By Ayub Khan,
The Indian media and a section of the American media as well, have been showering fulsome praise over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public speaking skills. His Madison Square Garden speech has been especially highlighted as ‘inspiring’ and ‘rocking.’ Anyone disagreeing with this assessment is subjected to heaps of abuse including doubts about the critic’s sanity, ancestry, and in some cases even humanity.
Perhaps the Modi’s fans have taken a cue from his controversial ‘puppy under the car’ remarks in categorizing those opposed to their leader in the canine species. Regardless of the fan outrage it cannot be ignored that Modi has failed to inspire confidence and hope.
PM Modi giving speech at Madison Square Garden
He had no healing touch to offer. His speeches were full of clichéd and vague remarks which can muster past the copy writer’s desk but are hardly befitting a leader who has just won elections with a thumping mandate. Modi disappointed the hopeless optimists with both what was said and what was left unsaid.
No Healing Touch
For a man who was barred from entry to the United States for his alleged complicity in massacres in 2002 it was but expected that he will make some references to that ghastly episode in India’s history and call for reconciliation.
He could have expounded on the cohesive nature of India’s post-independent multicultural society and how it could be preserved. He said no such thing and instead made sectarian and divisive gestures from the start. If one was expecting India’s F.W. De Klerk moment to arrive they were deeply disappointed.
Divisive Agenda
In his speech he said that India was enslaved for 1200 years thus equating Muslim rule with colonialism. By saying this he effectively denied the fact that majority of the Muslim rulers were Indianized residents of India if not Indians by birth. By evoking a divisively constructed past he let it be known that national unity is far from his agenda.
On the other hand he praised the Sikhs for their valor in protecting the country. If he was a unifying figure he could have also made references to the many and continuing outstanding contributions of Muslim and Christian Indians. In his more than hour long speech there was a solitary reference to Bohra Muslims (who were visible in the audience in their traditional attire).
While speaking on access to banking he said that Bohras would know what money lenders can do to the people. This comment was greeted by a thunderous laughter from the audience. It appears that its real purport was lost on the media. It was well known that Bohra traders were until recently involved in money lending business in the rural, especially the tribal, areas of Gujarat.
A significant number of these petty traders had to bear the brunt of the 2002 riots. As with ‘puppy under the car’ comments this reference was also inappropriate and uncalled for but there are not many who took note of this snide remark. The crowd and the media instead indulged in more adulation.