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BJP president says Modi best CM
in India
WSN Network
 AHMEDABAD:
Punjab's ruling Akali Dal and its leadership may have become thick
skinned enough never to feel ashamed about even the most crudest of
actions and developments but human rights lovers across the world
cringed at the latest remarks by right-wing ultra nationalist BJP's
president Nitin Gadkari last weekend when he described Narendra Modi
of Gujarat as the ideal chief minister in India.
Modi is widely
perceived as the man who presided over the killings of hundreds of
Muslims in Gujarat and whom the US has refused visa repeatedly
because of his poor record on this score. India's Muslims have been
consistently demanding his prosecution but he has made communalism
his winning strategy.
Gadkari was in
Gujarat for the first time after taking over as BJP chief in
December. It is widely perceived that Gadkari became party chief
only after Modi declined the post, a fact that shows the kind of
midset that prevails within the BJP with which the ruling Akali Dal
of the Badals has an alliance often described by Badal Sr as a
fraternal bond.
Gadkari was in
Porbandar on the occasion of the 62nd death anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi and it was here that he chose to praise Modi. Some of course
thought Gadkari was doing the appropriate thing by praising one
communalist while recalling the other.
"Modi stands
first among the chief ministers who are... on the development path.
He is an ideal chief minister, showing good performance (on all
fronts)," Gadkari said at a fair for the welfare of the poor in
Porbandar, 400 km from Ahmedabad.
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 Gadkari
became party chief only after Modi declined the post, a fact
that shows the kind of midset that prevails within the BJP with
which the ruling Akali Dal of the Badals has an alliance often
described by Badal Sr as a fraternal bond. |
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Gadkari said
that Modi "had taken the right path, sincerely working for the
betterment and progress of the deprived and poor people; he has
shown the path to the nation".
For political
pundits, there was little to be surprised as before Gadkari, even
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had
categorically stated that there was no need for Modi to apologise
for the
Gujarat
massacre of Muslims. He frequently propounds not only his view of
hard Hindutva but also harks back to the theory of ‘Akhand Bharat’
that would one day bring
Pakistan
and Afghanistan into India’s fold.
So much so that
even before becoming the RSS chief, Bhagwat had said he did not
think Narendra Modi had done any wrong during the 2002 riots in
Gujarat
and there was no need for him to apologise. "I am told that the
speed with which riots were controlled is commendable," he had said.
Mr. Bhagwat
ruled out a settlement of the Ayodhya dispute by allowing a temple
and a mosque to come up at the disputed spot. He did not agree with
BJP leader L.K. Advani who had described the demolition as a
“national shame.”
The RSS chief’s
view was that the National Democratic Alliance government after the
Parliament terror attack and the United Progressive Alliance regime
after 26/11 attacks in Mumbai showed “lack of will” to give
Pakistan
“a decisive response for all its mischievous actions.”
But none of this
has made the House of Badals rethink about their alliance with the
BJP.
3
February 2010
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