First of all, I condemn the wife Jokes in India, which are usually derogatory
towards women. That is the kind of humor
we don’t need to burden our next generation with. You can call me whatever you
want, but in the public spaces, where I am, I will stop you from saying those
jokes.
Here is a debate about Narendra Modi, the Prime ministerial candidate making a
statement, "50 Crore ki girl friend Dekhi hai” - have you seen a $5Million
dollar girl friend? Referring to Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunananda Pushkar, Shashi’s
response was apt, “She is priceless! “Instead of saying, what does this man
know about women? It’s like asking
someone to describe the smell of the roses, whose nostril is desensitized.
Somewhere in the discussion, someone suggests, “All it takes for Modi is to
apologize for the statement or clarify what he meant by it” and it will be over.
Some else jumped and said, “apologize, he never will”.
That took me back to
think if there is a pattern. When the lower court in Ahmadabad rejected the Petition
of Zakia Jafri, against Modi’s involvement in the Gujarat Massacre, someone had
suggested, “If Modi has any respect for human dignity, as a head of the state, he
would go and console that Octogenarian Zakia Jafri, that he will make sure,
justice will be served to her, even if it were against him?” Someonelese jumped and said, “ Modi may dum
nahin” – Modi does not have the guts to do such a bold thing.
I was looking at the 7 points I had advocated for Modi to consider – to be
humble, to do the praischit and move forward. I was told that he will not do
that.
What will he do then? How will he handle mistakes if he were the Prime
Minister?
Most of you may watch
the Indian soaps; the story is repeated daily, “The husband screams at wife,
what have I not given you – wealth, car, house, servant, designer clothes,
dining in the finest restaurants….what do you want”. Rarely do they show the response, a woman
wants nothing more than respect and dignity.
The development is a wholesome plank, not economic development at the cost of
respect and dignity to the millions of Gujaratis out there.
If you have not watched
the following video by NDTV, it is worth watching. There is another revelation;
the “right wing people” will never see another point of view. In the video, Mr. Modi
is represented by Mr. Rao, who simply cannot see the facts.
Between 3:00 to 27:00
Minutes on the tape
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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a
writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work
place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers
pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in
Standing up for others
and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on
national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on
Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to
the Texas Faith Column at Dallas
Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and
several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work
through many links.
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