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The excitement and the jubilation notwithstanding, some aspects of Modi's win could be cause for concern

much more to address issues of gl ari n g inequity. Despite what man y Hindus think, .Muslims are a highly discriminated (not pampered!) minority in India.

If you are a l arendra Modi snpporrer o r fan, d1en it would be best if yo u do yoursel f a favour a n d skip this co lumn Al rernatively, p lease take so m e b lood pressure m edicatio n before proceed ing further.

P rime Minister-elect Natendra Modi comes to powe r w ith the sort of expectatio n s Indians had of Sachin Tendulkar w h enever he came in co b at.

But Sachin had, eve n ar t he early srages of his cricket career, a track record and class stamped aU over him Not to mention, lots of inna re decency.

Mr Modi is badly tai n ted b y the murderous Gujarat riots of 2002 and h is aUeged culpability but ironically (and , tragically!) that seems to be h is endurin g appeal and chat liability has been skilfully and wilfully converted to become his greatest asset.

Tbe e lector ate had been waiting for tlie Cong ress party with basebaU ba ts and has given it the most fearful lync hi ng le was em ine ntly well d eserved, too. Corruption was endemic; the Prime 1fiuister was lame duck, ineffectual and wielded n o indepen dent power, and there was n ever a coherent vision a r ticulated. The country was on auto-pilot whilst the p lane was losing height precipitously Critics jL1stifiably christen ed h i.m Ma n Mt11m Singh. In hi s decade long Prime Nuniscership, just 3 Press Conferences were held. Even Presid en t Obama who was criticised for not givin g man y Press Conferences, fronted u p 79 times in his fi r st 4 years, alo n e!

The Modi Record

To anyone w h o wants to cite Mr Modi's credentials a s a great reformer and having an impressive record of governance, probity a nd developme n t in Gujarat, 1 have this ro say : it is a furphy.

The track record does not match the hype at all In th e Modi years, the Gross Stace P roduce (GSP) of orher states h as grown faster. Even the per capita GSP of Gujarat trails Goa, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and others l or is Gujarat the leader (or even in d1e first three) in unemployment rates

Ia For e ign Direct Investme nt (a pet project of Mocli's), 18 MAY (2) 2014

Ahmeclabad comfortabl y trails 1vlum bai, D e lhi, Chennai and Ba ngalore I n income inequali ty (b oth rural and urban) Gujarat trails over 15 o mer stat es.

Eve n b y other measures viz. quality of life, human development index etc. , Gujara t is a sluggi sh performer, certainly not the class l eader. D on't rake m y word, go to http :// qz com/ 171409 / gujarar- by-th enwn bers/

Why has Mr Modi not had the courage to abolish prohibition, eve n after 67 years o f Independence? Not only is it a joke internationaU)~ but wi dely lampooned and Soured in Gujarat itself. Never again s hould Indians snee r at policies o f hard.line Islamist GL1lf states, whilst a ridiculous prohib ition law exists in one o f the m ost p ro m inent states of an otherwise lib eral democra cy.

Can someone also enli ghten me as to why, despite this h ypocritical law, alco h ol is so easily available in Gujarat and cons L t med with minimal fuss, by tens of thousands of people, everyday?

If Mr Modi was such an e ffic ient adminis tra to r, how come the enfo rce m ent of th is idiotic lm,v was (an d continues to be) so lax and c orruptio n -ridden?

W hy clid rbe BJP field over a hundred canclidates w ith criminal reco rds? O ut of the 281 seats wo n , 98 have been won by people who h ave the slur of c riminality. That is over 35 %, no less! If we were to make a th ree-egg o m elette and have ju st one rotten egg in it, what would the encl result be? Why clid the B? align with an over tly communal party (Shiv Sena) which has a cyn ical disregard for rule of the law?

D id yo u know char around 85°/4, of the canclicla t es it fielded are/ were facing criminal charges o r have been convicted of them?

15 out of their 18 e le cted MPs have c riminal cases pending lt is di sm aying, no less, to see them aU waved into parliame n t en thusi asticall y by electors in Bombay, i n particular.

Mod i's Muslim problem

lndia is a country of 1.25 billion in which one in seven people (or 14 °;., ie 175 million) are o f the Musl im fai d1, the third largest Muslin1 population in rhe world.

How such a country prospe1' unless there is societal harmon y, o pporrnnities and equali ty fo r everyo ne, regard less of the ir fa ith? ln steacl of spending mone y on sops co appease Muslims (but, which hardly reached tl1e m !) past Governmen ts should have clone

A n d, they need to be treated w ith respect - n ot told forever to "go to Pakistan". By most education and employm enr ya rdsticks, it should be a concern for all thinking lndians that the Muslims have now fallen behind even th e D alits

I h ope the Modi Government n ot only withdraws d1e Haj subs id y (which is a sort of religious interference) but also inlposes a pilgrim tax for organising religious events such as di e Kumbh Mela or various pi lgrimages to A marnath, Kailas h M ansarovar ere. The Jnclian State should have n o rol e in t he religious beliefs or practices of i ts citizens and it s h ould subsiclise no one overtly or covertly.

Edu cation is certainl y the panacea a n d s hould be a rop priority for the Modi Government: educatio n of the sort one gets in schools a n d universities and nor in fl!adrassas

The website of the lviinistry o f Hu.man Resources talks about 111adrassas modernisation i n th e name o f Muslims In Urtar Pradesh, under both M ayawati and Mulayam Sing h Ya dav, the government failed to construct more schools and colleges. lnstead , it was providing fo r tnadmssas mode r nisatio n of 111adrassas. This is wrong because 111admssas are religious institution s and the governm e n t sho ul d not play a ny role in diem.

Religious schools like t11adrassas create segregation - whic h is terrible both for Mllslims and fo r India

Job oppo rmnities i s another bug bear It should not b e as difficult for a Mus li m to get a job in I ndia as i t is for a new Indian migrant in A L1stralia Of course, there is discrimination - in both places. UsuaUy latent, often blatant.

Muslim s also face naked and u g ly bigotr y whilst buyi n g or renting property. The ver y people who are discri min ating again st them in this way, then have the gall to complain that they live in ghettoes - a fter vi.r tuaUy driving them in the re.

Mr Mocli .i s capable o f tackling aU the above issues pertaining to India's most populous and restive m in oriry. But, it is to be seen if id eoloi,,>ical considerations q ueer his pitch. He ran a campaig n that promised d evelopment

The electorate had been waiting for the Congress with baseball bats

It should not be forgotten that more than twothird of Indians did not vote for the BJP/ Modi and notwithstanding that (with just 31 % of the vote they won 282 seats), the BJP needs to govern for every Indian and good governance, and avoided religi ously divi sive themes Secularism is e n sh.rined in d1e lndian constitution and t h at is what distingui sh es India from Paki sta n and unites our amaz ing ly di verse 111r,tt'llbhoo111i. He wou ld do well ro concentrate on develo p ing India's creaking infrastructure and creating jobs for the million odd who join the wo rkforce, eac h m onth , and avoid the sta te's foray in to religion - b e i t 111a11dif' or 111asjid.

T he in civility routinel y demonstrated by Modi supporters on soc ial media forums that 1 have recen tl y seen is unbelievab le T h e re is not just a hope for a better Bharat and a 111aha11 Bharat, but sadly the re is an ugly e lem e n t of triwnpbalis m and sc orn for any cliffering opinion.

Above all, it shou ld n or be fo r gotten mat mo re chru1 t\vo- third of Indians did 11ot vote fo r the BJP / Modi and n otwithsran ding that (wi d1 ju st 3 1 '1/o of the vote they wo n 282 seats), the BJP n eeds to govern for CINI)' Indian