prasad1
Active member
Is Narendra Modi a development-oriented moderate or an unreconstructed Hindu hardliner? The question has once again bubbled up following the prime minister’s oddly muted response to last month’s brutal lynching of 52-year-old blacksmith Mohammad Akhlaq on suspicion that he had killed and eaten a calf.
For Modi, the Akhlaq murder is an indisputable setback. Many Modi supporters bristle at what they see as the hypocrisy and hyperbole of his critics.But there’s no denying that the episode has hurt the prime minister’s reputation both at home and abroad. To stem the damage, he must actively stand against religious violence instead of weakly reacting to it from time to time.
This background helps explain why many Modi supporters react tetchily to his critics. They wonder since when the prime minister has become personally responsible for every lapse of law and order in the land. Why do some killings merit reams of newsprint and hours of prime time attention while others languish unreported? In a narrow sense these arguments have merit. Many of the attacks on Modi including by a theatrical parade of writers tripping over each other in a hurry to give up their Sahitya Akademi awards reek of political vendetta. In a broader sense, however, Modi has misjudged the issue. A prime minister does not need to win every partisan argument, but he does need to consistently occupy the moral high ground.
In the Akhlaq case, and others of its kind, that ground scarcely needs marking.No civilised society condones murder by lynch mob, no matter what the alleged crime. Once Akhlaq’s killing became nationally known earlier this month, Modi should have condemned it strongly and unequivocally . By not doing so, he opened the door for a non-stop barrage of stupidity , poor taste and downright ugliness from his party men and the extended Sangh Parivar.
After the Akhlaq murder, the decent thing to do was obvious. Modi should have embraced the grieving family , and held up Akhlaq’s son, Sartaj, an air force technician who displayed enormous dignity in the face of tragedy , as a national hero. Instead, it took more than two weeks for the prime minister to wanly describe the murder as “sad and undesirable“. For Modi to be the leader he promised to be for all Indians, he won’t react so weakly to injustice again.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatime...&utm_campaign=TOInewHP&utm_medium=Widget_Stry
For Modi, the Akhlaq murder is an indisputable setback. Many Modi supporters bristle at what they see as the hypocrisy and hyperbole of his critics.But there’s no denying that the episode has hurt the prime minister’s reputation both at home and abroad. To stem the damage, he must actively stand against religious violence instead of weakly reacting to it from time to time.
This background helps explain why many Modi supporters react tetchily to his critics. They wonder since when the prime minister has become personally responsible for every lapse of law and order in the land. Why do some killings merit reams of newsprint and hours of prime time attention while others languish unreported? In a narrow sense these arguments have merit. Many of the attacks on Modi including by a theatrical parade of writers tripping over each other in a hurry to give up their Sahitya Akademi awards reek of political vendetta. In a broader sense, however, Modi has misjudged the issue. A prime minister does not need to win every partisan argument, but he does need to consistently occupy the moral high ground.
In the Akhlaq case, and others of its kind, that ground scarcely needs marking.No civilised society condones murder by lynch mob, no matter what the alleged crime. Once Akhlaq’s killing became nationally known earlier this month, Modi should have condemned it strongly and unequivocally . By not doing so, he opened the door for a non-stop barrage of stupidity , poor taste and downright ugliness from his party men and the extended Sangh Parivar.
After the Akhlaq murder, the decent thing to do was obvious. Modi should have embraced the grieving family , and held up Akhlaq’s son, Sartaj, an air force technician who displayed enormous dignity in the face of tragedy , as a national hero. Instead, it took more than two weeks for the prime minister to wanly describe the murder as “sad and undesirable“. For Modi to be the leader he promised to be for all Indians, he won’t react so weakly to injustice again.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatime...&utm_campaign=TOInewHP&utm_medium=Widget_Stry
