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     Iamim Side Hero Username: Iamim Post Number: 5119 Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 117.195.172.202 Rating: N/A |
Varied roles of Modi confusing Naheed Ataulla, TNN | Jun 28, 2013, 09.32 PM IST BANGALORE: From donning a cowboy hat at an international kite festival to invoking Swami Vivekanada in a political yatra, being likened to Mahatma Gandhi and now claiming to have done a Rambo-like feat of rescuing 15,000 Gujaratis from Uttarakhand makes Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi a man of many incarnations. These avatars skillfully crafted by his PR department may invite derision from his political opponents. But in Karnataka, where branding of politicians has been limited to pre-poll campaigns, the varied roles of prime ministerial aspirant have evoked a mixed response from the party unit here. "What's wrong if Modi is compared with Mahatma Gandhi? It was done as some quality of Gandhi was seen in him. Despite the massive propaganda against him, he's a multi-faceted personality. People see him in the role they want him," BJP state unit president Prahlad Joshi said. But former BJP minister from Bihar CP Thakur's comparing Modi with the Mahatma hasn't gone down well with party MLC Mumtaz Ali Khan who said there's a limit to comparisons. "I respect Modi for development in his state. But that's about all." Former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda said his party is comfortable seeing Modi in these roles. "A CM should go beyond his brief and that's what Modi is doing," he added. A BJP legislator said when Karnataka's infrastructure minister Santosh Lad went to Badrinath to bring back Kannadigas, there's nothing wrong in what Modi did. Brand expert Harish Bijoor pointed out: "The different avatars are not good for Modi. A political person must have a stable, singular image. There should be one word to describe him. A Bheesma avatar or a Kurma avatar are conflicting images. Modi must invest on focusing himself. He cannot mean different things to different people." "In order to gain popular support, Modi has drawn on symbols that are in total opposition with his values. For example, he has said his economic philosophy draws from Mahatma Gandhi. This is absurd. Modi's total support for business interests makes him a far cry from Gandhi's ideal of sarvodaya. He has also tried to hijack the holy figure of Swami Vivekananda. The Swami welcomed religious differences unlike Modi, who has still not apologized to the Muslim victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. In hijacking the symbols of Gandhi and Vivekananda, therefore, Modi shows himself to be unethical. His moral bankruptcy becomes more obvious when he compares himself to a Rambo or wears a cowboy hat. Both Rambo and the cowboy are violent gun-toting figures while Gandhi and Vivekananda are symbols of peace! Modi flirts with them all to gain support from different kinds of people. The shallowness of his vision has to be recognized," Chandan Gowda, professor of sociology, Azim Premji University said. |
