Saturday, January 17, 2009

Stone in stilled waters-

Tarun Vijay

The world is fast changing. And so are we. Narendra Modi being endorsed and hailed by India Inc is stuff proverbs are made of. What a carnival

of investment flow and future glow Gujarat saw during the Makar Sankranti festival, a day of transition when Shiva wakes up after a long night and the weather changes. Modi turned it into an occasion for the Vibrant Gujarat summit and his sparkles bedazzled the nation. He will have all the virtues and vices of a winner. He has become more popular and credible than the present Prime Minister. A precarious milestone indeed. He has earned his place in history but will he be able to balance and cool off to take stock and walk with his tribe to earn extra miles? Whatever happens to him, it's incumbent upon his mentors to help him handle criticism and stay afloat. There is not much time left. It depends on the Right movement to use this opportunity created by his persona to consolidate and expand wings.

A number of RSS swayamsewaks have made the most extraordinary economic and developmental history in post-partition India. Turning villages into reservoirs of wealth and wisdom, that's Nanaji Deshmukh; rekindling the fire of spiritual nationalism atop Shripad Shila in Kanyakumari, that was Eknath Ranade, who sent hundreds of young men and women to the northeast spreading education and empowerment to earn; shaping a gigantic labour movement, that was Datto Pant Thengadi, the creator of India's largest labour organization, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh; and the creation of students' saffron power in the shape of ABVP, that was Yashwantrao Kelkar. In later years, we had a most talked about and praised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee – with superhighways, telecom revolution and high growth rate.

That's India, not necessarily a political one, yet invincible and walking with the times, weaving a future that makes us all glow with hope. And should it matter if a couple of them belong to different parties? Shouldn't any Indian of any hue charting new a growth channel make us raise our hands and say "bravo, move ahead"? That's what I call as a Deendayal spirit. Whoever runs for India must get our salute.

Team India has rulers like Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh. Both fought anti-incumbency and won. Young, decent (unlike most politicians) and deliverers. We have Nitish and Gehlot, who surprisingly enjoy good a reputation among their worst rivals. I wish political parties decided to put up new and young faces for the Lok Sabha elections.

Hence I welcome Omar's ascendancy in Srinagar. He is more transparent and candid and acceptable than Congress and PDP put together. At 38, he finds the company of the likes of Sachin Pilot, his brother-in-law, and Jyotiraditya Scindia. It makes for a terrific tribe. When I say "welcome Omar", it's not because we share the zodiac sign or I have converted, but because I want a rival who will equal my standards of ideological battle. He doesn't hide what he is. Better than those who wear a mask for every occasion.

Omar belongs to the future of India. Trust him, even if he chose to speak as a "Muslim" in the Lok Sabha and opposed land to Amarnath yatris.

India is a bigger issue than a plot of land, which eventually we won through our strength and increased our number power 11 times. I believe the entire India is a replica of Amarnath. Just have the guts to assert.

You may have different expectations from them. I would like Omar to end terrorism and religious bigotry enveloped in divisive demands and ensure safe and honourable return of the Hindus to the valley.

When I look around, I find exciting new, powerful faces running and shaping the globe. Putin remains my all-time favourite, with Obama in Washington, Hu in Beijing, Chavez in Venezuala and Lulla in Brazil. We may have a thousand issues to settle with China. So what? How those who preceded out generation dealt with these issues? The creators of a new Indian order will certainly do it better. Have power, will win.
That's the key to success. India is struggling hard, is bleeding and yet showing winner's traits. This inner strength is essentially the civilizational gift, which runs into our veins. Call it Hindu or anything else. It is the defining life force of all of us. Those who defy, like the seculars, may rule this land of the pious for some time but would evaporate in ignominy like many small-time operators in the past.

Eliminating terrorism ruthlessly, recapturing land lost to the enemy neighbours, rejuvenating the economy and infusing new blood into our educational and agricultural sector are the new markers of our unstoppable journey to power-peak. Jealousy, fratricide, pocketing mediamen to kill brothers in arms, stored moneybags have never helped, will never help, in the long run. They die double death. Those who have the courage and conviction to stand on the burning deck like Casabianca and fight their own flesh and blood like Arjuna alone win the earth.

It's essentially a battle of our cultural identity; economy is used to infuse gunpowder. The civilizational contours and the flow of the Ganga are at stakes. Not many would understand till they become as extinct as American Indians post-Columbus. The gun-wielding rogues challenge the values of pluralism and a million flowers blooming with as many colours and fragrances. You need a Putin or a Churchill. Nothing less than that would work.

Peace is established with power. Putin's ruthless policies made Russia rise again. He was unapologetic and clear where he has to go. Those who can take on the enemy with full ferocity and a killing instinct save the nation. I may be prejudiced and look coloured, but I can say what I know. I see clearly a rise of the intense Hindu values once the present young generation takes over.

To me, the Hindu Right remains the last hope and an instrument to revive the glory and the wonder of India. And we know, the best and the brightest still are found in the various folds and facets of this segment, if we can train our eyes to look beyond the political organizational framework. If those who qualify from IITs, TIFR and IIMs leave their lucrative options abroad to join RSS work in Meghalaya or Port Blair then still we have hopes for India's rejuvenation. If the best of the minds in California and Kenya, bar-at-laws and chartered accountants, wait two years living as ascetics at an age of 22 or 23, to be ordained as ochre-robed sanyasins — Hindu monks (with their Hinduness underlined, unlike the so-called Hindu politicians) at the hands of an "octogenarian Pramukh swami in the holy precincts of Shahi Baug, Swaminarayan's Ashram, and the youngest force on this earth finds a suitable job to work for scheduled castes and tribes as RSS pracharaks then no power on this earth can stop the ongoing march of the people who believe in the good of all sans borders of faith caste or creed. The most delighting factor of a new Indian order is the young faces in the camps of Swami Ramdev, in the discourses of Sri Sri, in the congregations of Mohan Bhagwat, who happens to be the youngest CEO of the largest Hindu organization on this planet, or glued to the deep knowledge banks of K S Sudarshan, chief of the Hindus' greatest consolidation. Temple or no temple, gods or no gods, the only factor that must matter is the survival of a Hindu India, unabashedly, unapologetically, assertive and Himalayan in it heights. It means everyone. It means all faiths and colours. Once it loses its sheen of Hinduness, it loses its salt.

The author is the Director, Dr Syamaprasad Mookerjee Research Foundation.

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