SEPT 12- Mahatma Gandhi went on a fast unto death in Calcutta to stop the riots during Partition in 1947 and succeeded.
Mamata Banerjee went on a hunger strike against the Tata Nano plant in Singur in December 2006 and succeeded. She is ruling West Bengal now.
Anna Hazare fasted for several days in support of the Jan Lokpal Bill in August 2011. He succeeded partly.
Baba Ramdev fasted against corruption and black money in August 2011. He had to flee after a police crackdown.
Narendra Modi fasted for ‘sadbhavana’ in Godhra for communal harmony in January 2012. His party again won the Gujarat elections.
Medha Patkar went hungry for days to stop the demolition of a slum in Mumbai in April 2013. She succeeded.
Arvind Kejriwal fasted for 11 days against ‘inflated’ power bills in Delhi in April 2013. Result unclear but he endeared himself to voters in Delhi.
The jailed YSR Congress chief, Jaganmohan Reddy, keeps going on hunger strike on one issue after another. His popularity continues to grow in Andhra Pradesh.
Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger strike since November 2000 against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Manipur. She hasn’t succeeded yet but has become an icon of dissent.
Then, what if Modi had again gone on a fast as a mark of protest against the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar?
Just a wish. What if?
The day Muzaffarnagar burned, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said, “Gujarat is the state which gave birth to Mahatma Gandhi, which gave us Sardar Patel and now it has given ‘Sardar’ Modi to our nation.”
So just a thought, what if the Gujarat Chief Minister had decided to act like Gandhi and Sardar Patel, whom he quotes regularly.
If he had, he would have put “India First” and act selflessly on seeing his countrymen slaughter each other over caste and religion.
Many possibilities would have sprung up. We list five among them:
1. Just this ‘satyagraha’ seeking communal harmony in the middle of bloodshed, would have almost wiped off the taint of the 2002 Gujarat riots. The apology being sought from Modi would have become redundant.
2. The act would have stumped the Mulayam Singh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Rahul Gandhi (Congress) and Nitish Kumar (Janata Dal-United). Suddenly, Modi would not have been “communal” but a leader of “harmony”.
3. Love for the people gets you more support than spreading hate. Polarisation may pay off in the short term but unifying voters makes you a true leader.
4. Modi’s fast might have brought more Muslims to the BJP side without the party having to rely on petty tactics such as wooing Muslims to Modi’s rally and asking them to sport skullcaps and burqas.
5. The act would have melted Advani – who is still not sure about Modi as the prime minister.
INDIA TODAY
