A skewed, distorted picture, based more on assumptions than on data and facts is presented as the situation in India tarnishing India's image and it is the same prism through which you view India, the country's current PM, elected government, priming you up for spewing vitriol
Friends,
The writing on the wall was clear months in advance, more apparent after the Balakot strikes and lately after the exit poll results what appears unprecedented are your reactions post the actual election results: its ok to have differing viewpoints, to have supported a different party or ideology but what stands out are your reactions in terms of a meltdown - some of you posting elegy - sounding lamentation in social media, some comparing the results of Lok Sabha 2019 to the election of Trump or re-election of Erdogan and some going even a step further and making their Facebook display picture black as a mark of protest.
To begin with, stop living in denial: days of ivory tower residentship is passe both for entitled politicians and their supporters. Blind are those who can't see the changes taking place at the grass root level. More Indian lives have been touched by Ujjwala yojana, toilets, electricity, Ayushman, Jan Dhan, rural housing than by entitled elites who ruled us for more than sixty years.
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Contrary to what the liberal milieu thinks, India hasn't voted for communalism vis-à-vis secularism, or right-wing vis-à-vis left but that they are now better off than in the past even in backward states and backward places. The losses of dynast candidates make it quite clear the anathema that young India has to entitled dynasts as a ruling class.
Most of you are well educated, must be doing good, maybe even living abroad and occasionally high on write-ups of India-bashing, Hinduphobic, Modi-hating authors (Durkha Butt, Rundhoti Aoy, Ana Rayub, Dadanand Shume to name a few) who regularly write scathing opinion pieces in NY Times, Washington Post and so on.
A skewed, distorted picture, based more on assumptions than on data and facts is presented as the situation in India tarnishing India's image and it is the same prism through which you view India, the country's current PM, elected government, priming you up for spewing vitriol. The reason those writers peddle lies is since it keeps their cash registers ringing, their mercenary services towards India's dynastic first family intact in the hope of getting crumbs in future.
In the past, you have pounced on such pejorative initiatives like "Not in my name", placard sounding celebrity campaigns riding on the make-believe false narratives peddled by a section of Indian media trying to sell the idea of India being compromised. Enough said, let's accept all of the above have failed!
I will offer you a better solution and something which probably can help you gain relevance, if not traction in the days to come: accept the people's mandate and move on. Support the elected government one hundred per cent in thought, word and deed for the next five years as true watchdogs, analysing its actions, initiatives threadbare and build your counter-narrative based on the relative success or failure of all government schemes.
Stop making personal digs: you know amply well it doesn't work and stop questioning the PM's integrity sans proof. If you pick on an issue, dig deep, so you know things inside out as good as the government officials involved in their implementation; skimming the surface and BS won't work. New India isn't daft, and can't be taken for a ride!
Also stop targeting people with differing viewpoints than yours: right wing, saffron, communal, so on. India is secular because it is Hindu; check any other theological state in the world and see how it treats its minorities. Hindu consolidation isn't akin to communalism – it's the yearning of India to be delivered to its indic and dharmic roots with the fundamental belief in Vasudaiva Kutumbakam – All the world is a family.
To end, all the best to you all turning over new leaves and wholeheartedly cooperating in India's development into a five-trillion-dollar economy in the next six years.
From,
A proud Deshbhakt firmly rooted to the ground.
The author is an NRI working in the Gulf
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