Indian Political Corner | All Updates & Discussions.
- Thread starter Hyde
- Start date
jha
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2009
- Messages
- 10,962
- Reaction score
- -8
- Country
- Location
We Didn't Start The Fire ke copyrights bekar gaye
Yeh election to start hai. Inka itna bara kunba hai ki bahut jaldi ghar mein toot start hogi. waise bhi next election yeh jeetne wale nahin hain. Agla assembly election interesting hoga.
ranjeet
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Messages
- 18,311
- Reaction score
- -59
- Country
- Location
did you saw that clip of his where he graphically describes how muslim women undressed themselves for him to show what modi did to them.wait for the next SP manifesto .. all these women's right groups will banned & instead there will be rapist's right organizations!
JanjaWeed
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 9,772
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
what?
JanjaWeed
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 9,772
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
true! too much electoral power to one state. No wonder common people are suffering due to the arrogance of their leaders. there needs to be further three way partition of UP.
arp2041
BANNED
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2012
- Messages
- 10,406
- Reaction score
- -9
- Country
- Location
JanjaWeed
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2010
- Messages
- 9,772
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
Shahjaday needs to be there in the first place. Wo bunk marne mai number one hai. & Now that Modi is going to be the leader of the ruling party.., Shahjada will go on sick leave for the whole term!
ranjeet
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Messages
- 18,311
- Reaction score
- -59
- Country
- Location
Such demented politicians mustn't be allowed or tolerated no longer. They grab on to their vote bank and wish to play king or queen maker in the center. UP is not India, why should people in other state suffer a bad govt in center due to such leaders. No offence.
'One very interesting thing happened when I was going around Vadnagar. One lady was there, doing some domestic work. The people who were taking me around introduced me, saying I was writing a book on Narendrabhai. So she said warmly, 'Oh, come to my house.'
She said she also knew him well, that her son and Narendrabhai were in the same class and were very good friends. She told me how Narendra would come for all their family functions. Every marriage and every family occasion, he would be there. In short, she said she knows him much more because he was a good friend of her son.'
'Yes, she was a Muslim.'
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt unearths some never revealed before details of Narendra Modi's early life. Read on!
The concluding part of Sheela Bhatt's exclusive interview with Dr Kalindi Randeri, co-author of The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi, presenting never known before details of Narendra Modi's marriage to Jashodaben 46 years ago.
Why did he marry her? Why did he walk out of it?
Read it all only on Rediff.com, in this interview with Modi's co-biographer.
Why did you and Mr Kamath decide to write a book on Narendra Modi?
Neither Mr Kamath nor I knew Modi as such. But one day, the publishers, who were quite young, came to Mr Kamath and said they would like to publish a book, they have approached Mr Modi, and he is ready to cooperate.
In fact, the publisher had approached Modi before meeting us. Modi inquired about the author. They said they haven't decided yet. Mr Modi told them, 'Bring 10 names to me and I'll select' -- in the sense, if he likes any of them. So they took 10 names to him and he selected Mr Kamath's name. He showed his readiness to cooperate with Mr Kamath.
When the publishers met Mr Kamath he agreed, but he said he would like to consult me.
Mr Kamath said he wouldn't like to write the book alone because it involves many things that as a colleague I was competent to help him with.
We had only heard about Modi, we did not know him. He had become CM in 2001 and in 2002 the riots happened. The English media was bombarding Modi then, Mr Kamath and I felt that this was something going really wrong.
We always felt the people were not getting the right picture. So, when we got this opportunity to write the book on him with his cooperation, we thought fine, now we will have an opportunity to personally look into these matters and can write what we feel.
In 2002 and after, our instinct was that Modi was not doing anything wrong and he can't be made responsible. That is how we came into the picture.
Did you meet Modi to write this book?
Yes, at that time we met him often. In fact, initially, we had three proper interviews with him, Mr Kamath and I met him for two, three hours at a stretch and we discussed many things with him. Subsequently, I met many people around him.
Also, if I needed any supplementary information, I used to meet him since I have family in Ahmedabad and I had to also visit Ahmedabad to do research in the archives there. During all that time I used to meet him alone, without Mr Kamath.
What was your first impression of Modi?
We were extremely impressed. In our very first encounter, Mr Kamath said, 'Mr Modi, if you think this book is going to be all praise of you, then let's end it right here. We will drink coffee and leave.'
'Mr Kamath,' Modi said, 'don't I know you and your reputation? You are free to write whatever you want.'
In one interaction Mr Kamath asked Modi, 'Do you hate Muslims?' 'Let me ask you, are you a Hindu?' Modi asked. Mr Kamath said, 'Yes.' 'Were you ever brought up as a Hindu to hate Muslims?' Modi asked.
He asked me this, too. When we replied in the negative, Modi said, 'The same is the case with me. Why should I hate them? I have nothing against them.'
Then, we started talking about his childhood and the chronology of events in his life and all that.
Did you visit Vadnagar, his hometown?
Yes. I went to meet Rasikbhai, specially because he was one of Modi's oldest influences. We went around, and I specially wanted to see the house in which Modi lived.
Modi's family no longer lives in that house; in fact, his family is no longer in Vadnagar, they moved out and somebody else stays in that house. But still, I went to see it.
My god, it is made of tin-sheets! It is like a row of rooms, it has only one door, that is all there is to see in Modi's house.
When you enter there is one room, then there is the second room which is the kitchen, and then there is the third room which is like a storeroom. It is completely dark inside his home.
They had built a first floor with bamboo-like material with a tin roof which would get hot in summer.
Earlier, when they were staying there, there was no toilet. But now you see a little corner to drain out the water in the front room, which they had covered with curtains. The women used to take a bath over there. But all members of the family had to go out in the open or to the field to answer nature's call.
Narendrabhai always went to a nearby lake for his bath. That was the kind of life in his early years. Now, his house in Vadnagar has an Indian-style toilet just outside the house where you carry water whenever you want to use it.
He went to a government primary school till the fourth standard. Then he went to a private secondary school -- only one high school was there, where everybody went and so did Narendrabhai.
In Vadnagar?
Yes, in Vadnagar. I met his teachers at the school. He was always considered a good student, not brilliant. He never came first or anything like that, but was an intelligent student.
He had lots of interests. He was reading all the time and active. He used to read a lot at the Vadnagar library which still stands. He read almost all kinds of books and magazines.
At a very young age he brought a book of seven hundred pages on Shivaji and read that. He was known as a voracious reader.
He was always willing to help others. Everyday, after school, he would go to help his father at the tea stall near the railway station. But in between, if there was any political or social activity coming up, he would attend it.
Later, he joined the shakha when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh arrived in the village. He attended it because all the children, his friends and everybody, were attending the shakha. In the evening, due to the shakha, the villagers got something to do. There also, he would prove that he was different.
I met Dwarkadasji, the person who was looking after the Congress party in Vadnagar. Even though he was a part of the RSS, he remembered whenever there was a Congress function Narendrabhai would come as a volunteer with his friends. Because, his idea was always to help people without any discrimination.
When he was five or six years old he went to Dwarkadasji and asked, 'Can I sell badges?' He told Dwarkadasji, 'You give me, I will sell it to the people.'
Congress badges?
Yes. He extended help to the Congress or any other event in the town. Even though he was so young, he was active. In his early years he made an application to join the military school. He was very keen to go there because he wanted to serve the country. But his father put his foot down, so he could not go to military school.
Right from the beginning he wanted to do something for the country, for the people.
Modi's school compound wall was broken at many places. It badly needed repairs, needed to be reconstructed, but there was no money. So, he told his friends, 'Come, let's raise the money.'
He staged a play. Narendrabhai wrote the play, acted in it, directed it, he did everything -- it was a one-man, one-act play. The name of the play was Peelu Phool --the yellow flower.
The whole theme was based on untouchability. In the play a woman was in need of one yellow flower for her sick child, but because she was an untouchable she couldn't enter the temple.
People in Vadnagar, his friends, still remember how well written and well acted the play was. At that time he was hardly 13, 14 years old, but he had shown all this talent.
Once there was floods in Surat. He told his friends, 'Let us collect funds for Surtis.' So at Janmashtami Narendrabhai and his friends got together, cooked the food, sold it, made a lot of money and contributed it to the flood victims.
What about his higher education?
There was no college in Vadnagar, so like all his friends, Narendrabhai migrated to Visnagar and joined college, but only for a few months.
Why?
Because he was not interested in sansar. He wanted to become a sadhu.
Really?
Yeah. During his childhood also, he showed signs that he would remain detached from worldly things. If any sadhu would come to town he would go to help.
Once a sadhu was staying in a mandir at the end of the street where he was living. He had grown jwara (wheatgrass) all over his body and so needed help with food and all. Narendrabhai would go there in the morning and help him.
Once the family was going somewhere for some festival, and he said he won't join them because he has committed himself to the service of this sadhu.
Anyway, if you visit his village, lots of neighbours will tell you stories about how Narendrabhai was not interested in material life, I mean sansar.
But why?
As I said, from the beginning, he wanted to serve society. That was his inclination.
But, then, he was not clear what can he do. He thought at least he can become a sadhu.
When he was about 13 or 14 a sadhu had come to their house for food, like they used to go door to door in the early decades of the last century. His mother gave him food.
Then the sadhu said, do you have the kundli (horoscope) of any of your children? Heeraben (Modi's mother) showed Narendrabhai's kundli to the sadhu. He said this man would be either like a chakravarty maharaj (emperor) or he will be like Shankracharya, a big sadhu.
Modi's poor family could never imagine that he would be a shahenshah or a chakravarty.
So they thought he would become a sadhu?
Yeah. He was already showing such an inclination. Everyday Narendra would do jaap (chanting of mantras), meditation. He would meditate for hours. So the family got very very worried, decided to take control of his life and get him married.
The family got together, found a bride for him, Jashodaben, image, left, took him to her village and got him married, then quickly brought him back.
Narendrabhai insisted that he didn't want to (marry). His elder brother was also married at a young age, so nobody listened to Narendrabhai.
That was the tradition in his family, like elsewhere in India some 50 years back. Nobody thought it was being done differently or awkwardly.
Then?
After marriage, Narendrabhai passed the matriculation exam and he was old enough. So the family said they would like to get the bride home (from her parents' house).
Narendrabhai said he was not interested. They said how can that be possible? He kept refusing. He told his mother, 'I want to go to the Himalayas. I want to become a sadhu, so you don't call her.'
It took some time and lots of effort on his part to convince his parents. He told his mother, 'Unless you give me your blessings I won't go either. But I am also very sure that I don't want to start sansar.'
Finally, his family gave him their nod to walk out of the marriage that they had forced upon the young boy.
His mother gave her permission because she thought he was really not inclined to start life like ordinary sansaris. He wanted to devote himself to the service of others.
Whether he would do it as a social worker or sadhu, he didn't know. But he had heard that Swami Vivekananda had gone to the Himalayas for some time. And he was a big bhakt of Vivekananda by that time and had read everything possible about him.
There was a resident in Vadnagar who had a big library of books on Vivekananda and he had read them all.
We have written about it in our book. Narendrabhai would borrow from him to get all he wanted to know about Vivekananda. The monk was truly his idol, so Narendrabhai left Vadnagar to go to the Himalayas.
But he first went to the Ramakrishna Mission in Rajkot. But there also they would not keep him for long so he went to the Belur Math (in Bengal). But there, to become a full-time member, they needed certain education.
Narendrabhai was not a graduate. From Kolkata, he left for the Himalayas.
Where in the Himalayas?
To different places...
What did he do there?
He would roam around with sadhus. He would eat whatever the sadhus would eat. He would discuss with them philosophy or whatever he wanted to. Essentially, he was in search of purpose. He said he was searching for the truth.
What was this life all about? He was too young to even realise. He was not tutored to become a sadhu. He was on his own, searching for meaning in his life.
In fact, with one of the sadhus he stayed for a longer time, but after two years he was disappointed that what he was looking for, he did not get. Maybe because he did not know what he was looking for.
So why did he come back to sansar?
Because he realised something after he met so many sadhus. He understood that after becoming a sadhu you do not serve people all the time. And param satyani shodh (the search for the ultimate truth) that he was after, he could not see in the lives of many sadhus he had met. He didn't see that they had achieved it or attained param satya.
He was not satisfied with spending his time thus. He said no, I don't think being a sadhu is going to satisfy my life. So he came back.
To start his marriage?
No, not at all. He came back home to Vadnagar after wandering in the Himalayas. His mother was home when he gave her a surprise. She was very very happy.
He told her, 'I have come only for a day, the next day I will be leaving for Ahmedabad to stay with my mama (maternal uncle).'
By that time, the family had reconciled that he doesn't want to lead a married life. In fact, they had already informed the girl that you please feel free, we are very sorry. They said we were extremely sorry for the girl, but he was so adamant about it.
As a matter of fact, Sheela, when I met Heeraben, she told me with tears in her eyes, 'This was a huge mistake of my life. His father, too, till he died, regretted very much that we forced the marriage upon Narendra.'
So, he did not come back from the Himalayas to start his married life. But he knew he had to earn his living, so he went away to the city. He came to Ahmedabad because his uncle was running a canteen there.
Near the Geeta Mandir area?
Yes, Narendrabhai agreed to work there. While working there and helping his uncle, he couldn't draw a salary. But he could manage a living.
He used to go, in the evenings, for RSS discourses. Then slowly a point came when he got closer to the senior workers of the RSS headquarters in Gujarat. Around the age of 19 or so, this was his life.
One very interesting thing happened when I was going around Vadnagar. There are two neighbourhoods near his old house. One lady was there, doing some domestic work.
Naturally, in a village they get curious about who the visitor is. The people who were taking me around introduced me saying that I was writing a book on Narendrabhai. So she said, warmly, 'Oh, come, come to my house.'
She said she also know him well. She said her son and Narendrabhai were in the same class and were very good friends. She told me how Narendra would come for all their family functions. Every marriage and every family occasion, he would be there.
In short, she said she knows him much more because he was a good friend of her son. So, you see, this also indicates...
Was she a Muslim?
Yes, a Muslim.
Then there was another friend, he had two Muslim friends.
While writing this book I once had a common meeting with 28, 29 friends of Narendrabhai. I met all his school friends in Ahmedabad who had come for some function. I had a group meeting with them, and when I met his other friends, his classmates, they all said when they were growing up, there was nothing like 'Hindu-Muslim' in Vadnagar.
They had all been brought up in such a harmonious setting. It was such a quiet town. There was always harmony. And they said they never thought of who was Muslim and who was Hindu, they always mixed with each other.
So that is Narendrabhai's background. In the RSS also he said they were never told anything against Muslims.
Interestingly, we asked him about Mahatma Gandhi. He said I did not know much about Mahatma Gandhi. No one in the RSS also talked much about him. He said he knew about him as much as any Indian child of his age would know.
He said he used to read magazines, whatever came in his way. The RSS was neutral in projecting Mahatma Gandhi.
When you interviewed him, did you think he would become a prime ministerial candidate one day?
This reminds me of your first question, what we thought of him.
See, after the first interview, he was so cordial all along. He would come up to the gate to see off me and Mr Kamath.
Once, Mr Kamath told me, 'See Kalindi, I have interviewed prime ministers, presidents, princes, anybody you name, business tycoons, all over the world. But, I really don't know what to make out of this man.'
'Is he a good actor, or is he really so genuine?'
She said she also knew him well, that her son and Narendrabhai were in the same class and were very good friends. She told me how Narendra would come for all their family functions. Every marriage and every family occasion, he would be there. In short, she said she knows him much more because he was a good friend of her son.'
'Yes, she was a Muslim.'
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt unearths some never revealed before details of Narendra Modi's early life. Read on!
The concluding part of Sheela Bhatt's exclusive interview with Dr Kalindi Randeri, co-author of The Man of the Moment: Narendra Modi, presenting never known before details of Narendra Modi's marriage to Jashodaben 46 years ago.
Why did he marry her? Why did he walk out of it?
Read it all only on Rediff.com, in this interview with Modi's co-biographer.
Why did you and Mr Kamath decide to write a book on Narendra Modi?
Neither Mr Kamath nor I knew Modi as such. But one day, the publishers, who were quite young, came to Mr Kamath and said they would like to publish a book, they have approached Mr Modi, and he is ready to cooperate.
In fact, the publisher had approached Modi before meeting us. Modi inquired about the author. They said they haven't decided yet. Mr Modi told them, 'Bring 10 names to me and I'll select' -- in the sense, if he likes any of them. So they took 10 names to him and he selected Mr Kamath's name. He showed his readiness to cooperate with Mr Kamath.
When the publishers met Mr Kamath he agreed, but he said he would like to consult me.
Mr Kamath said he wouldn't like to write the book alone because it involves many things that as a colleague I was competent to help him with.
We had only heard about Modi, we did not know him. He had become CM in 2001 and in 2002 the riots happened. The English media was bombarding Modi then, Mr Kamath and I felt that this was something going really wrong.
We always felt the people were not getting the right picture. So, when we got this opportunity to write the book on him with his cooperation, we thought fine, now we will have an opportunity to personally look into these matters and can write what we feel.
In 2002 and after, our instinct was that Modi was not doing anything wrong and he can't be made responsible. That is how we came into the picture.
Did you meet Modi to write this book?
Yes, at that time we met him often. In fact, initially, we had three proper interviews with him, Mr Kamath and I met him for two, three hours at a stretch and we discussed many things with him. Subsequently, I met many people around him.
Also, if I needed any supplementary information, I used to meet him since I have family in Ahmedabad and I had to also visit Ahmedabad to do research in the archives there. During all that time I used to meet him alone, without Mr Kamath.
What was your first impression of Modi?
We were extremely impressed. In our very first encounter, Mr Kamath said, 'Mr Modi, if you think this book is going to be all praise of you, then let's end it right here. We will drink coffee and leave.'
'Mr Kamath,' Modi said, 'don't I know you and your reputation? You are free to write whatever you want.'
In one interaction Mr Kamath asked Modi, 'Do you hate Muslims?' 'Let me ask you, are you a Hindu?' Modi asked. Mr Kamath said, 'Yes.' 'Were you ever brought up as a Hindu to hate Muslims?' Modi asked.
He asked me this, too. When we replied in the negative, Modi said, 'The same is the case with me. Why should I hate them? I have nothing against them.'
Then, we started talking about his childhood and the chronology of events in his life and all that.
Did you visit Vadnagar, his hometown?
Yes. I went to meet Rasikbhai, specially because he was one of Modi's oldest influences. We went around, and I specially wanted to see the house in which Modi lived.
Modi's family no longer lives in that house; in fact, his family is no longer in Vadnagar, they moved out and somebody else stays in that house. But still, I went to see it.
My god, it is made of tin-sheets! It is like a row of rooms, it has only one door, that is all there is to see in Modi's house.
When you enter there is one room, then there is the second room which is the kitchen, and then there is the third room which is like a storeroom. It is completely dark inside his home.
They had built a first floor with bamboo-like material with a tin roof which would get hot in summer.
Earlier, when they were staying there, there was no toilet. But now you see a little corner to drain out the water in the front room, which they had covered with curtains. The women used to take a bath over there. But all members of the family had to go out in the open or to the field to answer nature's call.
Narendrabhai always went to a nearby lake for his bath. That was the kind of life in his early years. Now, his house in Vadnagar has an Indian-style toilet just outside the house where you carry water whenever you want to use it.
He went to a government primary school till the fourth standard. Then he went to a private secondary school -- only one high school was there, where everybody went and so did Narendrabhai.
In Vadnagar?
Yes, in Vadnagar. I met his teachers at the school. He was always considered a good student, not brilliant. He never came first or anything like that, but was an intelligent student.
He had lots of interests. He was reading all the time and active. He used to read a lot at the Vadnagar library which still stands. He read almost all kinds of books and magazines.
At a very young age he brought a book of seven hundred pages on Shivaji and read that. He was known as a voracious reader.
He was always willing to help others. Everyday, after school, he would go to help his father at the tea stall near the railway station. But in between, if there was any political or social activity coming up, he would attend it.
Later, he joined the shakha when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh arrived in the village. He attended it because all the children, his friends and everybody, were attending the shakha. In the evening, due to the shakha, the villagers got something to do. There also, he would prove that he was different.
I met Dwarkadasji, the person who was looking after the Congress party in Vadnagar. Even though he was a part of the RSS, he remembered whenever there was a Congress function Narendrabhai would come as a volunteer with his friends. Because, his idea was always to help people without any discrimination.
When he was five or six years old he went to Dwarkadasji and asked, 'Can I sell badges?' He told Dwarkadasji, 'You give me, I will sell it to the people.'
Congress badges?
Yes. He extended help to the Congress or any other event in the town. Even though he was so young, he was active. In his early years he made an application to join the military school. He was very keen to go there because he wanted to serve the country. But his father put his foot down, so he could not go to military school.
Right from the beginning he wanted to do something for the country, for the people.
Modi's school compound wall was broken at many places. It badly needed repairs, needed to be reconstructed, but there was no money. So, he told his friends, 'Come, let's raise the money.'
He staged a play. Narendrabhai wrote the play, acted in it, directed it, he did everything -- it was a one-man, one-act play. The name of the play was Peelu Phool --the yellow flower.
The whole theme was based on untouchability. In the play a woman was in need of one yellow flower for her sick child, but because she was an untouchable she couldn't enter the temple.
People in Vadnagar, his friends, still remember how well written and well acted the play was. At that time he was hardly 13, 14 years old, but he had shown all this talent.
Once there was floods in Surat. He told his friends, 'Let us collect funds for Surtis.' So at Janmashtami Narendrabhai and his friends got together, cooked the food, sold it, made a lot of money and contributed it to the flood victims.
What about his higher education?
There was no college in Vadnagar, so like all his friends, Narendrabhai migrated to Visnagar and joined college, but only for a few months.
Why?
Because he was not interested in sansar. He wanted to become a sadhu.
Really?
Yeah. During his childhood also, he showed signs that he would remain detached from worldly things. If any sadhu would come to town he would go to help.
Once a sadhu was staying in a mandir at the end of the street where he was living. He had grown jwara (wheatgrass) all over his body and so needed help with food and all. Narendrabhai would go there in the morning and help him.
Once the family was going somewhere for some festival, and he said he won't join them because he has committed himself to the service of this sadhu.
Anyway, if you visit his village, lots of neighbours will tell you stories about how Narendrabhai was not interested in material life, I mean sansar.
But why?
As I said, from the beginning, he wanted to serve society. That was his inclination.
But, then, he was not clear what can he do. He thought at least he can become a sadhu.
When he was about 13 or 14 a sadhu had come to their house for food, like they used to go door to door in the early decades of the last century. His mother gave him food.
Then the sadhu said, do you have the kundli (horoscope) of any of your children? Heeraben (Modi's mother) showed Narendrabhai's kundli to the sadhu. He said this man would be either like a chakravarty maharaj (emperor) or he will be like Shankracharya, a big sadhu.
Modi's poor family could never imagine that he would be a shahenshah or a chakravarty.
So they thought he would become a sadhu?
Yeah. He was already showing such an inclination. Everyday Narendra would do jaap (chanting of mantras), meditation. He would meditate for hours. So the family got very very worried, decided to take control of his life and get him married.
The family got together, found a bride for him, Jashodaben, image, left, took him to her village and got him married, then quickly brought him back.
Narendrabhai insisted that he didn't want to (marry). His elder brother was also married at a young age, so nobody listened to Narendrabhai.
That was the tradition in his family, like elsewhere in India some 50 years back. Nobody thought it was being done differently or awkwardly.
Then?
After marriage, Narendrabhai passed the matriculation exam and he was old enough. So the family said they would like to get the bride home (from her parents' house).
Narendrabhai said he was not interested. They said how can that be possible? He kept refusing. He told his mother, 'I want to go to the Himalayas. I want to become a sadhu, so you don't call her.'
It took some time and lots of effort on his part to convince his parents. He told his mother, 'Unless you give me your blessings I won't go either. But I am also very sure that I don't want to start sansar.'
Finally, his family gave him their nod to walk out of the marriage that they had forced upon the young boy.
His mother gave her permission because she thought he was really not inclined to start life like ordinary sansaris. He wanted to devote himself to the service of others.
Whether he would do it as a social worker or sadhu, he didn't know. But he had heard that Swami Vivekananda had gone to the Himalayas for some time. And he was a big bhakt of Vivekananda by that time and had read everything possible about him.
There was a resident in Vadnagar who had a big library of books on Vivekananda and he had read them all.
We have written about it in our book. Narendrabhai would borrow from him to get all he wanted to know about Vivekananda. The monk was truly his idol, so Narendrabhai left Vadnagar to go to the Himalayas.
But he first went to the Ramakrishna Mission in Rajkot. But there also they would not keep him for long so he went to the Belur Math (in Bengal). But there, to become a full-time member, they needed certain education.
Narendrabhai was not a graduate. From Kolkata, he left for the Himalayas.
Where in the Himalayas?
To different places...
What did he do there?
He would roam around with sadhus. He would eat whatever the sadhus would eat. He would discuss with them philosophy or whatever he wanted to. Essentially, he was in search of purpose. He said he was searching for the truth.
What was this life all about? He was too young to even realise. He was not tutored to become a sadhu. He was on his own, searching for meaning in his life.
In fact, with one of the sadhus he stayed for a longer time, but after two years he was disappointed that what he was looking for, he did not get. Maybe because he did not know what he was looking for.
So why did he come back to sansar?
Because he realised something after he met so many sadhus. He understood that after becoming a sadhu you do not serve people all the time. And param satyani shodh (the search for the ultimate truth) that he was after, he could not see in the lives of many sadhus he had met. He didn't see that they had achieved it or attained param satya.
He was not satisfied with spending his time thus. He said no, I don't think being a sadhu is going to satisfy my life. So he came back.
To start his marriage?
No, not at all. He came back home to Vadnagar after wandering in the Himalayas. His mother was home when he gave her a surprise. She was very very happy.
He told her, 'I have come only for a day, the next day I will be leaving for Ahmedabad to stay with my mama (maternal uncle).'
By that time, the family had reconciled that he doesn't want to lead a married life. In fact, they had already informed the girl that you please feel free, we are very sorry. They said we were extremely sorry for the girl, but he was so adamant about it.
As a matter of fact, Sheela, when I met Heeraben, she told me with tears in her eyes, 'This was a huge mistake of my life. His father, too, till he died, regretted very much that we forced the marriage upon Narendra.'
So, he did not come back from the Himalayas to start his married life. But he knew he had to earn his living, so he went away to the city. He came to Ahmedabad because his uncle was running a canteen there.
Near the Geeta Mandir area?
Yes, Narendrabhai agreed to work there. While working there and helping his uncle, he couldn't draw a salary. But he could manage a living.
He used to go, in the evenings, for RSS discourses. Then slowly a point came when he got closer to the senior workers of the RSS headquarters in Gujarat. Around the age of 19 or so, this was his life.
One very interesting thing happened when I was going around Vadnagar. There are two neighbourhoods near his old house. One lady was there, doing some domestic work.
Naturally, in a village they get curious about who the visitor is. The people who were taking me around introduced me saying that I was writing a book on Narendrabhai. So she said, warmly, 'Oh, come, come to my house.'
She said she also know him well. She said her son and Narendrabhai were in the same class and were very good friends. She told me how Narendra would come for all their family functions. Every marriage and every family occasion, he would be there.
In short, she said she knows him much more because he was a good friend of her son. So, you see, this also indicates...
Was she a Muslim?
Yes, a Muslim.
Then there was another friend, he had two Muslim friends.
While writing this book I once had a common meeting with 28, 29 friends of Narendrabhai. I met all his school friends in Ahmedabad who had come for some function. I had a group meeting with them, and when I met his other friends, his classmates, they all said when they were growing up, there was nothing like 'Hindu-Muslim' in Vadnagar.
They had all been brought up in such a harmonious setting. It was such a quiet town. There was always harmony. And they said they never thought of who was Muslim and who was Hindu, they always mixed with each other.
So that is Narendrabhai's background. In the RSS also he said they were never told anything against Muslims.
Interestingly, we asked him about Mahatma Gandhi. He said I did not know much about Mahatma Gandhi. No one in the RSS also talked much about him. He said he knew about him as much as any Indian child of his age would know.
He said he used to read magazines, whatever came in his way. The RSS was neutral in projecting Mahatma Gandhi.
When you interviewed him, did you think he would become a prime ministerial candidate one day?
This reminds me of your first question, what we thought of him.
See, after the first interview, he was so cordial all along. He would come up to the gate to see off me and Mr Kamath.
Once, Mr Kamath told me, 'See Kalindi, I have interviewed prime ministers, presidents, princes, anybody you name, business tycoons, all over the world. But, I really don't know what to make out of this man.'
'Is he a good actor, or is he really so genuine?'
PURNEA: It's true. People of this Pakistan want Narendra Modi to become prime minister of India.
More than 250 residents, including over 100 voters of a village called "Pakistan" in Bihar's Purnea district, are set to vote for the BJP to help Modi to fulfil his dream.
"We want Narendra Modi to become PM," said Hira Hembrum, a middle aged villager. Hembrum's view was supported by most of the villagers who are living in abject poverty and without basic amenities.
Pakistan is the name of a village in Singhiya panchayat, Srinagar block, about 30 km from Purnea town, the district headquarters.
"People in Pakistan are keen to vote for BJP to see Modi as PM," Haldu Murmu, another villager of Pakistan in Purnea, about 350 km from the state capital," was quoted as saying in local media.
What is interesting is that there is not one Muslim family in the village, which comprises mostly Santhal tribal households. There also is not one mosque in this Pakistan.
Murmu said they want to vote Modi to counter neighbouring country Pakistan's bid to disrupt peace.
"Only Modi can do it," he said.
Purnea goes to polls April 24.
According to a police official, government documents record the name of the village as Pakistan.
So how did the village get its name?
Elders in the village recall that the village was named soon after India's partition in 1947.
"Many Muslims who earlier lived here chose to leave for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), when the country was partitioned. We decided then that the village could be named in their memory," one elderly villager said.
Pakistan village is poor and illiterate. The literacy rate in Purnea district is just 31.51 per cent. There is hardly a literate person in Pakistan village, where proper roads, a school or a hospital is hard to come by.
However, anti-Pakistan sentiment dominate the village.
Murmu recalled that after 26/11, when 166 people were killed by Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai, the villagers had even considered changing the name of their village.
"When Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death two years ago, villagers celebrated by distributing sweets, singing folk songs and dancing," Murmu said.
In 2012, chief minister Nitish Kumar informed a visiting Pakistani delegation that there was a village named after their country in the state. The surprised delegates told Nitish Kumar that they had never heard of the village.
The chief minister showed the map of Pakistan village to the Pakistani delegates and explained that when all the Muslims of the village, then in Islampur district of Bengal, had migrated to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the villagers left behind decided to name a village in memory of those who left.
Prior to the the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, Purnea too was part of Islampur, which now lies in the state of West Bengal.
The Muslims who left the village for East Pakistan had handed over their property to Hindus in neighbouring areas.
A Pakistan where people want Modi as PM - The Times of India
More than 250 residents, including over 100 voters of a village called "Pakistan" in Bihar's Purnea district, are set to vote for the BJP to help Modi to fulfil his dream.
"We want Narendra Modi to become PM," said Hira Hembrum, a middle aged villager. Hembrum's view was supported by most of the villagers who are living in abject poverty and without basic amenities.
Pakistan is the name of a village in Singhiya panchayat, Srinagar block, about 30 km from Purnea town, the district headquarters.
"People in Pakistan are keen to vote for BJP to see Modi as PM," Haldu Murmu, another villager of Pakistan in Purnea, about 350 km from the state capital," was quoted as saying in local media.
What is interesting is that there is not one Muslim family in the village, which comprises mostly Santhal tribal households. There also is not one mosque in this Pakistan.
Murmu said they want to vote Modi to counter neighbouring country Pakistan's bid to disrupt peace.
"Only Modi can do it," he said.
Purnea goes to polls April 24.
According to a police official, government documents record the name of the village as Pakistan.
So how did the village get its name?
Elders in the village recall that the village was named soon after India's partition in 1947.
"Many Muslims who earlier lived here chose to leave for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), when the country was partitioned. We decided then that the village could be named in their memory," one elderly villager said.
Pakistan village is poor and illiterate. The literacy rate in Purnea district is just 31.51 per cent. There is hardly a literate person in Pakistan village, where proper roads, a school or a hospital is hard to come by.
However, anti-Pakistan sentiment dominate the village.
Murmu recalled that after 26/11, when 166 people were killed by Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai, the villagers had even considered changing the name of their village.
"When Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death two years ago, villagers celebrated by distributing sweets, singing folk songs and dancing," Murmu said.
In 2012, chief minister Nitish Kumar informed a visiting Pakistani delegation that there was a village named after their country in the state. The surprised delegates told Nitish Kumar that they had never heard of the village.
The chief minister showed the map of Pakistan village to the Pakistani delegates and explained that when all the Muslims of the village, then in Islampur district of Bengal, had migrated to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the villagers left behind decided to name a village in memory of those who left.
Prior to the the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, Purnea too was part of Islampur, which now lies in the state of West Bengal.
The Muslims who left the village for East Pakistan had handed over their property to Hindus in neighbouring areas.
A Pakistan where people want Modi as PM - The Times of India
fsayed
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2013
- Messages
- 2,606
- Reaction score
- -2
- Country
- Location
Winnowing fact from rhetoric: A look at what figures tell of UPA's regime
15 Apr, 2014, 0435 hrs ISTIn spite of the sordid history of corruption all parties share, one leader cannot solve a systemic problem by the Midas touch of “governance”.
By Maitreesh Ghatak
There is a narrative that the UPA's rule at the Centre led to an economic disaster, especially in the second term. In contrast, Gujarat has prospered, thanks to Narendra Modi's good governance. We have several problems with this.
First, through UPA's first term and about halfway into its second, many economic indicators critics like to harp on were much better than those during the NDA days. This is true of growth, stock prices, fiscal deficit, public debt, FDI inflows, poverty reduction and so on. Even recent figures look bad, not in comparison with the six years of NDA, but the first eight years of UPA.
Second, it is true that Gujarat has grown faster than India in the last decade, but that was the case already in the 1990s, well before Modi. In spite of ranking high among the states in growth, Gujarat figures in the middle of the pack on most social indicators. In fact, it has slipped further in rankings during the Modi years. Trickle-down hasn't worked in Gujarat, nor have government efforts to translate growth into development.
Damned Lies and Statistics
Too many commentators have drawn strong conclusions from cherry-picked data and shifting arguments. One strange argument, made by Swaminathan Aiyar, goes like this. Voters don't look at a government's average performance over its tenure, only the recent record, but look up growth in 2003-04 and 2008-09, though.
Maybe, but so what? An analyst's job is to present his own assessment, not parrot voter sentiment. If UPA gets re-elected in 2014 — unlikely, but polls have been wrong before — we don't think he will turn around and start praising UPA's brilliant economic management.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
The criteria for judging performance is another shifting goalpost. Performance depends on both skill and luck. What is important is that you apply consistent standards. If UPA benefited from a booming world economy in its first term, why isn't the global slump responsible for the poor growth of late?
If UPA's eight year-long run of high growth is due to what NDA did before them, shouldn't Modi pass on credit to Keshubhai Patel? After all, Modi barely managed to increase Gujarat's growth lead over India compared to the previous decade, but UPA increased India's growth lead over the world from NDA's 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent — a full percentage point gain.
If only the last two years of UPA matter, why does one hear about the Gujarat "miracle" of the last decade? Yet another tactic is to shift constantly between policy-based arguments and result-based arguments. You can assess a government on its policies or governance, but people often disagree on what are the best policies or how to measure governance, so this debate tends to run into a dead end.
The UPA's critics raised the chorus: let us look at results, because proof of the pudding is in the eating. Look at Gujarat's high growth, look at the deficits, inflation and growth slowdown that we face at the national level. When evidence is produced that the records of the two national parties do not support their story, the pundits want to slip back into a discussion on policy and governance instead of results.
Most critics of the UPA come from a camp that believes in market reforms: deregulation, privatisation and a more liberal business climate. They say the Congress' socialist baggage and expensive welfare schemes have hurt growth. The answer, it seems, lies in Modinomics, whatever that is.
A party running on a development platform has failed to bring out its manifesto till the eve of the general elections. If you look at its 2009 manifesto, economic policy makes its first real appearance on page 17, in a 49-page document. Does this show a commitment to economic issues?
Swadeshi Money is Enough
Modi has thundered against FDI in retail in his speeches, and one of the first things the Vasundhara Raje government did was to keep Wal-Mart out of Rajasthan. Is it any wonder that yearly FDI inflows during UPA-II were nine times what they were under NDA? The problem with partisan drones is that they turn serious issues into a competition of vice and virtue.
But contrary to what the drones will tell you, UPA did not neglect infrastructure. It increased infrastructure spending from 5 per cent of GDP to nearly 8 per cent, largely by allowing the entry of private capital into mining, roads, power and so on. This helped growth, but this is also where the big scams originate. So, desirable and undesirable outcomes can be interrelated — some measures that boost growth also tend to increase corruption, unless institutional checks are in place.
The lesson not to draw is that in spite of the sordid history of corruption all parties share, one leader will solve a systemic problem by the Midas touch of "governance". The country has many problems, but a personality cult shorn of actual ideas will not solve any of them.
(The writer is with the London School of Economics. Co-authored with Parikshit Ghosh, Delhi School of Economics, and Ashok Kotwal, University of British Columbia
Winnowing fact from rhetoric: A look at what figures tell of UPA's regime - The Economic Times on Mobile
15 Apr, 2014, 0435 hrs ISTIn spite of the sordid history of corruption all parties share, one leader cannot solve a systemic problem by the Midas touch of “governance”.
By Maitreesh Ghatak
There is a narrative that the UPA's rule at the Centre led to an economic disaster, especially in the second term. In contrast, Gujarat has prospered, thanks to Narendra Modi's good governance. We have several problems with this.
First, through UPA's first term and about halfway into its second, many economic indicators critics like to harp on were much better than those during the NDA days. This is true of growth, stock prices, fiscal deficit, public debt, FDI inflows, poverty reduction and so on. Even recent figures look bad, not in comparison with the six years of NDA, but the first eight years of UPA.
Second, it is true that Gujarat has grown faster than India in the last decade, but that was the case already in the 1990s, well before Modi. In spite of ranking high among the states in growth, Gujarat figures in the middle of the pack on most social indicators. In fact, it has slipped further in rankings during the Modi years. Trickle-down hasn't worked in Gujarat, nor have government efforts to translate growth into development.
Damned Lies and Statistics
Too many commentators have drawn strong conclusions from cherry-picked data and shifting arguments. One strange argument, made by Swaminathan Aiyar, goes like this. Voters don't look at a government's average performance over its tenure, only the recent record, but look up growth in 2003-04 and 2008-09, though.
Maybe, but so what? An analyst's job is to present his own assessment, not parrot voter sentiment. If UPA gets re-elected in 2014 — unlikely, but polls have been wrong before — we don't think he will turn around and start praising UPA's brilliant economic management.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
The criteria for judging performance is another shifting goalpost. Performance depends on both skill and luck. What is important is that you apply consistent standards. If UPA benefited from a booming world economy in its first term, why isn't the global slump responsible for the poor growth of late?
If UPA's eight year-long run of high growth is due to what NDA did before them, shouldn't Modi pass on credit to Keshubhai Patel? After all, Modi barely managed to increase Gujarat's growth lead over India compared to the previous decade, but UPA increased India's growth lead over the world from NDA's 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent — a full percentage point gain.
If only the last two years of UPA matter, why does one hear about the Gujarat "miracle" of the last decade? Yet another tactic is to shift constantly between policy-based arguments and result-based arguments. You can assess a government on its policies or governance, but people often disagree on what are the best policies or how to measure governance, so this debate tends to run into a dead end.
The UPA's critics raised the chorus: let us look at results, because proof of the pudding is in the eating. Look at Gujarat's high growth, look at the deficits, inflation and growth slowdown that we face at the national level. When evidence is produced that the records of the two national parties do not support their story, the pundits want to slip back into a discussion on policy and governance instead of results.
Most critics of the UPA come from a camp that believes in market reforms: deregulation, privatisation and a more liberal business climate. They say the Congress' socialist baggage and expensive welfare schemes have hurt growth. The answer, it seems, lies in Modinomics, whatever that is.
A party running on a development platform has failed to bring out its manifesto till the eve of the general elections. If you look at its 2009 manifesto, economic policy makes its first real appearance on page 17, in a 49-page document. Does this show a commitment to economic issues?
Swadeshi Money is Enough
Modi has thundered against FDI in retail in his speeches, and one of the first things the Vasundhara Raje government did was to keep Wal-Mart out of Rajasthan. Is it any wonder that yearly FDI inflows during UPA-II were nine times what they were under NDA? The problem with partisan drones is that they turn serious issues into a competition of vice and virtue.
But contrary to what the drones will tell you, UPA did not neglect infrastructure. It increased infrastructure spending from 5 per cent of GDP to nearly 8 per cent, largely by allowing the entry of private capital into mining, roads, power and so on. This helped growth, but this is also where the big scams originate. So, desirable and undesirable outcomes can be interrelated — some measures that boost growth also tend to increase corruption, unless institutional checks are in place.
The lesson not to draw is that in spite of the sordid history of corruption all parties share, one leader will solve a systemic problem by the Midas touch of "governance". The country has many problems, but a personality cult shorn of actual ideas will not solve any of them.
(The writer is with the London School of Economics. Co-authored with Parikshit Ghosh, Delhi School of Economics, and Ashok Kotwal, University of British Columbia
Winnowing fact from rhetoric: A look at what figures tell of UPA's regime - The Economic Times on Mobile
Similar threads
