1.A lot of us who support Modi could write at least a chapter if not an entire book on what that has done to our lives. And most of it will be terribly unpleasant. But we still do because we know, or at least, we believe we do, that the narratives created after Gujarat 2002 were
2. malicious. I, at least, never denied that people didn’t die during the riots. Even someone like Smriti Irani asked for Modi’s resignation because she too like millions of others believed the narrative that was spun. That one-sided narrative built around the Gujarat riots is
3. the best answer to people who scoff at the power of media. Just look at how they manufactured story after story that went around the world twice over. It took 2 decades for the Supreme Court to finally call out the lies of Teesta, Rana and the rest. But by then the damage it
4. did was irretrievable. The fact that a lot of people will call even the SC judges a bunch of liars when it comes to Gujarat should give you a good idea of how powerful the narrative the media built is and what it can do when it is misused. It has withstood the test of time
5. and only the work done by Modi has somehow managed to push into a corner. But it’s there. Always ready to be pulled out and flogged. That narrative by itself has probably destroyed more reputations and people than the numbers killed in the riots. My first editor used to say
6. ‘before you put something out in print think carefully about what effect it can have on the guy reading it.”
That is how powerful media can be when (not if) it decides to destroy someone. The fact that 63 others were roasted alive in a train bogey is brushed waved away as a
That is how powerful media can be when (not if) it decides to destroy someone. The fact that 63 others were roasted alive in a train bogey is brushed waved away as a
7. lie. And many people believe it. It’s that narrative again.
But what has supporting Modi done to me? I’ve been shunned by relatives, friends, my son’s friends and so many students I have taught. They probably think I keep a Trishul at home, which I wave around every morning
But what has supporting Modi done to me? I’ve been shunned by relatives, friends, my son’s friends and so many students I have taught. They probably think I keep a Trishul at home, which I wave around every morning
8. before I set out to stick into someone and yell ‘Jai Shri Ram’! Or that I wear a saffron scarf everyday. It might surprise such people to know that even with or without a bandana I don’t say ‘Jai Shri Ram’. I never have. I don’t visit temples, I pray just once, on Diwali day.
9. And that too because of the vibes my wife gives me if I try to wiggle out of it. The vibe would be similar to what Lot’s wife felt before she turned into a pillar of salt for looking back to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as she and her family were fleeing. The
10. funny thing is I know a lot of people who in a private moment have let it slip how they can’t live in areas surrounded by minorities#. I remember a ‘liberal’ who came home and was startled when the azaan started loudly from a mosque behind our place. ‘Doesn’t it bother you?’
11. I said it didn’t. After 12 years I’d got used it. And she called herself a liberal. She wasn’t the only one. There are many who come home and I see that look when the azaan begins. And I’m smirking because I know I’m not the bigot! @Meghna_venture thanks for the inspiration!
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