Gimmickry, mockery and euphemisms are hallmarks of Modism

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Prime Minister of India Narendra Damodardas Modi visited Gurdwara Rakabganj yesterday in Delhi in an ostensible move to assuage the hurt of the protesting farmers from Punjab on the borders of Delhi. WSN editor Jagmohan Singh writes an Open Letter to the Indian Prime Minister telling him that gimmickry, mockery and euphemisms have been the hallmark of his style of governance, delivering little or nothing to the suffering farmers and other teeming millions of the country. DEAR PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA […]

Prime Minister of India Narendra Damodardas Modi visited Gurdwara Rakabganj yesterday in Delhi in an ostensible move to assuage the hurt of the protesting farmers from Punjab on the borders of Delhi. WSN editor Jagmohan Singh writes an Open Letter to the Indian Prime Minister telling him that gimmickry, mockery and euphemisms have been the hallmark of his style of governance, delivering little or nothing to the suffering farmers and other teeming millions of the country.

DEAR PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI: WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH! Greetings from Punjab. Thank you for visiting Gurdwara Rakabganj, built in the memory of the Ninth Master Guru Tegh Bahadur.  Thank you for tweeting about your respect for the teachings of Guru Tegh Bahadur.

The four doors of every Gurdwara Sahib are open to welcome one and all -the high and mighty, the lowly and the vulnerable, the rich and the poor, the devout and the atheist, the brave and the coward and of course the Sikhs, the friends of Sikhs and adversaries of Sikhs too.  The Gurdwaras -the forts of the commoner, the Sikh place of worship, succour, relief and empowerment, welcomes everyone with open arms, notwithstanding the stature, stance, persuasion, compassion or the perfidiousness of the person.

Nevertheless, lest you misunderstand or your Bhartiya Janata Party supporters or even the raucously stupid lapdog section of Indian media read more into it, the robe and the garland given by the presiding priest to you was a ritual which is followed for everyone who offers a drape for Guru Granth Sahib. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Narendra Modi at Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib

The Sikh world observed with awe and some with understandable anger the few minutes that you spent at the historic shrine. You were the symbol of a defaulter, your body language was that of someone who has seriously sinned and has come for penance. You entered the precincts almost stealthily, without your standard paraphernalia. You could not do have done it otherwise. Things have boiled down to that nadir.  You did not have the courage to be part of or face the Sangat. Dressed in all shades of saffron, your pretence to be devout was palpably visible.  Throughout your brief stay, you barely uttered anything. You could not have spoken much. You were numbed by your own guilt.

Today morning, I had a hearty laugh when I read the newspapers.  Addressing the Indo-Japan Samwad -Indo-Japan Dialogue online, you are reported to have said that “growth patterns must adopt a human-centric approach.  In the past, humanity took the path of confrontation and not collaboration.”  You added, “Discussions on global growth cannot happen only between a few. The table must be bigger. The agenda must be broader. Growth patterns must follow a human-centric approach. And, be in harmony with our surroundings.”

Where is humanism for protesting farmers knocking on your doors from the four corners of Delhi?  Close to half a century of deaths means nothing to your government, isn’t it? The suffering in the biting cold under the open sky does not bestir your conscience? Why is the table of the farmers so small? Why is there no space on your bigger table to accommodate everyone, especially those who disagree with you?

After reading this, even saying that you and your party is following double-standards sounds cliché. All the correspondence of your Minister for Agricultural Affairs and all the bargaining points of the Minister for Agricultural Affairs and the Minister for Railways, to the leaders of the Farm Morcha, were hollow promises, never meant to be fulfilled. In this context, even your tweets sound hollow. A couple of tweets in Punjabi meant to please the protesting farmers, reminded me of the plaque in Hindi put up by your government when you inaugurated the Indian side of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Where is humanism for protesting farmers knocking on your doors from the four corners of Delhi?  Close to half a century of deaths means nothing to your government, isn’t it? The suffering in the biting cold under the open sky does not bestir your conscience? Why is the table of the farmers so small? Why is there no space on your bigger table to accommodate everyone, especially those who disagree with you?

To me, when you visited Gurdwara Rakabganj, you did not provide the healing touch but added fuel to the fire.  Your visit reminded the Sikhs of the visit of Indira Gandhi to Darbar Sahib after storming it and killing thousands in June 1984.

Under strenuous circumstances, when Prime Ministers visit religious places of the community or people they are otherwise subjugating and suppressing, the move is invariably counter-productive because the intentions are extremely doubtful and populist.  To me, when you visited Gurdwara Rakabganj, you did not provide the healing touch but added fuel to the fire.  Your visit reminded the Sikhs of the visit of Indira Gandhi to Darbar Sahib after storming it and killing thousands in June 1984.

Seeing the images of you bowing before Guru Granth Sahib, I wondered whether you realised that Guru Tegh Bahadur laid down his life for the right to religion of one’s choice.  Guru Sahib listened to the woes of the people and responded without delay. The history of Delhi can never be written without the mention of the supreme sacrifice of Guru Tegh Bahadur.  He made an indelible mark in the annals of defence of human rights. He was totally against centralism and the one-nation, one-language, one-religion, one-waters, one-election theories that you propound and practice from time to time.

Over the years, you have emerged as a vainglorious trumpeter of hatred and decisiveness, striking at the pluralistic and inclusive idiom, cooperative and transparent governance imperative for common human growth.  All the promises made by you and your cabinet colleagues in Varanasi, Madhya Pradesh and even on the floor of the Indian parliament, has not dampened the spirit of the people of Punjab. Thousands daily travel to Delhi in tractor-trolleys and buses. The whole of Punjab prays for the success of the Morcha.

On the borders of Delhi, there is an ongoing battle going on between truth and falsehood, between promise and deliverance, between Punjab and India, between Sikhs and India, between the farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and the Union government of India. It is between coexistence and non-existence. It is even much more than that. It is a battle between Nature and those opposing its rules.

The leadership of the Farmers Morcha has not fallen prey to your empty promises and platitudes. Punjab has known the Indian leadership to be treacherous as a weasel and wily as a fox.  It is very easy for “circumstances to change” as Jawaharlal Nehru said it when reminded of his promise of “glow of freedom for the people of Punjab.”

The Farmers Morcha at the Delhi borders knows that you will back out of your big promises even before the thousands reach back home in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.  The tearing hurry with which the three black farm laws were passed with a voice vote in the Upper House of the Indian parliament, clearly demonstrated the malafide intention of your party and the government. The manner in which Farm Commission agents are being harassed and hounded by the Indian Income Tax authorities to overawe them and dissuade them from supporting farmers speaks volumes of the shamelessness of your government.  The legal notices to Farm leaders in Uttar Pradesh to dissuade them from participating in protests lays bare the intention of your government,

The Farmers Morcha social media presence is not only going strong in numbers but is providing content to up the ante and routinely respond to your diatribes.  Seen in this light, your visit to Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib looks like a digression.

In case you are testing the patience of the people, then you may do well to recall that December is period of sacrifice in Sikh history and we take courage and inspiration from it. It is this historic and remarkable response of the people that has shifted, in the minds of the people, the border of Punjab from Shambu to Singhu and Tikri on the outskirts of Delhi.

Whether the RSS-BJP mission of joining the waters of the country into one may fructify or not, the people of Haryana and Punjab have started the fable of sharing river waters as a long-lost-found family.  For a very long time to come, the BJP will have to countenance this peoples’ narrative.

Mr Prime Minister, if you delay a solution to the farmers’ conflict, you may have to visit Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib more frequently.

On the borders of Delhi, there is an ongoing battle going on between truth and falsehood, between promise and deliverance, between Punjab and India, between Sikhs and India, between the farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and the Union government of India. It is between coexistence and non-existence. It is even much more than that. It is a battle between Nature and those opposing its rules.

You will have to accept that the days of BJP and its consort -the Badal Dal, in the state of Punjab are over -at least for the next decade. Earlier, public memory used to be very short. Now, social media has made it possible to store and retrieve bunkum talks, promises and deceptions exposing the true face.  Mark Zuckerberg and Mukesh Ambani notwithstanding, the youth of Punjab has geared up to use the same social media to beat your lies and fake news.

The parliamentary committees of India may not bring to task Facebook and Jio leaders for their partisan approach, but they will not easily escape the Sikh and Punjabi Diaspora which has already placed them under a scanner. In times to come, the heat will catch up and unquestionably will make the social media platforms free and fair.

While you may still be living in your own ivory towers of opinion generated by the Modi media, you will do well to see a section of the Sikh social media, on which a child of 2 years to an octagenarian man or woman refers to you as Modia not Modi. Such is the level of anger, angst and disdain against you, your party and your policies, programmes and philosophies.  This is happening from Ludhiana to London to Lousiana, from Jalandhar to California, from Amritsar to Adelaide and from Delhi to Detroit.  Within the country, Sikhs and Punjabis have come more closer. Friends of Sikh farmers are holding their head high in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gandhinagar.

While you may still be living in your own ivory towers of opinion generated by the Modi media, you will do well to see a section of the Sikh social media, on which a child of 2 years to an octagenarian man or woman refers to you as Modia not Modi. Such is the level of anger, angst and disdain against you, your party and your policies, programmes and philosophies.

You have very little choice.  The writing is not on the walls this time. It is in the fields of men and women who provide us with food to live. May divine wisdom dawn on you and you graciously accept the mistake of enacting the three new farm laws and may you repeal them immediately.  You must put on hold the proposed Electricity Amendment Act, annul the Stubble-burning ordinance and enact a new law to guarantee Minimum Support Price.

Whenever Punjab has marched to Delhi, it has returned back victorious and this time too it is not going to be different.  We are answerable to our conscience, to our fraternity, history and legacy. You must humbly accept the harsh reality of your own creation and face the music.

Mr Prime Minister, if you delay a solution to the farmers’ conflict, you may have to visit Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib more frequently.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh! -Truthfulness belongs to the Lord Almighty, And victory will also belong to Him.  This is the Sikh salutation and so it shall be!

Sincerely

Jagmohan Singh
Editor, The World Sikh News

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