Bad ideas

Ab ki baar Modi ki haar!

27 Comments

Yesterday from about 3 pm, nobody could get into Kafila. All we could see was a notice that said WordPress had suspended the blog for ‘violating terms of service’. We wrote immediately to WordPress, who replied that they would get back to us.  No reply from them so far, but Kafila suddenly reappeared at about 9 pm last night.

On a possibly unrelated note, we have all been noticing the mysterious disappearance from cyber space of much anti-Modi content, sometimes even his own previous speeches that do not fit his currently projected persona. Hmm.

Anyway, we’re celebrating Kafila’s return with this rousing anthem, in solidarity with all of us out there – from Mumbai to Banaras to Kudankulam. We’re here, and here we’ll stay. To Pakistan – a friendly reassurance – don’t bother about preparing for the sudden influx of a billion illegal immigrants!

We’ll see the bubble burst. Hum dekhenge.

 

 

Courtesy Bombay ki Kahani, Mumbai ki Zubani

27 thoughts on “Ab ki baar Modi ki haar!”

  1. Thought WordPress will keep troubling for some days , but its good to see the site up and running soon :)

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  3. Let us be A United India. We, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian make India. We are ONE. We understand the divisive forces.

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  4. I did wonder whether it was because of the anti-Modi coverage. Glad it’s back. and yes abki baar Modi ki haar

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  5. It is not my place to do so, but I must caution you that hitting a strident note in your campaign is almost always counterproductive in India. It is almost as if this nation roots for the underdog always. I could give you a dozen examples of that happening in recent history.
    Rajiv Gandhi going into election mode sweeping aside the Bofors scam and considering the rag tag bunch of jokers of the national front as losers. Narasimha Rao’s liberalisation that could not get him reelected. India Shining falling apart as the votes were counted.
    LK Advani single handedly lost the last election with his barb aimed at Manmohan Singh. No one, and not one of us, expected Manmohan Singh to answer that like he did. “I will not be caught shedding crocodile tears when a 500 year old monument….” Trust me, people applauded when he said that, no matter how much they disliked the runt.
    Sushma Swaraj screeching about widowhood status and living off peanuts when Sonia became the likely PM in waiting.
    Shazia Ilmi, smiling smugly on TV, (apologies to my AAP friends here, but I don’t like her very much), sneering at everyone else and then losing an election in Delhi.
    The Left’s empire crumbling apart, with their leaders betting even a day before voting that they were destined to come back to power. (Shamefacedly admit I was one of those too).

    I am willing to wager, that most of the smug faces we see on TV all the while, will certainly not be re-elected this time.
    Arrogance, it seems, is despised by our electorate. Smugness is responded to with a virtual slap.

    My gut feel has always been that NaMo made a huge mistake by launching his campaign too soon. His craftily prepared image and media perception was bound to fall apart the longer he campaigned. Shashi Tharoor answering his “50 crore girlfriend” jibe in a dignified manner found me cheering for a return to sanity. Puppies run over by cars, no apologies necessary, governance as mantra. I know that the people of this country are easily swayed by rhetoric. But a vast majority is also put off by such smug displays.
    So for the opposite side to react in a similar manner would be counter-productive, is my gut feel. Let him burn his own bridges. Let us not try to sabotage those vehicles of his own destruction.
    The campaign must not make us look like we are speaking from the towering heights of Olympus, that we are right, saner than the rest and the ignorants below ought not to be misled.
    Polemics are necessary, they have a place in the debate. But hitting a strident note, will alienate the bakras.
    Immediately, this crafty man will start using it against the rest of us opposed to him. He will shed a few tears about how we are ganging up on him. He is trying to do good to the nation and there are a bunch of idealistic jokers who have no good reason to oppose him like this and are hitting below the belt.
    The RSS, Jan Sangha, has always had leaders who were good speakers. This good speaking business has never served them well, you see. Their clever retorts, often ribald jokes, their punning sarcasm, their inventive word creations, have always come back to bite them on their asses. A lot of people used to attend the Jan Sangha public meetings, applauding their speeches, laughing at the crude jokes, but never resulted in anything substantial at the hustings.
    All this cleverness will be their downfall. This country has better sense than to listen to them and vote for them. A “MaunMohan” Singh probably knows it best. To use the words as weapons only when it becomes absolutely crucial and necessary.
    Rahul Duffer Baba has the same topsy turvy argument going for him as well. A lot of the rural votes would say, he is a simpleton, but he has his heart in the right place, never mind we cannot locate his brains anywhere.
    The Left in Bengal will also have this effect. (There are other reasons too, but the simplest suggestion is that the voters are disillusioned with the goons of TMC as well. But the other main reason would be a split in anti-left votes, still.)
    The more strident the campaign by the right wingers, the happier I am. They will soon see that the voters here detest such things.
    But that should not mean we should oppose that demon in a similar vein.
    One last example, Sonia Gandhi’s maut ka saudagar. This would be slotted in that list of what-not-to-do things. This video is created by well meaning, like-minded, sane people. However, my uneasiness remains. Do forgive me if I am wrong.

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  6. Glad to see Kafila back! I like the spirit of your message. More trouble may come, okay, let us face it. We shall overcome.

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  8. Good to see kafila back…much needed sane voice…And I must share-I am still optimistic…may be a revolution will come….may be democracy will prevail…may be sanity will
    rise..Modi ki haar..baar baar…

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    1. about 60 years back it used to take an old man to threaten death unto fasting for sanity to return. What would it take for sanity to be restored this time? Elections are events , the processes have been unleashed a long time back. Win or lose , the conditions for such majoritarianism still will exist. When capitulation is such an easy chore, who will exercise the vigilance that is the price of liberty .

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  9. The panic (and the conspiracy theories, too) that followed kafila’s inaccessibility for a day — perhaps less than a day — is a testament to how important and precious this space is. More power to you guys.

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  11. Since most of us assembled here are ” preaching to the converted” , and seeking solace in the face of this amazing media – corporate- fascist onslaught, I keep wondering whether such attempts , though important, are enough? After seeing in the past 6 months how the electronic media and cyber space can be manipulated , I am almost glad that the penetration of internet and broadband is still limited in this country. It always won’t be. Just throwing the question- how do we in the current set up devise a strategy to work cohesively to ensure that ideas of sanity and moderation prevail?
    I am sure the majority of people permanently do not respond to the logic of hate but what is the bulwark against fascism even during the shorter interludes of passion?

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    1. The question arises why every five years the nation faces the threat of fascist parties winning over semi-secular parties? Why every five years so many moderate and good practicing Hindus face the threat from theocratic Hindus? Why every five years moderate and practicing Muslims face the threat of their community falling in the shadow of the theocratic Muslims? Why every five years exploitation of religion and caste and big money over the professional and educated class becomes chick and acceptable? Why every five years the nations’ instituions eg media, courts, bureaucracy face the choice of compromising for survival? In every field of work and every community there are so many good and honest people, who are made to feel helpless and forced to compromise for their survival every five years. Our country has progressed so much in knowledge industry, technology, industry, skills, ability to compete with rich and strong nations in the last 30 years. Yet every five years we face a choice between continuing welfare and falling into the abyss of backwardness. Why? Why we collectively face this anxiety storm every five years?

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  13. I can understand the desperation of kafila. Have you guys thought already what you’re gonna write on 17 May? Probably something like ‘the secular force has failed to prevent the communal axis’ or like ‘modi’s pr campaign fetched him the win’. If I were one of kafila’s writers, I would never write ‘modi ki har’ only to console my terrified psyche.

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  15. Indeed it was sad to see the Kafila site hacked yesterday by people who have no tolerance for dissent. BJP’s right winger muscle politicians who proclaim that all dissenters from Modi will be dispatched to Pakistan must understand that they are on the wrong side of India. They should remember how in 1977 the nation rejected the mighty Indira Gandhi, the winner of the 1971 Bangladesh war, when she tried to shut out differing points of view. Then the 2004 India Shining campaign when the sitting BJP govt tried to do a snow job. Today we see a similar effort to foist the dictatorship of Modi who is trying to throw even the senior BJP leaders in the dust bin, so that only he is visible, not to mention throwing the “Shining Gujarat” dust in the eyes of the nation.

    However I agree with Tejasvi that we also should not become shrill to the point that all we have for our adversaries is continual negative rhetoric.

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  18. Very happy to see you back, guys. I was wondering whether this was the first taste of fascism!. More power to you and all the posters here.

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  20. If we are convinced that NaMo is going to lose anyways, so why make such a hue and cry over what will happen if NaMo wins. Why is practically everyone from INC to Sarad Pawar to TMC to Left fighting on a stop Modi platform?

    Regards

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  22. It’s very brave of the blog administrators to be running a blog with copious anti-fascist content in times such as these where you can buy a coffee mug embossed with the face of a pm-to-be from flipkart.Talk of the dignity of the PMO.
    When you say “hum dekhenge”, I’m not sure whether to praise your bravery of or call it foolish bravado. One can be almost sure that if the Hitlerite fascist Modi comes to power then he is going to come after his detractors with all guns blazing. And we know how scorching was the vengeance of Hitler or that of the capitalists in Indonesia. As far as I am concerned I hope to find myself a hidey hole at the earliest and if I keep my trap shut I hope I should be ok. The fact that I also happen to be an upper caste brahmin hindu male should also help to keep my boat afloat.

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    1. Refreshingly honest :)
      Bravery or bravado is not some special quality of people. Every time there has been an assault on human liberty, freedom or democracy, ordinary people have stood up to the might of tanks, machine guns, lathis, tear gas and more. You are right that there will be a clampdown if at all this Hitler comes to power. Vinay, you are being modest. Even you would certainly stand up in case there is a battle for survival. It might seem foolish to protest against overwhelming odds, or to face fascism head-on. But, believe me, if and when the time comes, you shall be there on the streets too.
      I leave you with the words of Martin Niemoller:
      ” First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.
      Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
      Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.
      Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”

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