Raja Bhaiyya, Modi and the Pup

Yesterday three things caught my attention. One was Raja Bhaiyya, the other was Modi and the last one was a beautiful German shepherd pup next door whining all night in his new home. Much as the little pup attracts me, I have to focus on the two “honourable” men as they have been making decibels the whole day yesterday. All the TV channels had forgotten their ‘Pups’ and latched on to these two who made headlines for reasons best known to them. Intriguingly enough, I found a fair similarity between Raja bhaiyya and Modi. Both are famous(infamous) in their own territory and they wield power which is unique to them. Both are politicians. Both have won their elections in our free democracy. Both claim to be leaders of the masses. Both are feared in their regions and both have scant respect for democratic functioning. And yes, one more. None of them have been convicted in any court of law across India! But perhaps, the long arm of law shall catch up sooner or later…… Now, let’s focus on Modi. One must confess that the he has hired one of the best PR honchos for his upliftment( remember Adnan Sami’s Lift kara dey…?) All kinds of Gurus are busy in “Lift kara dey” for Modi. And I am not looking at the volume of moolah that must have flowed to achieve what we are seeing! Now, this latest brouhaha over Wharton is very fascinating! Just see the bigger picture…The Students body of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania invited Modi as one of the keynote speakers at the prestigious meet scheduled to be held on March 23 in Philadelphia. However, the management has reservations over his inclusion in the speakers' list and asked for his name to be dropped. One must note that it was NOT the University that had invited Modi! And they are well within their rights to review a decision taken by the students. And since there was almost three weeks, they cancelled the invite. Is there anything wrong??? I do suppose they must have expressed regrets or apologies for the cancellation. Why are we wailing our heads off? One Chetan Bhagat comes on TV and says that this is not fair, another Suresh Prabhu says that this is disrespect to India!! I wonder what they see that I cannot. And I am not short sighted, at least, as yet. Bhagat should know that this is the privilege of the host to invite or cancel( yes, with due courtesy). When Modi was invited, did he seek the permission of the Govt of India? No! This was a very personal decision. So, why poke barbs at the government that this is a huge disrespect to the nation!! This was a personal invite and it should have remained so. Why waste the time of the nation? And this should be realized by the overzealous TV anchors. Adani withdraws from Wharton. Well, he had to. After all, past favours need to show up for future continuity. And now to Minister Raja bhaiyya. He too is crying foul! Claims innocence! But ask Mrs Haq….the wife of the slain cop. Similarity with Zakia Jaffrey is purely coincidental? But the poor Pup. His cries attract none. Tied and threatened, his whining becomes faint. I get the feeling of Déjà vu!

Modi can change the equation

Once again Narender Modi is in the news. And this time it is for some very different reasons. And he is enjoying every bit of the media clamour for him! He is already strutting around as the next PM of India! Well, why not? After all, he is a citizen of India and has every reason to visualize his future. And also because there is acute shortage of leaders and issues in the BJP. They are bereft of genuine leadership and issues on which they can lay a claim to run the nation. Modi comes in handy. Being controversial helps at times. You may hate him, you may detest him but you cannot ignore him! And this is where Modi has emerged as the front runner for 2014 hustings. Honestly, I do not see a scenario where Modi becomes the PM. Probably even he knows it. But it is a good ploy from many aspects. Firstly, it sort of cuts down the light weight( but voluminous) leaders who pretend to be heavy weights! Then, it gives them a chance to polarize the nation. And this suits the BJP. They all know that the NDA allies will not accept Modi as a PM candidate. They may ultimately accept him if the numbers allow, is a different matter. But, none would like to begin the campaign with this perspective. Today BJP is celebrating Modi. They are smart. They have killed two birds with one stone. They have thrown the cat amidst the pigeons. Also they have thrown an issue to the general public at large and now they wait to see which result suits them…the pigeons being slaughtered or the public swallowing the pill! Nitesh Kumar is under pressure and test. BJP is assessing what they gain of Modi declared PM even if they loose Nitesh. Nitesh is in a quandary and Laloo has rubbed it in already by asking Nitesh to make his stand clear. Congress waits and watches. After repeated hara-kiri attempts, the UPA has still survived and may well survive if Modi is declared PM candidate and Nitesh walks away to the UPA camp.