated ideas of such election-winning calculations based on caste, community, subsidies and freebies. Of all his achievements as CM, this is quite easily the most outstanding one. The media war against him has made him raise the development agenda even higher resulting in greater achievements by the state of Gujarat. Naturally, many across the country have found this form of governance and delivery far more attractive than mindless appeasement policies and promises. It is only after 60 years of independence that all political parties are talking of development and governance as the key issue. This is where Modi has been a game changer. The contrast becomes even sharper when measured against a corrupt Congress govt at the centre and a hopelessly failed PM.

The lessons that the media and Congress refuse to learn is that the more they abuse Modi the more his popularity rises with people in Gujarat and across the country. They’ve called him a “mass murderer”, “maut ka saudagar” and even a “common criminal”! After screwing up badly by showering praise on Modi the Congress is desperately seeking damage control. The foul-mouthed Manish Tiwari hasn’t learned any lessons from the past and here’s what he came up with comparing Modi to the Nazis (on NDTV’s show with Nidhi Razdan):

"The Nazis also built autobahns (German expressways) but what defined the Nazi regime wasn't those autobahns. It was Auschwitz (concentration camp). It was Treblinka (extermination camp). It was ghettos (where jews were forced to live)…..Notwithstanding the complete myth of a vibrant Gujarat, ultimately in the final analysis what is going to define the BJP government in Gujarat is the inaction and the culpability in the Gujarat carnage. I am not drawing any parallels but yes there are certain lessons, which history teaches us."

That's a well-rehearsed statement. No, not  even great gutter-mouths come up with 'treblinkas' off the cuff. All these childish attempts at colouring reality don't sell anymore. The best quote comes from none other than Capt.Amarinder Singh, the Congress candidate for CM in Punjab who has reportedly promised  “Gujarat-like progress if his party comes to power”.

On January 31 the SC indicted the PMO for failure to respond to Subramanian Swamy’s letter to prosecute A. Raja in the 2G scam for over a year. The Congress gleefully claimed it was a vindication of the PM. Imagine, the board of directors is being indicted but the Chairman claims he’s vindicated. If that is the yardstick for leadership then clearly Modi is by far the most courageous CM to have ever held such an office. In times like these the nation desires strong leadership and the only person who seems to offer that appears to be Narendra Modi. And much as they holler and scream, the media celebs who were out to nail him have failed. Modi has emerged as the real game-changer in the political arena and people are not buying the lies of Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai, Nidhi Razdan or Sagarika Ghose anymore.