Beena Samuel, I suppose she is an aam Hindustani like me. She writes at the NDTV website about Anna Hazare's disapproval of Narendra Modi as PM:
Anna Hazare has been reduced to a tragic figure. I respect him as a saintly person who led one of India's major revolutions in the last 25 years. But he is unable to be pragmatic and shows no political acumen. Leaders evolve over a period of time. Whether Modi is the perfect leader is not the question — but Modi's still the best we have amongst the current crop of political leaders. Do we select our best or do we just sit and elect nobody?
Liked by 218, disliked by 102; Dislike percentage: 31.8
I reply to Beena Samuel with the following post at the NDTV website:
Not long ago, the middle class had identified itself with Anna Hazare's movement for the Lok Pal Bill. In fact, today if the social media is so much active against the UPA government, it's due to Anna's first 'anshan' at Delhi's Ram Lila Maidan two years ago. But today for this middle class Anna like Amartya Sen has no value if he dares question Modi's credentials to be PM. By the way, has anybody heard the Gujarat 'strongman' say how would he add more teeth to the Lok Pall Bill if elected PM? Wasn't the Lok Pal Bill an issue close to our hearts few months ago?
Liked by 42, disliked by 9; Dislike percentage: 17.6
So, the Netizen dislike percentage for me (17.6) is less than the dislike percentage of Beena Samuel (31.8). Please don't think that I am boasting or I consider myself a better aam Hindustani than Beena. The point here is that greater dislikes for Beena prove that more and more Indians are ready to accept the double standards in our thinking and actions. Maybe, in future this acceptance would lead us all to create a value system and adhere to it. A value system is a must to eradicate corruption. The early we understand it, the better would it be for building a strong, self-reliant India.
Another important point is that Beena and myself have expressed our opinions as educated and civilized citizens of India to enable people like and dislike us in an equally civilized way. But this way is quite contrary to the brash and offensive language often used by many BJP and RSS leaders and supporters to run down their opponents. If a research is conducted that who mostly starts the slanging match in Indian political and public life, I think the results would adversely speak of many leaders of the Saffron outfits.
The latest case is of BJP Rajya Sabha member, the learned Chandan Mitra, editor of the Pioneer newspaper. Poor Mitra found it tough to restrain himself from running down Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for his anti-Modi remarks. He tweeted: Amartya Sen says he soesn't want Modi to be India's PM. Is Sen even a voter in India? Next NDA government must strip him of Bharat Ratna.
A common BJP supporter Netizen goes a step ahead of Mitra to degrade Amartya with these words on a news channel website: Abe bhaklol tu congeressi hai, es liye apni salah apne pass rakh. Amarya Sen ki beti ke baare mein janata hai? Nangi ghoomti rahti hai saali. Jo aadmi apni beti ko sanskar nahin de sakta, vo Modi ko salah deta hai. Saala bhand!
So the only difference between Mitra and the common netizen is that he has not hurled abuses on Amartya. Thankfully, Mitra has now regretted the Bharat Ratna part of his tweets. But in the first place, Mitra himself being a man of letters must have respected Amartya's freedom of expression in the vibrant democracy of India.
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