Author: Ashok Chowgule
Publication: Hindu Vivek Kendra
Date: May 2, 2024
URL:   https://hvk.org/2024/0424/20.html

(Main article, 6 minutes read.)
 
On Sunday, April 21, 2024, an article appeared in a mainstream English publication that seems to have enthused some of the intellectuals amongst the Hindu Right.  They thought that the message that they themselves were actively pushing is finally being consciously heard within the Khan Market Gang.  The essence of the article is:
 
“Many things have changed in India since Narendra Modi first became prime minister. But one change that has gone almost unnoticed is that a process of real decolonisation has transpired. And because of this the old, colonised ruling class has been swept away. This is a very good thing. It should have happened long, long ago. As someone who belonged to that ruling class, I consider myself well qualified to explain why this process of decolonisation was overdue and how we failed India as its ruling class.”
 
Everything in the article has already been written before, not just by the ones who were enthused, but also by a large number of the Hindu Right.  The verbalisation of some amongst the latter may not be to the standards of academia, but they had the truth on their side.  While the anti-Hindu intellectuals could make fun of the idiom, the spelling mistakes, the not so well-formed sentences, etc., they had no answer to the truth that was being expressed.
 
The process of decolonisation has been an integral part of the struggle for independence, since freedom for the Hindus meant not just political but also civilisational.  Those who were the ancestors of what is now called the Khan Market Gang, had little understanding of the civilisational roots of Bharat – in fact, being seeped in the Marxist school, they actually thought that Bharat had no history that would indicate a unity of the nation.  They thought they were the inherits of the colonisers, and not the civilisational heroes that existed over a few millennia.  They have always been deracinated and most of them are in this state even today.
 
The Marxists managed to capture the levers of power that were outside the space of electoral politics.  This enabled them to dispense patronage and promote people who conformed to their political and social ideology.  Or made it known to those receiving the patronage that they were being rewarded for an ideological purity and not high standards of intelligence.  Effectively, the Marxists demanded and received funds from the society to continue the colonisation project.
 
Those with the civilisational roots found support from the people at large, and institutes outside the mainstream came to be created.  These institutes primarily used the Bharatiya languages to spread the knowledge of Bharat and were able to have an audience that was truly national.
 
So, what enthused the few who promoted the article?  The name of the author – Tavleen Singh.  Considered to be a senior, and hence informed journalist, she moved quite comfortably (in social terms) within the various spaces that came to be populated by the Khan Market Gang.  She also claims to be part of the ruling elite, or at least she was.
 
To evaluate to what extent the Hindu Right should be enthused, one should go back to her own writings prior to her epiphany moment that seemed to have happened in a short time prior to April 21.  She is free to change her mind, but it needs a mea culpa, which is an honest introspection and an explanation of her new position, particularly when the change is 180 degrees from before.  If this is done with sincerity, I am sure that everyone in the Hindu Right will embrace her and amplify her writings so that the correct message goes out the people of Bharat and the rest of the world.  Else one will wonder if there is an ulterior motive.
 
I joined the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in 1990 which gave me a deep understanding of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement, and, through it, about Hindutva.  I have followed writings since then.  I found her writings started from a position of deep antipathy towards the civilisation that Hindutva represents.  For example, when the BJP won 85 seats in 1989, primarily on the back of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement, she wrote in a column in India Today complaining that the sants of VHP want to come and occupy the bungalows in Lutyens Delhi.  When I read it, I thought with a wry smile that she thinks that Lutyens Delhi is her jagir!
 
There are many things Singh has written since then that exposed her own deracinated mind.  She has little sympathy for the Kashmiri Hindus, who were cleansed from the Valley in 1990.  She had no qualms about her open association with the Islamic terrorists in the Valley.  See her post from April 2018:
 
Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) posted at 10:31 AM on Fri, Aug 10, 2018:
I often have dinner with Yasmin Malik in Srinagar. Does that make me a Kashmiri militant?
(https://x.com/tavleen_singh/status/1027781868236808192?t=xaUreDKFN4In87xhj37Z_Q&s=03)
 
No, Tavleenji, it makes you far worse, namely you are sympathiser of Islamic terrorism in Bharat.  Flaunting that she dines with a person who killed four members of the Bharatiya Vayu Sena in broad daylight is worse than being cringe-worthy.  And one cannot ignore the active support that the terrorist state of Pakistan has provided to the likes of Yasin Malik and others.
 
In case of the Kargil war, when more than four hundred army personnel gave their lives to evict the terrorist sent by Pakistan, she chose to believe that the then Raksha Mantri, George Fernandes, was involved in a scam in importing coffins used to bring back dead bodies of the martyrs.  Fernandes was the first Raksha Mantri to visit the border areas in Siachen, where the Bharatiya soldiers have to defend the nation in extreme hostile conditions.  Fernandes was the part of the decolonisation project.
 
In May 2019, Singh’s son, wrote a cover story for Time magazine of USA, with a title “India’s Divider in Chief”.  This story goes against the theme of the Singh’s article, where all sorts of negative epitaphs have been hurled at Modi.  I think she did accept the theme of the article when it was published.
 
In one of her very recent writings, she clearly states that the economic development that has happened over the last ten years is nothing to shout about.  Written just seven weeks prior to the one that enthused some in the Hindu right, she ends her article asking: “What point is there in building grand new highways and airports, and aiming to land four Indians on the Moon, if we cannot provide our citizens with their most basic needs?”  (Misplaced priorities or wrong priorities, The Indian Express, March 3, 2024.)
 
Even as she accepts that the problem of people not getting the basic needs is a legacy that Modi inherited, she says that the last ten years were not used properly.  She writes: “We must hope that if he wins a third term he will try harder still and not distract from these priorities by reverting to what has memorably been described as the ‘opium of the masses’.”
 
It would seem that in a span of seven weeks she realises that Modi was not distracted, since she writes: “What is it about ‘autocratic’, ‘dictatorial’ Modi that attracts ordinary Indian voters more? The answer that I got to this question on my recent travels in rural India is that people have seen changes in their lives, and they believe that these changes have happened because of Modi. These are not remarkable changes. They are simple things like roads, drinking water, electricity, and Internet services but because they were not there before, they seem remarkable.”
 
No one from the Hindu Right expects everyone, including from within the group, to agree on everything.  However, when there is a disagreement, expressing the same with logic and data makes for a useful discussion.  In her earlier article takes a swipe at the reconstruction of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi mandir.  The very people who admired Modi for all the things he did to improve their daily material lives, have also admired him for improving their spiritual lives.  Singh has a lot to think about when she does her mea culpa.
 
(Ashok Chowgule is the Vice-President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bharat)
 
 
Annexures;
Text of the two article by Tavleen Singh that were referred to:
 
I met nobody in rural India who saw Modi as corrupt and autocratic
Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 22, 2024
URL:   https://indianexpress.com/article/columns/lok-sabha-elections-decolonisation-narendra-modi-9281723/
 
Many of these things should have happened long ago. But because we were so colonised a ruling class, we did not notice that ordinary Indians were forced to endure the worst public services.
 
Many things have changed in India since Narendra Modi first became prime minister. But one change that has gone almost unnoticed is that a process of real decolonisation has transpired. And because of this the old, colonised ruling class has been swept away. This is a very good thing. It should have happened long, long ago. As someone who belonged to that ruling class, I consider myself well qualified to explain why this process of decolonisation was overdue and how we failed India as its ruling class.
 
The truth is we were an effete, hopeless bunch. We spoke no Indian language well, but this did not matter to us. We were proud of speaking English well. In our drawing rooms we sneered at those who dared enter without speaking good English. And at those whose table manners were not embellished with western refinement. In short, those who fumbled with forks and knives and preferred eating with their hands and without cutlery.
 
When we travelled to foreign lands, we made a good pretense of being Indian, but we never cared to understand what it meant to be Indian. We pretended to know everything about India’s ancient culture and civilisation, but we knew almost nothing. In the schools and colleges we attended, we learned more about western civilisation, history, and literature than about our own, so it was not totally our fault.
 
When it came to politics and elections, we stuck loyally by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and its various heirs because they were people like us. We did not care that Parliament had been turned into a private members club. It was our club. Nor did we care that the Congress Party under Sonia Gandhi’s stewardship had also become a private club. It was our club. In our drawing rooms we talked endlessly of democracy and secularism and saw ourselves as ordained to protect these ideas.
 
Then along came Narendra Modi and the earth shifted beneath our feet. He may not have been personally responsible for everything that changed but he was a vital part of the political change that happened, and this somehow became an essential element of the bigger changes that were happening. Suddenly, almost overnight, after Modi first became prime minister, we became not just powerless but irrelevant. A new breed of Indians who spoke Hindi well and English not at all started replacing us in the high offices of government, as political analysts, and anchors in TV studios, in journalism, in Bollywood movies and TV series. They were not impressed with our skills in English, and we were so impressed by how Indian they were that we tried to emulate them just to belong. Some of us have succeeded, most of us have not.
 
Those who have not but wish to continue being relevant cling these days to Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and hope that somehow, they will be able to defeat Modi. Some act as advisors to the current heirs of the Dynasty and fill their heads with grandiose ideas like saving the Constitution and saving democracy. But the truth is that Rahul Gandhi’s main message remains the same as it was in the last general election. This is that Modi is corrupt and that he works only for a handful of rich Indians. He steals your money, he shrieks at his political rallies, and he gives it to his rich friends. How exactly does this work?
 
As leader of the Congress Party, he is seen, especially by foreign correspondents, as the only man who can defeat Modi. It is bad luck for him that he seems so incapable of convincing Indian voters of this, despite trying hard to prove that he is one of them. He has worked with farmers in rice fields, transported coal on bicycles with miners, listened to the woes of vegetable sellers and spent long hours with mechanics in dingy shops to show how much he cares about the ‘common man.’ So why is the common man not impressed? Could it be because these gestures come across somehow as noblesse oblige and not genuine acts of sympathy?
 
What is it about ‘autocratic’, ‘dictatorial’ Modi that attracts ordinary Indian voters more? The answer that I got to this question on my recent travels in rural India is that people have seen changes in their lives, and they believe that these changes have happened because of Modi. These are not remarkable changes. They are simple things like roads, drinking water, electricity, and Internet services but because they were not there before, they seem remarkable.
 
Many of these things should have happened long ago. But because we were so colonised a ruling class, we did not notice that ordinary Indians were forced to endure the worst public services. In our drawing rooms and in our entitlement, we did not care about such things because in our privileged cocoon it would have been unthinkable to go to a government hospital or a government school. Modi’s advent burst the bubble in which we lived, and the truth is that most of us have no idea why this happened. We continue to hope that he will be defeated this time and hope that the message that democracy is in danger will resonate with voters. When the results come, we are likely to be disappointed again. I met nobody in rural India who saw Modi as corrupt and autocratic.
 
 
Misplaced priorities or wrong priorities
Author: Tavleen Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 3, 2024
URL: 
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/misplaced-priorities-or-wrong-priorities-9192468/
 
What point is there in building grand new highways and airports, and aiming to land four Indians on the Moon, if we cannot provide our citizens with their most basic needs?
 
It was from a two-paragraph story, on an obscure inside page of a newspaper last week, that I learned that only forty-six out of four hundred and eighty-five Indian cities supply citizens with clean drinking water. This is an official figure from a government report. It drew my attention because I am always puzzled about why it is things like the denial of clean water to our citizens that do not become the biggest issues at election time. Why do we in the mighty Indian media think these issues are so inconsequential that we bury this kind of story on inside pages? Why does political wrangling and seat-sharing seem so much more important that they make endless dreary headlines?
 
Clean water is a need so fundamental that in countries that are truly ‘developed’ you can drink the water that comes out of the taps in your home. What has gone wrong with Indian policy-making that we have not yet succeeded in giving our citizens this basic facility? It is not just our poorest citizens who are deprived of clean water. We all are. Those who can afford the filters needed to clean the filthy water that municipalities supply, get them. But for rural Indians and those who live in urban slums, this is a luxury they cannot afford. The result is that more than 5,000 children die in India every day from diarrhea caused by dirty water. Why is this not the biggest issue in the coming general election?
 
By coincidence, it was just after reading that story about how few Indians have access to clean water that I happened to catch a clip of the Prime Minister campaigning in West Bengal. He was greeted by shrill cries of “Modi, Modi, Modi” that went on for so long, he had to stop his speech and smile in gratitude. He said that he must have done many good deeds in past lives to get so much love from the people and that he would not betray their love. He would return it by ‘guaranteeing’ that India would become a developed country someday soon. In fairness to Modi, he has tried harder than any of the Prime Ministers who came before him to make these supposedly small issues into big ones.
 
It is because he drew attention to the horrors of open defecation that the Swachh Bharat campaign began and because of it rural sanitation improved hugely. But he then moved onto new promises and selling new dreams and forgot that our rivers, lakes and other waterways, continue to remain dangerously polluted by raw sewage and poisonous industrial waste.
 
Having just spent a week driving around Sri Lanka, I can report that between Colombo and Anuradhapura, and between there and Kandy, I came across no visible garbage except in one hill town. For the rest, I was amazed by the spotless villages, small towns and bazaars I drove through. And I marveled at how pristine the lakes were and how wonderfully clean the temples were. Sri Lanka is much, much poorer than India. If they can achieve ‘swachhata’, why can we in India not?
 
Other questions came to mind on my travels. Of these, literacy was the most troubling. If Sri Lanka, despite decades of war and political turmoil, can achieve a literacy rate of 92%, why does India lag shamefully at 72%? Reliable NGO surveys report that even this statistic is more mythical than true. When they conduct their own studies, they find that Indian children leave school without ever learning basic mathematics and reading. Our real problem is not unemployment, but unemployability. But again, these are things that our political leaders prefer not to talk about. Their own children never go to government schools. And the children of high officials go only to the best private schools so that they can get admission to the finest American universities.
 
Last week came the happy news that the economy has grown at 8.4% in the last quarter. Modi has ‘guaranteed’ that when he wins a third term, he will ensure that the Indian economy races ahead even faster. And it is true that in a time when the world is in the grip of wars in Europe and the Middle East, it is remarkable that the Indian economy has been insulated from these uncertainties. What worries me when I see the images from Gaza is that the thousands of displaced people living without clean water and basic hygiene are not much worse off than millions of Indians.
 
Something has gone very wrong with our priorities. Not so much in the past ten years but in past decades. In the past ten years, the reality is that there has been improvement in the choice of our priorities. Modi may not have achieved the standards of sanitation and clean water that he set before us, but he has tried. We must hope that if he wins a third term he will try harder still and not distract from these priorities by reverting to what has memorably been described as the ‘opium of the masses’.
 
What point is there in building grand new highways and airports, and aiming to land four Indians on the Moon, if we cannot provide our citizens with their most basic needs? As for us in the media, we should be ashamed for always putting political slugfests above more important things.