By Nirendra Dev
People of Indian origin and Indians working and settled in China generally have good opinion of the Narendra Modi government and want the opposition parties especially the Congress to wish him ‘success’. A second generation Indian in China and an educationist with a leading University here says, “India is doing well in global and regional context, and it is the duty of every Indian to wish success to Prime Minister Modi. When a leader fails, the country fails”. Despite doing well as a democracy, there are several structural demerits and these are often ‘costly’ lapses and can put country into embarrassment, he added.
In this context, the educationist on the condition of anonymity said while there is lot of talk about ‘closed society and controlled economy’ in China – things here move according to norms and party discipline as cherished by the doctrine of the communism. “In India, some constitutional lapses are serious…..I will mention the manner H D Deve Gowda was made Prime Minister by Indian Leftists and others. Similarly, the Congress president Sonia Gandhi was wrong in making Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister in 2004. It defeated the purpose of general elections as Manmohan Singh was seen merely as an appointee,” he said.
Answering questions, he further said, “I will say Sonia was mistaken but it was not her fault. The faultline lay in constitutional provisions. The structural lapses in the constitution was responsible for such a situation….The problem was with the rules of the game and not with Sonia Gandhi per se”. The ‘halo’ of sacrifices attributed to her decision was only a game played by the ‘power brokers’, he opined.
Agreeing with him a few other Indians visiting a popular city mall here say “if elected by people” even dynastic politics is acceptable but “not this kind of appointment and super appointment”. “No one had any question in their mind about Rajiv Gandhi though he came to power due to sympathy wave. Importantly, people had sympathised with him and wanted him to perform and fulfill Indira Gandhi’s dreams,” one of them remarked.
A businessman, who travels between Shenzhen and Beijing frequently, told the visiting UNI scribe that: “Worst abuse of lapses in constitutional structure in India was in the 1990s when Deve Gowda was forced upon the country as a Prime Minister. A regional ‘mofussil’ leader was made national leader”.
In this context, the businessman – who was also associated with Vishwa Hindu Parishad during his stint in India – says: “Congress and other opposition leaders should criticise Prime Minister Modi and his government for mistakes and wrong steps, but it appears day in and day out they wish him to fail”.
“Success of a nation is linked to a leader’s success. India succeeded in 1947 and later because the then leadership and particularly Jawaharlal Nehru had succeeded. If Modi fails, it will not be his failure….At this critical juncture of human and Indian history, if Modi government fails, it will be India’s failure”.
Another Indian settled in Beijing with his working children says – “Selective style of functioning is harming Congress and has made things difficult for it to start fighting back. When it comes to failure, the Congress leaders try to look the other way. In terms of vote count, they criticised Modi after 2014 that his party’s vote share was below 51 per cent. But they never did the same when Congress ruled for years”.
A section of Indians – with their background in eastern part of India – did not also approve the manner the BJP is trying to ‘capture’ in every state and in every village. “This is more of Indira Gandhi era and that failed her bitterly,” said one of them.
Even in terms of fighting corruption, one senior citizen says – “Probably the mass level corruption and also in bureaucracy has come down due to Modi factor. But what will happen after him? Will it come back with vengeance? Are Indians really reconciling to a situation where everyone is happy working hard and taking his share of the pie? Corruption cannot hit a society unless the society wants it”.
Several Indians in Shenzhen, a small time village in 1979 and now a transformed hub of booming business, also say that in terms of taking lessons, “Indians need to learn to work hard”. “Back home, we all are selfish….China is a society of selfless people. They think for their country,” the senior citizen remarked.
Another educationist and a woman in Nanning township says, “Prime Minister is right when he talks about youngsters. The younger generation is certainly more talented and thanks chiefly to exposure and tech revolution. We elders often try to tie them up with old values which may not be to their conviction. So why force it on them”.
She further says, “There is a great recipe of great success for Indians today both in India and overseas. Younger generation should realise their potentials. Our civilisation in contemporary setting has unique strength of gender equity, knowledge, English education, will to dream and technology. When in history, all these qualities were on the right side of Indians in the past one hundred years”.
(UNI)
