Keywords: #VN Rai #Kashi Nath Singh #Narendra Modi #Salman Rushdie #BJP’s PM candidate
In both persuading the electorate and barbing the opponents as well. In the course of time BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi is consolidating himself as ‘One And Only’. Needless to go in the details of the ‘how’ and ‘why’, because it is almost known to the public. His allegations and the curt response to the opponents usually make them restive.
Modi’s victory would be the historical defeat of Varanasi.
- Kashi Nath Singh However, Modi has been criticized from the several quarters intermittently. Couple of weeks back the Noble laureate Amartya Sen admitted that Modi is favourite, but might not be a good prime minister. The current scenario is that the intellectuals have harshly assailed the BJP’s PM candidate terming him a threat to this multi-cultured nation if he becomes the PM.
In this regard, one of the eminent Hindi litterateur Kashi Nath Singh, in a convention, said that Modi’s victory would be the historical defeat of Varanasi. He reiterated that if he (Modi) assumes the top post (of PM) then the country would go in the state of anarchy. Similarly, the former vice chancellor of the Hindi University, V.N. Rai said that Varanasi is in a crucial and above all petrifying phase. According to him if Narendra Modi succeeds in his mission then, reign of terror would prevail. Mr. Rai said that the social structure would shatter and obviously the venom of hatred would spread and our Ganga-Jamuni might lose its existence.
On the other hand, an India-born eminent author Salman Rushdie from New York has doubted that under the Modi leadership the country would have “a fairly bullying government” and attacks on the freedom of expression could worsen if the BJP comes to power.
“I am pretty concerned about a Modi-run government. The indications that it would be a fairly bullying government are already there. We have already seen journalists and writers being bullied and (the BJP) has not taken power yet.”According to Rushdie said there has never been a politician “quite like Narendra Modi in India” and given the high likelihood of the BJP winning the national elections and Mr. Modi becoming India’s next prime minister, “we have to see whether the experience of office serves to moderate him”. He described Modi as a divisive figure and a hardliner’s hardliner.
- Salman Rushdie, Author
The author was addressing a session on the importance of freedom of expression at the 10th annual PEN World Voices Festival; Rushdie said that “India is in the danger of betraying the legacy of its founding fathers and greatest artists like Rabindranath Tagore.”
# Ujjwal Ghosh [The author is Sr. Journalist. The views expressed are personal]
