by B. R. GOWANI
“Half salute Modi with RSS honchos at a shikhar meeting in better times.” PHOTO/AFP/Outlook
Modi is back
Indian state of Gujarat’s Hindu nationalist Chief Minister Narendra Modi got elected for the third time last week. Modi’s BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) won 115 of the 182 seats. In the last three elections, the BJP fielded not a single Muslim candidate.
Gujarat has a population of over 60 million people and out of that about 10% or 6 million people are Muslims. In 2002, under Modi’s watch, over 2,000 Muslims were murdered in a pogrom carried out by Modi’s men. Tens of thousands of people became homeless. Many women were raped too.
The 2002 massacre of Muslims has led to an increased ghettoization of Muslims. This situation always leads to an increased distance between the majority community and the affected minority. In a communally charged environment, where the reign of power is in the hands of Hindu fanatics, and the neighbors are not anymore Muslims, the absorption of the anti-Muslim propaganda becomes a smooth process, because you’re living in your own world. So then, when the anti-Muslim riots occur, you can uninhibitedly express hatred of Muslims or can join in the pogrom. A very dangerous development.
Though Modi himself has not spelled out, his party is talking about Modi being the next Prime Minister of India. The elections are due in 2014.
Lapierre’s solution to Newtown shooting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgu9f-qd_Uo
A week after the deadly shooting of 20 children and 6 adults at a school in New Town Connecticut, Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association or NRA, a gun lobby, spoke to the press conference. The way Laperrie begins his speech in the above video, he creates an impression as if he is a head of some country called NRA who was just conveying his sorrow and condolences to the families of the victims. Even though he is one of the main culprits in the guns related deaths in the United States.
LaPierre called for armed security at schools. He said: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Sure. It will cost $18 billion. Most of them going to the gun manufacturers and the NRA. He also blamed the entertainment industry. No doubt, the entertainment industry promotes violence. But the question is: If there are no guns, will there be over 12,000 guns related deaths in the US?
Here one has to remember the collusion between the NRA and its supporters in the US Congress. According to Erica Goode and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the Congress has prohibited the A.T.F. (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) from creating a federal registry of gun transactions. This forces the A.T.F. to do a lot of research on gun transactions manually and through outdated modes. It takes ages.
The NRA spends millions of dollars in supporting or opposing the candidates for the US Congress. (See the interesting report on OpenSecrets.org)
After half an hour’s conference, Lapierre didn’t answer any of the reporters’ questions. The reporters should have gone to the conference with guns. When Lapierre refused to answer the questions, they should have shot him in the legs and announced: “The good guys have shot the bad guy, a ‘monster’. Now please, answer the questions.”
Alas! That wasn’t the case. Lapieere was the winner.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com