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The Wire
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Wire
Shri Modi Doesn't Approve of His Photos on Vax Certificates and Train Tickets. He Must Tell His Followers That
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Government Shri Modi Doesn't Approve of His Photos on Vax Certificates and Train Tickets. He Must Tell His Followers That Badri Raina 48 minutes ago The power of greatness is often caricatured by ill-educated well-wishers who take into their own bouncer hands the gumption to enlarge the colossus into a demi-god. An illustration showing a train reservation slip with Modi's face on it. Photo: X/@Kashish__singh_ Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The following is satire. For a decade or so now, an in-house conspiracy to embarrass the prime minister has been afoot. Remember how they pasted his picture on COVID-19 vaccine certifications? And on school satchels? Not to speak of every page of every news outlet, although positioning his head just a millimetre above that of pretenders who draw breath from the slightest tilt of his eyebrow. And now time comes when these mischievous satraps have him gracing even such quotidian pieces of authorisation as railway booking tickets. This shameful project-sell stems of course from their notion that Shri Narendra Modi is a parvenu strongman who, like all upstart belligerents, likes to see the whole realm plastered in their insecure self-image. And there is the blunder. What these zealots do not know is that Shri Modi, adulation of the ancient, is no light-weight tin-horn in search of publicity, but an old aristocrat who traces his greatness back to even non-biological originations. Always an antagonist to new-fangled western ways, our numero uno remains deeply mortified by this exhibitionism thrust on him by his so-neophyte well-wishers. Which raises the question: Why does he not, with one syllable from his puissant oratory, put a stop to this upstartism which not only makes him deeply uncomfortable but also enables world-watchers to draw comparisons of him and his greatness with the likes of lowly punks such as Donald Trump – a comparison that causes such hurt to our sanatan loftiness. Ah, easier said than done. Excruciatingly discomforting as it must be for Shri Modi to see himself thus peddled on all sorts of commonplace corners, inevitably advertising his self-aggrandisement which he loathes secretly, great office puts such paradoxical fetters on the exercise of authoritative will. Were he to at one stroke lambast all those in-housers who do him such disfavour, imagine the way the boat of office may then be rocked, giving room for malicious tongues to say, aha he knew it all the time but did nothing. Imagine also how such retreat from a cruelly imposed dissemination might cause his party to go into a funk, not knowing how to justify the praxis of over a commercial decade. And, should he do nothing to stymie the enthusiasm of the mischief mongers who seek to undercut the scale of his classical statue by this profering his image to all and sundry everyday of every ordinary week, the dent to what history may make of these going on also troubles him no end methinks. Thus is the power of greatness so often caricatured by ill-educated well-wishers who take into their own bouncer hands the gumption to enlarge the colossus into a demi-god. Sadly, we sans-culottes may not know how best to admonish the great leader in this predicament, except to say we know how humble your heart is, how self-critical your mind and we know those that follow in devolution or self-interest can often be blind. Badri Raina taught at Delhi University. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News A PM Dependent on the Opposition Doesn't Bode Well for BJP Modi's Cult-Driven Foreign Outreach Efforts Have Left India Friendless One Year, Five U-Turns: How Modi 3.0 Was Forced to Bend to Coalition Pulls & Opposition Pressures Four Times Narendra Modi Showed That Criticising the Union Government on National Security is Okay Modi is Maun: How the Sudden Ceasefire Marred the Prime Minister's PR Script 16 Opposition Parties Demand Special Parliament Session in Joint Letter to Prime Minister Rural Development Ministry Seeks 12% Hike in MGNREGS Outlay: Report By Calling For the Boycott of Foreign Goods, Modi Contradicts Himself Eight Times Trump Made Claims that Undermined India But Wasn't Really Rebutted by New Delhi View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
The Wire
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Wire
The Inclusion of Muslim Leaders in Delegations Shows That When the BJP Needs to Borrow, it Does
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics The Inclusion of Muslim Leaders in Delegations Shows That When the BJP Needs to Borrow, it Does Badri Raina 36 minutes ago The majoritarian rulers of the day swallowed the necessity that Muslim participation was required in the delegations to be sent to argue the Indian case. An all-party delegation including BJP leaders Baijayant Jay Panda and Nishikant Dubey, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and others during a meeting with the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria Selma Bakhta Mansouri, in Algiers, Algeria. Photo: PTI Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The ruling BJP has not a single Muslim representative in parliament, and in the central Cabinet. The politics of the 'nationalists' over the last decade especially, both at the centre and in the states they rule has been solidly rooted in Hindu consolidation. Prominent leaders of the party, such as Suvendu Adhikari in West Bengal have been heard to voice the sentiment that the party does not need Muslims, and should not work for their interests so long as they do not vote for the BJP. Quite the other day, a minister in Madhya Pradesh was pleased to dub Colonel Sofia Qureshi as 'their sister', meaning that of the terrorists lodged in Pakistan. The party has not touched him yet; only a court has taken suo motu cognisance. On June 1, the redoubtable Home Minister, Amit Shah, who declaims rather than speaks like his superior, Narendra Modi, told a rally in West Bengal that Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress leader and chief minister of the fraught state, did not support operation Sindoor because she was catering to her vote bank; inference: that Muslims were not in favour of the military action against Pakistan. When the Modi-Shah regime understood that Muslims were needed in the delegations sent abroad And yet, when it came to persuading countries worldwide of the justice of India's case against Pakistan, the Modi-Shah regime understood that Muslims were needed to be part of the delegations sent abroad. Not having any of their own, barring Gulam Ali Khatana, a nominated member, they thought nothing of drafting ten Muslim members from opposition parties to plead the Indian case. This is what is called Chanakya ki neeti. Being asked, these perfectly patriotic Indians could not have refused the task, although their parties felt justly hurt by not being given the democratic privilege of nominating their members for this onerous responsibility. Whether it was right or wrong for the opposition members to side-step party prerogative in the matter will no doubt surface as an inner-party issue in the days to come. But here is the point: The majoritarian rulers of the day swallowed the necessity that Muslim participation was required in the delegations to be sent to argue the Indian case, especially in the rather crushing absence of any suo motu declarations of support from even such countries as may have been expected to come forth without equivocation. So, not having any of their own, the BJP did not shirk the move to call upon Muslim leaders from other parties, including, perish the thought, the remarkable Asaduddin Owaisi who has repeatedly found himself reviled by right wing social media trolls as a Pakistani lover. Kudos to him that he set aside what must be his infuriating hurts from the mouths of the bigots on the right, to speak with eloquence for the republic and its conditional values in stark contrast to the 'failed state' of Pakistan. Now, the million dollar poser: can the nation expect that just as the ruling right wingers woke up to the necessity of owning Muslims in the matter of sending delegations abroad, they will likewise acknowledge the weighty truth that Hindu-Muslim togetherness is even more sharply needed internally if the realm is to achieve its many rosy goals of advancement? Will that realisation lead to any substantive and far-reaching rethink in the driving think tanks that have shaped the politics of the sectarian right wing ever since the establishment of the RSS a century ago? The question is poignant given that the chief of that organisation has only the other day yet again called for: Hindu unity, and designated 'Hindu Rashtra' as the 'eternal truth of this land. The different standards of the BJP at home and abroad Equally interesting will be what intercessions may now be made into that conundrum by the ten Muslims leaders who went along so cheerily with the official delegations to speak for an India that continues to treat Muslims badly. And, why will not the BJP send similar delegations all over India to replicate the unity that has been engineered to present a patriotic face abroad? Will leaders who were drafted from opposition parties, Muslims especially, demand this of Modi and Shah, and, if they do, on what grounds may such a suggestion be denied at home? So laudable has been the role played by the drafted leaders of the opposition that in some of their interventions they have merrily contradicted what they have said on record before on such issues as formed the agenda of their case-building, all, no doubt , in the national interest. Would this not have been a watershed moment if those that sent them abroad now took due lessons from their pleading for secular reconstruction here at home? Badri Raina taught at Delhi University. This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News We Disagree With Modi Govt But Will Cooperate As Its Delegates Abroad: John Brittas, Asad Owaisi Lone NC MP in All-Party Delegations to Not Join His Group, Cites Urs at Native Village Pak's Support to Terror, Op Sindoor, Indus Water Treaty: What the All-Party Delegations Will Address On Operation Sindoor Delegations, TMC Cries Foul Over Govt 'Unilateral' Call on Delegates After Rijiju Dials Mamata, TMC Picks Abhishek Banerjee to Join Op Sindoor All-Party Delegations What Could Be Shashi Tharoor's Political Endgame? Rijiju Jumps to Defend Tharoor as MP Faces Congress Ire Over 'LoC Never Breached' Remark Why Modi Won't Let Go of the BJP's Reins Govt to Send Multi-Party Delegations Abroad for Outreach on India's Position on Terror, Conflict with Pak View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
