Modi has won over Gujarati Muslim hearts

Saswat Panigrahi

In the recently concluded Gujarat civic poll, the BJP won all 27 seats in Salaya municipality, a Muslim-majority town in Jamnagar district. Of the 27 winning candidates, 24 are Muslims and the remaining three are Hindus. Not to forgetten is the fact that in the last Gujarat Assembly election, BJP won 12 out of 19 Muslim-dominated constituencies.

The figures tell a story. Narendra Modi is emerging as a popular leader among Muslims in Gujarat. But one needs to understand what the growing popularity of Modi among Gujarati Muslims should be attributed to.

Muslims in Gujarat are better off than their counterparts in other States. The Sachar Committee — appointed by the Congress-led UPA to study the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims in the country brought home this very fact.

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Modi reminds youth of Swami Vivekananda’s dream

Saswat Panigrahi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s model speech at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi has captured the imagination of the youth.

In his 45-minute-long speech, Modi left an audience of 1,800 students and 200 teachers spellbound. It was not just the SRCC. Youth across the nation watched and rewatched the speech on Television and webcasts.

They downloaded it from internet. They read and reread the text from the newspapers and websites. They shared it on Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.

Modi spoke on the future of India. He asserted that brand India could rule the world. He emphasised that youth power is the nation’s power.

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Now that Afzal Guru is dead…

Saswat Panigrahi

Afzal Guru hanged! India woke up to this news last Saturday. The Parliament House attack convict finally got his just desserts.

It took 12 long years to complete the ‘due process’ and execute the key conspirator behind the audacious attack on the temple of Indian democracy on December 13, 2001.

Though Afzal Guru’s hanging calls for celebration, the process of his execution leaves some unanswered questions.

First, there was an inexplicable delay in executing the Parliament House attack plotter. The Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist was sentenced to death by a special court in 2002. His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005. Two years later, in 2007, the Apex Court rejected a mercy petition by his wife. Then Afzal’s mercy plea moved from Delhi Government to the Home Ministry before it finally reached the President. And the process took another five years.

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Congress’s brand of politics is brazenly anti-Hindu

Saswat Panigrahi

Remember WikiLeaks? A secret US diplomatic cable, released by the whistleblower website, quoted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as saying ‘Hindu radical groups’ pose a much bigger threat to India than Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.

Rahul had made those comments during a conversation with US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer just eight months after 26/11.

Now fast forward to Jaipur where Congress held a Chintan Shivir. As the whole country mourned the gruesome and unprovoked killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde raked up ghosts of the imaginary ‘Hindu terror’ again. Shinde essentially, was taking off from where Rahul had left off.

He went on to blame the main Opposition party BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS for promoting ‘Hindu terror’.

“Training camps of both the BJP and the RSS are promoting Hindu terrorism. Whether it is Samjhauta blast or Mecca Masjid blast or Malegaon blast, they plant bombs and blame it on the minorities,” Shinde said. Later he backtracked and said it was ‘saffron terror’ and not ‘Hindu terror’ that he was talking about.

The Congress’s traditional approach — spewing venom against imaginary saffron offences has come full circle.

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