It was 11 pm US eastern time. I was checking online the Gujarat election result lead trends... As expected, my friend, a 20 or so years old Ameican born girl of Gujarati origin was online too.. She was the one who posted the article
written by B P Singhal in many a group on orkut, including an "anti-modi" group, much to the surprise of her psec-indian counterparts, who repeatedly asked in the group, something like " Are you really an American born girl ? Are you really only 20 years old ?" After seeing a clear margin for BJP, in addition to multiple smileys on the gmail chat box, she send a little note - "Both me and my younger brother are glued to the computer"
That in many ways summed up to me the "how"of Modi's victory.. It is to me, once more a victory of Gujaratis (and I would even dare to say Gujarati women) and victory of youth in addition to vistory for develoment and able leadership and needless to say defeat of insincerity and lies.
So why did I say Gujarati women ? ... For, I many times felt the "ordinary Gujarati lady" - young or old- have been more vocal about their support for BJP that even the men folk ! The other day, I was watching a panel discussion on CNN IBN, and Mallika Sarabhai in her usual nonsense talk, blabbered " This is about a man who defies Indian constituition blah blah... Gujarat has become very unsafe under his rule" When it came to the turn of the audience, a young woman in her twenties countered "I totally disagree. Look at Delhi, look at any other city in India, parents will be concerned if you are out of home after 7 pm. But look at Ahmedabad.. even 10 pm is fine. I feel more safe than ever before". Shall I say more ?
So, what all contributed to the victory ? Oh well, I am not a political analyst, atleast not of the type that I will be talking about soon, but still, I have to point out atleast two factors, that were interesting. One , Congress playing into Modis genius trap. Modi started off on the development plank... Well, the Congress thought, he doesn't want to talk about Hindutva, may be he is scared, so lets rake up the old issue, our pet issue which we have been mouthing like parrots for 6 years now - and there, that gave Modi the clear opening.. "I want to talk develpment... If the Congress doesn't want to take me on that, that shows the BJP upperhand on the issue of development. They forced me to talk about hindutva.. so be it" . Even the most anti-modi fellow can't deny that a poll based on hindutva will anyway help the BJP !
And two, indeed the "help" from ELM - english language media. Oh my God, rajdeep congress-desai, Shekhar
Power Theft Gupta, .... and "political analysts" . My favorite of course was "Achyut Yagnik" .... such an idiot, I wonder why the media, especially rediff ( read "Sheela Bhatt") gives him such importance. In 2002, days before the election he wrote -"
i don't see any hindutva wave" and we know what happened. In
2007 he said " In 2002 there was a wave. In 2007 there is no such. So there are chances that Modi will lose". Joker - I shall call you Achyut duality Yagnik.. buddy even Physicists are in a better position when it comes to wave-nowave of electrons
The dirty tricks of the ELM -
including quoting the fake rascal and criminal who claims to be Puri Shankaracharya with a big heading "Puri shankaracharya wants Modi removed" - has backfired once more... Oh by the way, when was the last time you can remember the "opinion polls" and "exit polls" from these experts were anywhere close ?I remember, as a 10 or 11 year old, when my family first owned a TV, I used to watch Prannoy Roy on Doordarshan , and I still remember him predicting a number, which turned out to be almost exactly the number that the BJP coalition won -- that was the late 80s.... from that what a fall ? The media now is either catering to its editors political agenda, or dancing to the tunes of some body who sponsors them, or simply has lost its mind and don't know what to say. Quite likely the third, as most of the opinion polls predicted something like 90-105 for BJP and 80-95 for Congress, so that even if by chance Congress wins, they can always come back and claim " see we told you there is a chance congress may cross the may 91" ... JOKERS
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As a Malayalee, having seen the devil and deep sea alternately ruin such a beautiful state, I have to admit.... I envy Gujaratis, I envy Modi. I have seen most youth complain about their state's government - and rightly so many times. But a majority of my Gujarati friends, seem so proud of their government. They put youtube videos showcasing Gujarats rapid development on their orkut..... I am sure, some of them, if not most, also hope that what Sardar Patel was denied will be made up by Modi - if not immediately, some day, may be after Advani !
