{"id":125264,"date":"2014-05-31T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T18:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=125264"},"modified":"2014-06-05T01:05:12","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T19:35:12","slug":"modi-a-magic-wand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/modi-a-magic-wand\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi \u2013 A Magic Wand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hameed Abdul Karim<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hameed<\/a>

Hameed Abdul Karim<\/p><\/div>\n

I was with an Indian HR guy a few days ago and quite naturally the topic of Narendra Modi<\/span><\/a>\u2019s massive victory crept into the conversation. This Indian Bhai was quite ecstatic in his praise for Modi. \u2018Already the stock market has hit a new record high\u2019 he gloated and I thought to myself \u2018Right: the capitalists are already raking in the shekels while the poor are wondering whether they will get the toilets Modi promised them\u2019. But courtesy prevented me from giving expression to my thoughts.<\/p>\n

More than 60% of India\u2019s teeming population doesn’t have toilets and quite happily they resort to the great outdoors to defecate. Sometimes they do it quite openly and if this \u2018exercise\u2019 can be turned into a tourist attraction, India will be full of tourists without bothering about seasons. Don\u2019t get me wrong. This exercise is not quite all that bad. Why, it provides employment opportunities. Over a million Indians make a living by carrying human excrement on their heads for disposal at some dump or another according to the celebrated social activist Arundathi Roy.<\/p>\n

So Modi\u2019s promise of providing toilets for every home was not at all misplaced. It may have brought in many votes, but then you will have to wonder how the million excrement carriers (and that\u2019s old stats) are going to make a living in Modi\u2019s toileted India!<\/p>\n

Pardon me, did Modi say \u2018homes\u2019?<\/p>\n

Those of who were \u2018zombified\u2019 by the various News Channels may have seen pictures of houses (fleeting though they may have been) in Gujarat. What passes for \u2018houses\u2019 were actually hovels and huts made out of scraps of polythene, cardboard and corrugated sheets. These \u2018houses\u2019 were so tiny that only a visionary like Modi can see the space where a toilet could be built!<\/p>\n

Poverty Increase<\/strong><\/p>\n

The talking heads on NDTV and other pro Modi corporate owned media invaded Indians\u2019 minds in the run up to the election circus in the \u2018largest democracy in the world\u2019 which happens to be India\u2019s brand name. They made them believe Modi was a doer and Gujarat was a happening place. They didn\u2019t need proof. What the media said they believed. Even the mass killings of Muslims in Godhra were dismissed as an aberration.\u00a0 \u2018See, since 2002 Muslims, have been spared, now doesn\u2019t that speak volumes for Modi\u2019s kindness and compassion, huh?\u2019 was the underlying message delivered ever so delicately.<\/p>\n

\"Modi\"<\/a>I am sorry to strike a sour note but much of Modi\u2019s claims are fibs. Facts are hidden elsewhere. The United Nations\u2019 Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index in 2013 indicated that under Modi\u2019s rule 41% of Gujaratis were poor and out of this number 18.5% live in abject poverty. Statistics can be misleading, I know. This figure suggests that 59% of Gujaratis are rich. But hang on a while, the Gujarat population is a little over 60 million according to 2011 stats which would mean that those living in poverty amount to nearly 25 million.\u00a0 Not an \u2018achievement\u2019 you can brag about! Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself. There is another thought that we have to chew on for a while. There is a Modi way to reduce poverty levels unique only to him. It\u2019s not by increasing wealth but by reducing the poverty index levels. Modi\u2019s BJP government calculated that if any Gujarati earned more than IR 10.80 a day he or she becomes disqualified for state benefits. Voila! There you are that\u2019s Modi\u2019s way of making Gujarat a rich state. Now ponder a while, how many of those who earn more than 10.80 a day constitute the 59% of \u2018rich\u2019 Gujaratis that we were talking about? But that\u2019s too complex a calculation for our \u2018televisionised\u2019 minds to fathom out so let\u2019s leave it to the pundits on TV, shall we?<\/p>\n

By the way, I am told a beggar could easily rake in a minimum of IR 50 a day. So according to Modi\u2019s thinking he would be classified as filthy rich.<\/p>\n

Despite fantastic claims by Modians, facts on the ground indicate that poverty had actually increased in Gujarat under Modi\u2019s watch. The number of poor families in Gujarat\u2019s villages, according to the state government\u2019s own data, had shot up by 30%. In April 2000 over 2.3 million families were categorised as being below the poverty line. The number increased to over 3.4 million by June 2012. But you can be sure \u2018Modians\u2019 will tell you some Walt Disney story or another to make you squirm and follow it up with yet another highly exaggerated feel good Modi story.<\/p>\n

Moneybags<\/strong><\/p>\n

Narendra Modi literally spent billions of rupees on his campaign. One report said that as much as 100 million bucks were busted only on nomination day alone. The many parades and pageants we saw on TV were so colourful that they captured the imagination of those of us who were glued to the idiot box. For a moment we forgot what the circus was all about. In the minds of the many who watched with fascination all that was dished out on TV, Modi was the new messiah. He jetted around states like nobody\u2019s business. Yet no TV pundit ever asked where the moolah was coming from. Social activists like Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal or their supporters were conspicuous by their absence in the media.<\/p>\n

The name of one of Modi\u2019s financiers that cropped up once or twice was that of Mr. Gautam Adani. But in an interview on NDTV he said he would not like to comment on political issues thereby skipping the question rather adroitly. The anchor did not pressurise Adani like you would have expected him to instead he went on to ask questions, and innocuous ones at that, on issues like the environmental damage that his project in Katch might cost. He thus subtly deflected the crucial issue of campaign funding and managed to give the viewer the impression that his media outlet had given \u2018both sides of the story\u2019.<\/p>\n

There is speculation that other corporate bigwigs bankrolled Modi\u2019s campaign but you didn\u2019t hear their names on TV or in the print media. This is because it\u2019s they who own the vast media networks and its affiliates in Mother India. And big money wanted Modi in the seat of power for \u2018business purposes\u2019. Approximately 40 % of India\u2019s children are malnourished and if huge corporations are going to rule the roost, like they were doing under Congress, you can be sure the figure is only going to rise \u2013 like the stock market in the first flush of Modi\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Recently a friend in Sri Lanka had visited Gujarat because this was where he was born and lived as a youth. To him it was like going to the \u2018green green grass of home, old oak tree\u2019 and all. The lure was nostalgia and that too in an era where even nostalgia is not like what it used to be. But he returned a bit disappointed.\u00a0 He told us that the story of Gujarat booming under Modi is a fib and the media hype about it all is just that \u2013 media hype.<\/p>\n

As we speak we still see jubilant dancing in the streets, papara bands fully employed for a few days celebrating BJP\u2019s landslide victory. But you can bet it won\u2019t be long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi finds out that there are limitations to imagination and reality is a factor you have to contend with never mind what the HR guys say. Modi is no magic wand. But that will take time to out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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