The voices in support of Narendra Modi have clearly grown louder in recent times.
But the top traders' (err...businessmen) declaration alone can't propel Modi to the post of India's Prime Minister (PM).
The sycophancy for which our society is known (the British were first to spot it and much before them the Mughals also did the same and exploited it) was at its most obscene display when at the Investors' Meet.
The so-called India Inc leaders or business honchos were trying to outdo each other in going to extra lengths and showering praise on Narendra Damodar Modi's administration skills and his support to the businessmen in Gujarat.
Yes, Modi has changed his state. There has been no major communal conflagration and now there is focus on development. Modi has also shifted his own agenda. But the turnaround is not exactly his work alone. Gujarati business acumen is known for centuries.
Upwardly Mobile Middle Class Can't Be
Considered The Real Voice Of India
Further, six years is not a long time. Even sixty years can't wash away the past. Ask the Jagdish Tytler, who despite his comparatively lesser role in the Sikh riots, still finds it tough to live with his head high. Earlier, HKL Bhagat had an ignominious end to his political career.
Genocides are not poetry. When an elected government that has ministers swearing in for safety and justice to its citizens and commitment to the society, oversees a mass killing spree that resembled the Jewish holocaust and was worse that pirates did in medieval age, it is an unpardonable sin.
This government in the previous term had turned a blind eye and refused to act on rioters. Businessmen like Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani and Rahul Bajaj, who were pouring heaps of praise on Gujarat government and hinted that Modi should be the CEO (read Prime Minister) of India, hurt their own credibility with the statements.
Fascism may be fashion but can any businessman in Europe dare declare his support to the German regime of pre-World War era? The trading class is interested in its own welfare. It gets concessions, cheap land, easy loans, and it's happy.
But can its support decide truth and falsehood and redeem the tainted? Indian society may be changing but it has not changed so much that it would listen to the diktats of a bunch of some self-interested traders.
It will take years for the wounds of victims of Ahmedabad-Godhra riots to heal. In India, poor may not have anything but they do have the vote. Not every Indian belongs to the 'shining upwardly mobile Indian middle-class' which media often considers to be the real voice of the nation.
Morality and justice remain an issue with them. Though so-called leaders of the trading class and business community may not consider them an issue any longer.
