Creative editing

The original

Asian Age, 4 August 2010

Telegraph ,
6 August 2010

Narendra Modi's use of "the people of Gujarat"

Reports published in today's newspapers say that Narendra Modi made "a scathing attack" on the government at the Centre. In actuality his output was a hysterical tirade of a familiar kind. He has long practice of holding up "the people of Gujarat" when he attempts to defend the indefensible. His aim, of course, is to win over his voters by telling them that they have been "insulted" and by implying that he alone can defend them. This time he is tossing up the bogey of an insult to Gujarat's judiciary. It is another matter that that judiciary is widely held to be in his pocket.

In saying that "the Centre was behaving as if Gujarat was not part of India ‘but an enemy nation'" ("Hindu", 1 August 2010), he clearly forgot that Gujarat in effect seceded from the Republic of India by putting up sign-boards proclaiming "Hindu Rashtra" and "Hindu Rajya" and by going against the Constitution of India in every way possible other than those related to the political power to which he clings and which enables him to rant, to kill, to loot, to rape. 

If indeed New Delhi is treating Gujarat as an enemy nation, then Gujarat, to defend its sovereignty, should launch an attack on New Delhi. Modi can well mobilise again the troops which were sent to Ayodhya to pull down an old structure over which neither Modi nor his masters ever had a claim.  

Click here for more  

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's statement that the "Centre was behaving as if Gujarat was not a part of India but an enemy nation" is sad. His aim, of course, is to win over his voters by telling them that they have been insulted and by implying that he alone can defend them. This time Mr Modi is tossing up the bogey of an insult to Gujarat's judiciary. Is he thinking that the Centre doesn't want an end to the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case? Mr Modi's imagination is too far fetched.

Click here for more 

Narendra Modi's attack on the government at the Centre was a tirade that has now become usual by his standards. The chief minister has established the practice of using the ‘people of Gujarat' to justify his actions. His aim, no doubt, is to win voters by telling them that they have been ‘insulted' and that he is the only one who can defend them. This time, he has conjured up the bogey of an insult to Gujarat's judiciary.

Modi claims that the Centre treats Gujarat like an outsider and an enemy. Assuming that this is true, why should he be surprised when, by laying stress on Hindutva, he has gone against the grain of the secular Indian State? He has claimed a separate and distinct identity for his state. At the same time, he has clung to the political power conferred on him by the Indian polity. It is this power that enables him to commit atrocities and still escape unscathed.

Click here for more