Is Modi A Role Model For President Sirisena?
By Mano Ratwatte –February 22, 2015
Mano Ratwatte
Indian media experts write in patronizing and condescending tones about how Sri Lanka’s newly elected President Mr. Sirisena should emulate PMModi or use Modi as a role model? I think not. Indians and Modi should look at Mr. Sirisena and use him as a role model. They do have one similarity in the sense neither was well known until thrust into the limelight by elections. Modi was a local figure in Gujarat (served 3 terms as Chief Minister) until he took over the election commission leadership of the BJP in 2013. Ironically, Mahatma Gandhi was a Gujarati; yet Gujarat remains one of the most ethno-religiously divided states of India even today
Modi was born to an underprivileged caste family of Grocers classified(census) as a “backward class” in the highly casteist Hindu India. Mr. Sirisena was from the bread basket of Sri Lanka and from a family with Rice cultivation interests. Hence, Modi has more of a miracle on 34th Street kind of story of ascendancy to power in the world’s largest democracy in comparison to Mr. Sirisena. Modi started his life in the feared Hindu supremacists Rashtriya Sevak Sangam (RSS) which has a much feared paramilitary wing. RSS ideology is to impose an exclusive Hindu Raj in India. He was introduced to RSS at a tender age of 8.
When Mr. Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat during his first term , whilst he had a very successful tenure in building Gujarat’s economy by creating a private sector friendly environment, he was also implicated in the terrible riots of 2002 which was known as the Gujarat pogrom. After the burning of a train where Hindu pilgrims were burnt(there were two commissions enquiring into it. The Gujarat courts and Gujarat commission found it to be a premeditated act of violence perpetrated on Hindu pilgrims to Ayodhaya where the controversial Babri Mosque was, but a Cong-I led Federal investigation concluded it was due to a mechanical failure inside the train). As a result of the death of Hindu pilgrims, it caused a lot of communal tensions in Gujarat.Read More
