We are all human beings. No human being is ever always right or always wrong. Similarly no human being is all good or all bad. We all have some aspects of good and evil within us. Being humans, this applies to our politicians as well. Be it a ward member or a councilor or a MP or a MLA or even a CM or PM nobody is absolutely perfect. No one is absolutely honest. So in realistic terms performance of a politician can only be gauged relatively. How good is a MLA or MP or minister or a CM or PM when compared to thier peers.
On that note wanted to compare the performance of 2 PMs in a similar situation and how the world is subsequently perceiving them.
The year, 1978. A 62 year old Muslim woman was thrown out of her house by her husband. She had no means of income and she was denied alimony by her husband because it’s not necessary for him to give her alimony as per Muslim personal law. After going through lower courts she approaches the Indian Supreme Court, which rules in her favour and directs the husband to provide her alimony.
As a result of this Muslim organisations create a ruckus and to pacify them and to cater to his party’s minority vote bank the then PM Rajiv Gandhi brings in an ordinance overturning the SC verdict effectively setting the husband free from giving any alimony to the 62 year old wife with no livelihood. In any sane country this act would have been seen as an abject surrender to religious fanatics for saving ones vote bank.
But how does this nation see Rajiv Gandhi? He is a secular progressive leader who brought in computer revolution in the country. (People though forget that quite a few Indian IT companies had started coming up even before Rajiv Gandhi became PM). He is a Bharat Ratna and has lots of institutions and awards named after him. He has a sports award named after him as well. Dare anybody ask what has he contributed to sports in the country.
Fast forward to 2018. A BJP govt in place at center. We had a similar situation. There was a debate on whether women in menstruating age can enter the Sabarimala temple or not. People went to SC which ruled in favour of women entering the temple. There were lots of ruckus created by Hindu organisations and even the BJP party itself in Kerala. Women themselves held marches against the SC verdict. Interestingly now we have a PM, Modi, who has supposedly captured power on communal agenda and Hindu majoritarianism. He is perceived to be a communal person, a fascist, who doesn’t hear to anybody, does only want he wants, doesn’t respect any institutions in the country, doesn’t even respect the judiciary.
So if Modi is everything he is made out to be wouldn’t he have brought an ordinance to overthrow the SC verdict to please his perceived vote bank. I have not seen any such ordinance yet even though Hindu organisations have called for it. And it doesn’t surprise me at all, because I don’t expect him to do it, because he is not what he is made out to be by the lutyens media and the opposition. And you just need basic common sense to see that. Do you see it?
And BTW if you have to call one of them communal who would it be? Go.
