A day after the Pahalgam attack, Narendra Modi was in Bihar, campaigning, inaugurating, delivering speeches dripping with promises of retribution. All while skipping the all-party meeting in Delhi to discuss the incident. Of course, it’s not as if it mattered: the J&K parties with actual grassroots presence in the valley (JKNC, JKAP, and JKPDP) weren’t invited anyway. Why? Because they don’t have five MPs in Parliament. That’s the threshold for national concern, apparently.
But Modi? He’s back on the trail. Because obviously, campaigning to get elected to govern is more important than, you know, actual governance.
No wonder people like Trump admire him. He’s perfected the dark art of being untouchable. His followers will find a justification for anything: silence, absence, cruelty, callousness. He is, I say this with due weight (and a boatload of cringe), the only man after Mahatma Gandhi to truly grasp the soul of India.
It’s just that the Mahatma used this knowledge (that gave him power over people) to free the very same people, while Modi chooses to enslave them.
Abraham Lincoln once said,
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
The Mahatma’s character was apparent. As is Modi’s.
But the tragedy isn’t what he’s done with that power. That merely confirms his humanity.
The tragedy is that millions can see it. And still consider him divine.
