by a Thinker, Sailor, Blogger, Irreverent Guy from Madras

Has PM Narendra Modi lost the plot


A popular legend is that when Rome burned in 64 CE, its Emperor Nero was playing a fiddle.  Almost 2000 years later, people question whether the self-styled Hero of Hindustan, the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is fiddling with Selfie when India is churning.

The legend of the decadent Nero playing a fiddle is totally untrue.  The simple reason is the instrument ‘fiddle’ was not invented almost a 1000 years after his death.  But no such defence can cover the current PM Narendra Modi.  For one, the proclivity of the high and mighty (and even of some not so mighty) are regularly archived for posterity in the digital age.

Thus, every media savvy person in India is well aware that the PM Narendra Modi wore a totally obnoxious pinstripe suit with his own name embroidered 10,000 times or more when President Obama visited India.  Even people who are not so media savvy are aware by now about the alleged (and in some cases, shamelessly admitted) scams involving:
  • two senior ministers of his own cabinet – Sushma Swaraj, Smiriti Irani;
  • two senior Chief Ministers of his own BJP party – Shivraj Chauhan, Vasudhara Raje; and,
  • two ministers in Maharashtra of his own party – Pankaja Munde, Vinod Tawde.
Though the first of the scandals broke almost 2 weeks back, and the last one became known only yesterday, there has not been a peep or a tweet from the Prime Minister Modi or his office. 

Yet, a couple of days ago, the same Narendra Modi created an internet rage, by asking people to post their picture with their daughter with the Twitter hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter.  Though the intention behind the campaign had good intentions – to highlight the importance of girl child – the potential for abuse of those images has been conveniently overlooked.

Today, the PM is all set to launch his next pet project – Digital India – by inaugurating a video conference with / between two village panchayats near Indore, Madhya Pradesh.  Incidentally it is the same state wherein the ruling BJP is embroiled in a massive admission and recruitment scam (Vyapam Scam), and where around 33 persons, accused of involvement in the scam, mostly aged between 25 to 40 have died under suspicious circumstances.

All the while, the national opposition has questioned the absolute silence maintained by the PM on the questions raised.  On the one hand, it is true that we should not expect a PM to reply to every question raised to him, as he has better things to do.

But Four or Five scandals, a couple of which read like a Mitch Rapp novel full of intrigue, back-scratching, and high level conspiracies, does need clarifications from the man, who self-styled himself as the Hero of Hindustan.  Else history will document him as a vainglorious meddler who tweeted about selfies while his home was churning.




(original cartoon by Chris Riddell of Gordon Brown of 22/03/2009 modified for Modi and animated GIF by yours truly)

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