DELHI: 14 Sept 2013
The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has termed the anointing of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate as a shame and disgrace to the Indian nation that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Vallabh Bhai Patel and countless freedom fighters established by liberating it from the colonists. Modi has become exemplary for those who want to make a career through communal politics.

SDPI national president A. Sayeed in a statement said that elevation of Narendra Modi, a viscous politician who spouses not only hatred but also brutality for not only religious and ethnic minorities but also those who disagree with him, is a most disgraceful occurrence since India became a free nation in 1947. That a man who resembles the fascists and brutal oppressors of the 1930s/1940s, who ravaged Europe and Asia, could be nominated by a major political party to beIndia’s Prime Minister Candidate is a day of disgrace.

Mr. Sayeed said to call anointing of Modi as a Black Day would be travesty of truth. The mortality is not confined to Narendra Modi. Enthroning of RSS led BJP in to power itself is a threat to Indian society. It first happened when Atal Behari Vajpayee sat on the hot seat. Vajpayee, who was projected as a moderate face, had a quite divisive “mokhouta”. Can one forget Nelli massacre? It only happened when Vajpayee visited there and delivered his poisonous speech. How we can forget that gruesome massacre inAssamthat time? It was also a blackest day when L. K. Advani became the Home Minister of India. The same Advani with his Rath Yatra flooded the streets of many cities with the blood of Muslims which culminated in demolition of Babri Mosque.

He said the secular forces in the country should not get entrapped into the debate and oppose any attempt to project Modi as a future PM alone but also should be wary of the logic which states that, “anybody but no Modi? Inadvertently, this would lead to accepting BJP. Be it Modi, be it Advani or anybody from the Sangh Parivar, they will run RSS agenda which is not acceptable toIndia – not only the Muslims. Rejecting Modi and accommodating someone else will give leverage to the other secular formations to go in alliance with BJP which will further strengthen this divisive political entity in India, he pointed out.

The statement stated that the reason of a surge in the right wing politics inIndiais none other that the lethargy of Congress-led UPA Government which has became defenseless in the wake of endemic corruption, scandals, the inflation and total sell out of the country to Corporate and MNCs. Any success of the BJP in 2014 should be credited to Congress not to Modi or the right wing forces. The spineless defense of secular idea by the ruling party, pampering the Corporate and MNCs leaving the millions of Aam Aadmi in lurch will surely give strength to the divisive forces. The 10 years UPA rule in general and the last 4+ years in particular which gave nothing but misery to the people. Their sole objective of the people inIndia is to kick out this formation in 2014 even at the cost of compromise with secularism and secular values. Ironically, those pampered Corporate and MNCs by the UPA regime are projecting Modi and doing all that possible to gift him the throne of India.

The statement said that Narendra Modi has continuously been hurling the hatred which he possesses inherently. Expression of ‘no guilty feeling’ aboutGujaratpogrom is not new. He has been proclaiming it for years. His comment whereby he referred to Gujarat riot victims metaphorically as ‘puppies’ in an interview with the Reuters is again not as shocking from the man who called the 2002 pogrom as reaction to the action (referring to the Godhra train carnage). Political parties in opposition are, however, just taking advantage of such comments for appeasing the minority community. Mr. Sayeed lamented howGujarathas been rehearsed in recent Muzaffarnagar riots. Even before Modi’s Raj, the country has started witnessing what is in store for the future.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters may feel that he has served Gujarat enough and now wants to repay the debt to ‘Bharat Mata’, but Gujarat’s actual debt has mounted from Rs.45,301 crore in 2001-02, when he first came to power, and is projected to touch Rs.1.76 lakh crore by 2013-14. The social indicators inGujarat, a state of 60 million people, tell a different tale from the Vibrant Gujarat story being pushed by Narendra Modi. The high economic growth inGujarathas been at the expense of basic human development. Infant mortality, one of the best indicators of the success of a government, is a low ranking 11th with 44 deaths per 1,000 live births.

He said that some of the BJP’s leaders might have problem with Narendra Modi not because of his hard Hindutwa politics but they might be fearing a personality cult that subsumes party structure whose cult will ultimately be responsible for the speedy death of that organization. Now, BJP has converted itself into the BJP (Modi), with the slogan “BJP is Modi and Modi is BJP”, something eerily echoes Congress party’s slogan “India is Indira and Indira is India” years ago, which the BJP had opposed tooth and nail.