Modiji's Birthday

 Rarely do I regret missing entertainment events. Yes, though, I am indeed unhappy about my inability to go watch the drone show on the S. P. College ground this evening. It would get over at 9 p. m. Impossible it would then be to get any vehicle back home. Hopefully, somebody or the other, sooner or later, would upload it in some form or the other. Then would I get to see it. 

This mix of the drone technology and entertainment uses the very sky as the canvas to draw paintings truly lit up.  The Pune version of this unique art is to celebrate Modiji's seventy-fifth birthday. Seventy-five! The Amrit Kal, to use his very own terminology, is unique indeed! 

What are my feelings about this event? Is that your question? Well, first and foremost, I would like to congratulate Modiji on this occasion, especially because he is absolutely fit and fine at this age! He walks it up zanily, climbs up and down podiums, gives hour-long speeches, and without even a single sign visible of being tired or drained out. Remarkable fitness indeed!

 Remember his cave yoga at Kedarnath? At Kedarnath, I have seen with my own eyes people in their early thirties grasp for breath! And here was Modiji performing Pranayama at a still higher altitude! Absolutely praiseworthy is his physical and psychological maintenance!

As someone committed to academics, I would, moreover,  like to admit that it was  Modiji and his win in 2014 that ushered in the very possibility of an alternative vision. I remember, in the mid 1990's, I was viscerally attacked for saying that Kashmiri Pandits, too,  need an empathetic hearing as they, too, suffered a kind of genocide. As a young scholar, I was anyways 'other-ed', especially because of my Brahmin descent. 

Now Vivek "Agnihotri" is opening up on the celluloid all sorts of files. A JNU profe like Dr. Anand Ranganathan can have his  adversarial say literally daily on the national television. J. Sai Deepak can critically investigate decoloniality. Dr.  Meenakshi Jain, Amish, Dr. Vikram Sampath,  Ami Ganatra of the IIM, Ahmedabad, Dr. Nilesh Oak, brilliant scholars all, and many, many more are celebrating the Indic awareness, not to forget committed youtubers like Sachin Patil.

 There are any number of other youtubers, political commentators, the Jaipur dialogues, our very own Bhau Torsekar, Prabhakar Suryavanshi,  Sushil Kulkarni, and countless others who can comfortably posit an alternative viewpoint. You need not agree with them totally. Yet you would have to grant that their narrative, too, deserves a hearing. I would objectively like to state that this openness, such vista/vision, this clarity appear available/accessible only after Modiji's 2014 win. 

I appreciate Modiji for yet another reason. He seems ready to listen to wise counsel. He appears open to worthy suggestions. Look at his cabinet, for instance. Many amongst them are highly educated technocrats, career bureaucrats who are (proven) excellent in their given/respective fields.

Dr. S. Jay Shankar, Dr. Ashwini Vaishnav, our very own Chief Minister, to quote a few examples, Modiji seems to be supporting the right candidates, instead of "cutting them to size" because they are 'too big for their boots'! Why, the Congress stalwart, scholar/author, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, was the Chief of the committee that explained Operation Sindoor to the whole world, while it was Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh who daily reported it to indians. 

He seems to be empowering the poor as well, what with the gas, electricity, solar power, housing kind of daily lived necessities. Well, I am not in a big way in to power politics and its nitty-gritty, nor do I pay much attention to the daily politicking and bickerings. Sure, some of his positions, too, could be debated, though in a healthy way. Yet, I would absolutely frankly, openly state that I am the last person on this earth to hate for the sake of hatred, to criticise for the sake of carping, to always attack blindly with vicious vitriolic partiality.

Here is wishing Modiji a very happy seventy-fifth birthday. Let us hope that India will continue its lead in a humane, equal, just way!

Pratima@As for women empowerment, can be quoted any number of positivities such as the Talaq decision at the level of theory/ideology, while there are drone didi's at the ground/practical level, right? 

May be, I, too, would now be attacked as "andh bhakt". I do not care at all because such mischief-mongers forget that most blindly do they follow certain leaders, whatever filthy trash may be spouted out ideologically, practically or "tactics"-wise because such leaders have gotten them, that is, all these kind of people, the right positions, and what not. 

I sure do not "boast" of any such convenient advantages being doled out to me by/from Modiji!!! 

In other words, my comments,  as an honest, committed citizen, are as impartial as can be, without any tidbits of power, position, monetary gains being thrown my way!