(I want to start by saying that my constitution grants me the right to criticize my leaders as much as our Prime Minister. Although present times are risk ridden where speaking or writing against Mr Modi is like committing suicide. Be ready to be slapped with UAPA, and talk against the govt you may be jailed and harassed. I might be taking a risk if I dare to share it on SM and god forbid if it at all goes viral.)
Maun vrat is an old practice which forms a part of yoga therapy. Wonder if our politicians have ever heard of it. Its so much used at their convenience but. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was given the acronym of Maun Mohan Singh during the UPA regime from 2004-2014. Why! Because he was a ‘silent’ Prime Minister. New Delhi rose like a tsunami in the wake of December 16, 2019 it took many many days for PM Manmohan Singh to utter words of condemnation for the heinous crime, Sonia Gandhi too was pilloried for her silence as the UPA Chairperson. The country was taking note.
Gone are the days when Prime Ministers used to introspect, cajole their conscience and even ministers who would resign in case of a train accident. These are times when the Prime Minister works under the unsaid rule of holding a demeanor of a no nonsense man, which may coax you to infer that a Barak Obama or a Bill Gates cracking a joke or for that matter dancing with children and laughing with colleagues, has the potential of getting taken for granted. Intellectual hara-kiri eh……
There is a deafening silence when words are needed most. Keep silent when religious fanatics give a call for genocide. Keep silent when the farmers sit on your borders for 30 months braving cold, heat and rain for repeal of farm laws. Don’t talk to the press (as if you are not accountable for anything going wrong), Keep silence when our boundaries are being captured by China, Keep silent when China builds road and bridges on our northern and western borders, Keep silent on the hate speeches by your own people, keep silence when farmers are being mowed down in Lakhimpur Kheri, keep silent when Gujarat was burning in 2002, keep silent when thousands die of lack of oxygen during corona pandemic, silence when dead bodies floated in the Ganga, silence during Delhi Riots, and many more occasions.
But you only speak when come elections!!! So, the Prime Minister is only and only vocal at pre decided events. One, on the Independence day when he exercises his vocal chords at their fullest, for hours together, a time when he sings unabashedly on his myriad of ‘old wine in new bottle’ schemes. Second when he visits foreign lands and thirdly when he is abusing his opponents, you can guess (Congress). Also depends from state to state which he is in before elections or inaugurating some national asset. Oh yes, also when he talks to the nation on TV. Any other occasion is not of his ‘Wordsworth’.
How does one explain the change of demeanor and body language when on home soil as opposed to foreign soil.( cant be missed!) His cold, stiff personality as if wants to deliberately send a message that he is not from one amongst us. Despite calling himself a ‘chaiwala’ more often than not at every election rallies, depending on which side of the support one is..pro or against, will the sympathy undertone play out. But for the man of the moment its all about being there at the top and the perpetual desire to always be there. A humble background blessed with the fortune of top class fashion brands at the smallest of events consciously flaunted, every dress has a deeply designed message. Did we anticipate such Modi as our Prime Minister! Coming in on the wave of a poor tea seller who understands the plight of the poorest of the poor the countrymen did not know he was here for himself and his multimillionaire friends.
Or what explains an unspeaking and otherwise silent Modi to be obsessively engaged in the camera glare for hours. Meticulous lens management for his smallest of behaviour and act is made to repeat over and over again to the audience ..oops, countrymen’s disgust or admiration, depending on his constituency.
But don’t underestimate his silence, you ll be mistaking. Painstakingly rising up his way to see his dream come true, by hook or crook, carefully crafting his image and personality that he had been probably nurturing since his early days when he was brooming the BJP headquarters. The man is out to command, to rule, to prove his mettle. He cannot be defeated? Whatever is done is with a purpose. So if the farmers bill was repealed the consequences were well thought of for a longer run…elections in the farmer dominated belt. His silences are as carefully calculated as his words. Some daring media calls it his ‘sly, insidious silence’. It needed a New York Times article in 2017 to make Modi comment on violence on muslims and Dalits in UP afraid of his international image being tarnished.
So does one believe that Modi vouches for polarization, genocide, killings and violence! Does India deserve a Prime Minister who displays unsecular, immature, narrow minded, unsympathetic approach to the people, history, and demography of the great country!! Unfortunately an international watchdog on genocide has predicted one for India as well. The country goes where the leader takes it.
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