There is a clear-cut choice this time. Narendra Modi wants to go fast-forward to build the nation and its economy. Rahul Gandhi wants continuity, of the failed but remarkably serviceable Socialist narrative

Even as political parties take to the rally circuits demonising their opposition, we need to be proud of this  robust campaigning and electoral process. We have conducted it better: from mega phones and rickshaws, wall posters and TV advertisements, talk shows, on-the-stump harangues, the internet and cellphone, through low-tech and high-tech, over jungle and stream, ballot-box to EVM; than any other country.

It is a superb no-holds-barred venting of the national spirit that can only be subverted by the violence that silences. That is why electoral violence, the threat of sudden death that our politicians risk when they attend and address public meetings, is possibly the unkindest cut of all.

And to use such violence, or permit it to happen by default, as a political tool, is truly despicable in its subversion. Is this what happened in the ‘Hunkar Rally’ at Patna where Mr Narendra Modi addressed lakhs of people recentlyIJ

If the Indian Mujahideen and its ilk thrives in India, it does so with the patronage of forces both within and without this country. Being soft on such terrorism is not at all a good turn done to millions of law abiding and patriotic Indian Muslims.

It is this sinister and primitive stratagem of the politics of assassination, engineered riot, stampede, etc. that can stifle our vibrant democracy. In Pakistan, where ‘non-state actors’ are pampered and maintained by the state, several politicians have been silenced. It has become such a Frankenstein that no one is safe. The Pakistani Taliban and others are quite willing to bite the hand that feeds and even dictate terms today.

The politics of assassination has taken its toll in gun-happy America too. It kills Presidents, but school children, rock stars, people in congregations and gas stations too, because even though they say a fish rots from the head down, it actually does so from the gut outwards.

We have done it too, killing in political vengeance, in riots and pogroms, and almost without protest in this highly populous country. We have also killed two members, perhaps three, of the ruling Gandhi family. And we have martyred Mahatma Gandhi. And many far less exalted.

Mr Rahul Gandhi is not wrong when he thinks he might be a target too. It would be a pity in the extreme to silence this harmless young man. He is, after all, clueless about the needs of the country despite his political lineage and years in politics. This threatening of political lives also tends to have the opposite effect from the one intended. This, and the muzzling of the ‘otherwise opinionated’ that we have only seen here during the Emergency.

The one truth, therefore, that we tend to take for granted, is the level of freedom of opinion and expression, of conscience, we enjoy in this country. We must be proud of the purple prose of our editorials and the hectoring tone of our TV anchors for this reason alone. We must appreciate the lively debate between invited speakers on our talk shows even though the Indian way is to speak all at once and freely interrupt each other! 

let alone the hyper-sensitive regimes and structures of most of the neo-colonial and ‘emerging’ world, the West is, even today, far from tolerant, and nowhere near as free. They are devotees of order and the homogenised opinion, one dominant ethnicity, one dominant religion, one set of beliefs, a single narrative. Free thinkers are fringe operators,regarded as ‘weird’ and barely tolerated. Minorities are ‘exotic’ and urged to merge with the mainstream. Racism is rampant. Quite often all the ‘rainbow’ people are subjected to violence and worse.

Wikileaks exposes’ and President Barack Obama’s phone-tapping of his European allies and countless Americans are just cases in point of the paranoia that rules the idea of Western security. America is capable of being just as sinister as anything the pathologically aggressive ISI can dream up. This despite also being ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’.

When, in great metropolises such as london, Paris or New York, diversity is allowed its play without murderous reaction from opposing forces, it is cited is as a mark of civilisation and is celebrated. But Western civilisation has to remind itself to be tolerant. It does not come naturally to a people with crusades, which are just jihads by another name, in their genetic memory.

And yet, in venal, corrupt, age-old India, we can, and mostly do say whatever we want. Hinduism preaches it. So does Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc along with non-violence, even Indian strains of Sufi influenced Islam say the same thing, as does an Indianised Christianity. We know how to embrace diversity. It runs in our genes.

The British, affected by their Indian exposure, did have us locked up in political prisons, but not that many at that. The Mughals had their enemies murdered, but mostly the rivals to power from their own families and those in territories they conquered.

We, even in the formation towards a nation state, have never indulged in massive genocide, ethnic-cleansing, or the bloodbaths of religious war, except at Partition. This country is essentially peaceful, god-fearing and blessed. Many the world over realise it. We who are born here tend to think nothing of it. But we do nevertheless benefit from it despite increasing lawlessness of late.

The Soviets and the Chinese have murdered their own citizens in their tens of millions for being misfits, mildly critical or rabid dissidents, with almost no distinction made between minor and major affront.

They say the best predictor of future human behaviour is past behaviour. let us hope then that we vote for peaceful change to Modi Raj rather than a maintaining of the status quo out of habit or risk aversion.

What will we get if Congress comes back either at the head or at the tail-end of a coalitionIJ

We will certainly get more povertarian politics! There will be no justice brought to all the masses of corruption perpetrated over the last few years. ‘RaGa’ will continue to rule from the wings in tandem with his mother. ‘Dynasty’  will become a non-issue just like the ‘foreigner’ issue before it. Populism will be applied with a passion. Business and industry, GIP, infrastructure, security, diplomacy, reform, progress, practically everything else will languish. ‘Accountability’ and ‘Performance’ won’t matter .

There is a clear-cut choice this time. Mr Modi wants to go fast-forward to build the nation and its economy. Mr Gandhi wants continuity, of the failed but remarkably serviceable Socialist narrative. What is it that the people of India wantIJ