From ‘Support NGO activities’ to ‘Beware of Compassion’….on to ‘Protect your Tradition’
Now imagine she also reads about the US Government trying to sell ‘Compassion‘ to India under the garb of NGO charity. Many Indians may therefore find a ‘right wing’ party like the BJP more palatable. These citizens may actually be eager that India retains some and more of its ‘ancient Indian-ness’ in the face of missionary onslaught. The maid’s communication about her own (and family’s) conversion may be a bolt from the blue. It need not impact the Lady of the House’s behaviour with the maid per se. But it has become a catalyst for a person to decide which way to lean politically. Whether a left winger or a centrist earlier, she clearly swings right of centre.
The Rise of the BJP
Cool Chilli has always wished to be centrist. Though there could be a natural tendency to be slightly right of centre. Growing up in the hey days of the Congress under Mrs Indira Gandhi, one always wished to see some difference in the way India behaved and was seen politically.
But a major gap in India’s democratic landscape was the absence of a coherent and capable opposition. The BJP from the later years of the 20th Century, started to fill the gap. Its bait for the electoral base was primarily the reconstruction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. (Thankfully Mr Modi has chosen a far more inclusivist ‘development’ plank.)
No fresh blood/ thinking please…We are The Indian National Coterie
Around the time of the BJP’s rise, the Congress had lost Rajiv Gandhi. It was dependent on non-dynastic, capable leaders like PV Narasimha Rao. Mr Manmohan Singh is generally credited with the 1991 opening up of the Indian economy, though it was Mr Rao’s backing that actually enabled Mr Singh to do what he did. Had the Congress been able to support the likes of Rao and other capable leaders, it would not have come to this pass. The ‘first family’ engineered a kind of ‘coup’ with the help of its coterie of sycophants to get the Congress to where it is now. Just short of political obsolescence. One is tempted to say ‘Good Riddance.’
