NaMo's elder brother is apparently a staunch secularist

by Guest Sat Nov 18, 2017 12:11 pm

Ahmedabad: The BJP, it is being alleged, has reaped an ill wind in poll-bound Gujarat. But all kinds of political wind - fair and foul - stop at the gates of the old-age home that Somabhai Modi, the eldest brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, runs and resides in in Vadnagar.

The setting is tranquil, seemingly distant from the heated, acerbic political exchanges that are taking place elsewhere in the state.

Perhaps this is why Somabhai insists that he has not spotted anything unusual about this election, even though there is speculation that Gujarat is in ferment over impending political change.

Somabhai - as he is affectionately called - has declined to canvass for the BJP this time owing to poor health. But he readily agreed to be interviewed. There is one condition though. Politics, he insisted, would have to be kept out of the discussion.

But it is difficult not to talk of politics in a state that is witnessing an uncharacteristic political churning even as the elections - the first phase of which will take place on December 9 - draw near.

Somabhai steers the conversation towards politics, but of an older, gentler kind.

"I am disappointed with the kind of politics that we witness today. Caste politics is ruining India. Elections will come and go but the atmosphere should remain peaceful," says the elderly man. He draws comparisons with the first general election in Independent India that was "a time of great hope", in his words.

"Politicians and the media are responsible for the degeneration that is now visible in politics." The media are singled out for censure, as, in Somabhai's view, the institution is responsible for feeding the people with ample doses of cynicism.

Next Somabhai, perhaps not so unwittingly, borrows a phrase made famous by his brother. "If you people (journalists) play the role of the watchman, people would stick to the right path."

Seemingly, the cure for India's political afflictions are not far to seek. Somabhai posits his faith in a document on which rest the pillars of Indian democracy.

"The Constitution is a holy document, bigger than the Gita or the Bible," he says, and then goes on to add - perhaps tempering the BJP's dream of a Congress -mukt Bharat - that "a strong Opposition is necessary" in democratic politics. He also endorses the idea of the people's sovereign rights enthusiastically. "The people have the right to decide what they will eat."

Somabhai, who insists that he likes being known as the elder brother of Narendra Modi and not the prime minister's kin, is sceptical about the NOTA provision. The emphasis, he argues, should be on the casting of votes, especially those of young voters, in honour of the spirit of universal adult franchise. Sixty-five per cent of Gujarat's 43.2 million voters are under 35 years of age.

History, unsurprisingly, interests Somabhai. Not to be twisted but as a great leveller. In a deft - and the only specifically political - thrust in the course of the interview, he reveals the irony of the ongoing Patidar agitation in Gujarat by saying that in 1985, during the anti-Anamat Andolan, the Patels had agitated against reservation whereas now, under the leadership of Hardik Patel, the community is demanding just the opposite.

This Modi may not be in politics. But, as is evident from Somabhai's clever repartee, one cannot take politics out of a Modi.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/a-modi-who-backs-right-to-choice-of-food-186389