Yudhistra is still relevant on Modi issue!

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>[bJP News] Yudhistra is still relevant on Modi issue!

>Wed, 23 Mar 2005 06:59:43 -0800

>

>Yudhistra is still relevant on Modi issue!

>by S Gurumurthy

>

>Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been denied visa by the Bush

>administration. He had been invited by the Asian-American Hotel Owners

>Association. Had the US permitted his visit, it would have gone

>unnoticed.

>

>The US could have quietly allowed Modi to spend a few days in a more

>tolerable climate. Instead it chose to deny diplomatic visa to Modi.

>

>They even cancelled the normal visa, which had already been granted to

>Modi some seven years ago. They did it so resoundingly that it hardly

>seemed a simple visa denial. Why?

>

>To know the truth we have to go behind the facade of religious freedom

>issues the US has raised. The US supports and takes the support of

>jihadi regimes the world over. So the issue of religious freedom as

>the reason to keep Modi out is a lie.

>

>Obviously, the Bush administration has used the Modi visa issue to

>convey a message to global Islamists. The geo-political think tanks of

>the US thought, thanks to Modi, that they got a chance to tell the

>Islamic world how even-handed they are. Look at it from the US

>perspective.

>

>They are engaged in a war with Islam itself, not just Islamic

>terrorism. They are under pressure to show that they are not against

>Islam or Muslims. Here they got a golden opportunity to humiliate

>Modi-who is projected as anti-Muslim to demonstrate that they are

>friends of Islam too.

>

>"See how we are treating an elected Chief Minister of a State of India

>whose population is more than the population of many nations in

>Europe."

>

>"Believe us, we are sensitive to Islamic world" - this is their

>message to the Islamists. This is the American version of

>pseudo-secularism. So denial of visa to Modi is part of American

>geo-politics. That is why they wanted it done, and they did, in the

>most celebrated way, dragged it till the last moment and made it an

>issue.

>

>But why did the US choose to risk a scrap with the Indian Government?

>This is perhaps where they miscalculated. They never expected the

>split Indian polity to come together on the issue. They never

>anticipated the 'secular' Indian Government to join the protest, much

>less lead it.

>

>They did not provide for the unified Indian reaction, with the State

>of India leading the protest, against the US action. They had enough

>reasons to believe it will not happen. The secular Indian polity had

>made Modi a symbol of hate. It suited secular India's political needs

>to blacken Modi. So he became the Indian version of Hitler, the Hindu

>version of Islamic terror.

>

>Spotlight: Godhra-Chilling stories of the victims

>So the US was perhaps right in expecting that the Hindu polity in

>India would be isolated, that there would be a 'Secular'-Hindu clash

>in India on the issue. But that did not happen, even accounting for

>the marginally different views of the CPM (Communist Party of India)

>and the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal).

>

>So, by standing together, the Indian polity has stood up to an attempt

>to humiliate India. It has surprised the US. Indian polity has

>demonstrated total unity on this issue, something which we have seen

>only in times of war. So the US is in a fix. It cannot hang on to its

>decision without causing a setback in its relations with India. It

>cannot change it without a setback to its geo-political message to the

>Islamic world.

>

>As of now, the US is the loser and Modi the gainer. In the process,

>the US has put Modi on the global map.

>

>But look at the impact of the Modi visa issue on the Indian polity and

>its working norms. For the first time the Indian polity has followed

>the dictum of Yudhistra in Mahabharata. The story goes that the

>Gandharvas defeated the Kauravas and arrested Duryodana and all his 99

>brothers who had planned to humiliate the Pandavas living in the

>forest. Bhima and Arjuna were extremely pleased at Kauravas'

>humiliation.

>

>But Yudhistra chided them and told them, 'vayam panchadikam shatam' -

>meaning, when difficulty comes, we are not five and they are not

>hundred, but "we are five plus hundred" and asked them to get the

>Kauravas released. This was despite all the harm that Kauravas had

>caused to the Pandavas.

>

>One might dismiss his as the ethical norm of Dwapara Yuga inapplicable

>to the dark age of Kali Yuga. But one great man, who inspired many

>leaders of India like Vajpayee, Advani and even Modi, dared to give

>the same advice to Indian polity. He was M S Golwalkar, the man who

>built the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) into a powerful

>organisation.

>

>A well-known Indian political leader, who was on a visit to the UK,

>chose to criticise the then Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru on

>foreign soil. It was common knowledge that Nehru had visceral hatred

>for the RSS and

>Golwalkar.

>

>Yet Golwalkar quoted Yudhistra and said that outside our nation,

>despite all our differences, "we are all one" and condemned the

>criticism of our Prime Minister outside India.

>

>He cited how Winston Churchill owned the British Prime Minister Atlee

>as 'Our Prime Minister' on US soil despite their well-known mutual

>hostility. This is how national spirit works beyond borders.

>

>The moral is: Yudhistra is relevant even in today's global politics.

>It is difficult to follow great men. But it is even more difficult to

>ignore them. The Indian polity can be proud today for acting as

>counselled by Yudhistra.

>

>

>

>

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