Opinion Vox populi

The response to my column last week left me humbled. And,I am not the humble type.

August 25, 2013 03:25 AM IST First published on: Aug 25, 2013 at 03:25 AM IST

The response to my column last week left me humbled. And,I am not the humble type. I cannot reply to everyone who tweeted the column,posted a like on Facebook or wrote a comment,so consider this my way of saying thank you to all of you. Almost all of you. Most of you approved of what I wrote about the exclusive private club called Lutyens Delhi conspiring to keep Narendra Modi out of national politics,but there were those who charged me with always criticising the Gandhi family. To them I repeat the words of Harry Truman. If you cant stand the heat,get out of the kitchen. Those who enter public life must learn to accept public scrutiny. As a political columnist it is impossible for me to not comment on the Dynasty that has ruled India for nearly all our 66 years as a nation state.

Speaking of said Dynasty reminds me that the only other piece,in more than 25 years of this columns existence,which evoked a similarly overwhelming response was about Sonia Gandhi. This was in the summer of 2004 when for a brief moment it seemed as if she would become prime minister. Before her inner voice piped up and told her not to take the job,I wrote that it offended me that India should have an Italian prime minister. This was before Twitter and Facebook so the response came in letters to this newspaper,hundreds of them. Most people agreed with me. Those that did not wrote angry blogs reviling me. Some even called me a Fascist.

This time my worst critics were more restrained,saying only that I now count among a new breed of Hindutva journalists. What can I say? I am not a Hindu,I am not religious,but I am proud that Indias religions,in their essence,give believers the right to question even the gods. It annoys me that the RSS and its ugly spawn,the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal,have never understood this and speak instead of the need to

Islamise Hinduism.

Let us hope that Modi recognises that the prism through which this lot sees India and her civilisation is narrow and warped. I say this because from your response to my column last week I gather that there is a general longing that Modi does become prime minister. The polls indicate that he will not and that he will make almost no difference to the BJPs seats in the Lok Sabha,but from my wanderings,I detect something else. The economic collapse and the pathetic way in which the Sonia-Manmohan government has dealt with Pakistan and Chinas incursions on our borders have made people long for a real leader. Modi is seen by millions of Indians as that leader.

From the response to last weeks column I noticed an open rage against Lutyens Delhi. This pleases me because I have for at least two decades now campaigned to take Lutyens Delhi back from our babus and netas. Other than 65 private houses,the new city that Edwin Lutyens built is occupied by politicians,high officials and memorials to dead leaders. It is a ludicrous situation and the equivalent of the most expensive parts of London,New York or Paris being closed to private citizens.

In India our socialist elected representatives live in homes whose market price today can be more than Rs 400 crore. And,its you and I who pay for them to live off the fat of our impoverished land. We subsidise their domestic gas,their electricity and drinking water,their telephone calls and travel. No democratic country allows this kind of thing but the practice continues in India because across party lines our political leaders collude to keep this cocooned enclave cocooned forever.

I have said it before in this column but am happy to repeat,ad nauseum,that one reason why nearly every politician wants a son or daughter to inherit his Lok Sabha seat is because he does not want to give up his house.

If Modi becomes prime minister and changes only this socialist evil,he will have done a real service to this country. Only when the cocoon is broken will those we elect learn to understand the everyday problems that the average Indian faces. The daily power cuts,the unclean water in our taps,the endless fights for a gas cylinder,the squalid residential colonies and the daily battle with municipal officials to get the smallest municipal service. When the children of your MP are forced to go to the neighbourhood government school and use a government hospital when they get sick,there will be change that no amount of rights to food,education and healthcare can bring. That is the real change India needs.

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh