The resounding victory ofBJP and hindutva hardliner Narendra Modi in the Gujarat state legislative elections which concluded on December 24, reflects poorly on the value premises and judgement of the people of this western seaboard state (pop.50 million), which it is difficult to believe gave birth to and nurtured Mahatma Gandhi, the first and original champion of Muslims and other minorities. Since then the people of Gujarat have travelled a long way down the road to perdition and self-destruction by voting- in incumbent chief minister Narendra Modi ‚ an individual who by common consensus has the blood of an estimated 2,500 Muslim minority citizens massacred in the pogroms of 2002 in the state ‚ on his hands. Democratic convention and propriety demand that the verdict of the electorate is respected. Yet there‚s nothing improper in ruing the verdict of a misguided and gullible electorate, which given its rich political legacy should have known better than to vote-in a rank and unrepentant communalist who seems determined to polarise Gujarati society along caste and religious lines which is likely to attract the attention of at least some of the ubiquitous Muslim terrorist organisations across the country. This could result in a huge setback to Gujarat‚s much-lauded rates of economic and industrial growth. Many arguments have been advanced in the media and academia to explain why the ‚Ëœmoditva‚ brand of politics ‚ a combination of economic development rhetoric and regressive Hindu chauvinism ‚ swept the electorate off its feet. Among them: the failure of the Congress to nominate a chief ministerial candidate in an obviously presidential style election; the Congress leadership‚s subscription to ‚Ëœsoft hindutva‚ and induction of communally tainted BJP rebels which diluted its secular credentials, and its neglect of economic development issues. Yet perhaps the prime cause of the coarsening of the traditionally refined and moderate Gujarat electorate is the decline of the state‚s education system, and in particular the general neglect of the humanities. Overweening emphasis on vulgar commerce and narrow technical education has produced a greedy new generation aggressively ignorant of concepts such as equity, justice and respect for minority cultures. This is an educational blindspot which needs urgent correction to put this state of civil and enterprising people back on the rails. Meanwhile having committed a massive electoral blunder, the onus is now not only on the opposition Congress party but on the entire electorate, to ensure that the new government of Gujarat adheres to the rule of law. Because of continuous neglect of humanities education, perhaps the people of the state have forgotten that an electoral victory doesn‚t legitimise criminal and unconstitutional governance. Having committed the error of succumbing to the divisive bigotry of Narendra Modi, they need to be strictly vigilant to ensure that the proud liberal legacy of Mahatma Gandhi which has been gravely damaged during the past five years, is not cremated during the next five.The case for slashing transport fuel pricesWith the price of crude oil hovering near the $100 per barrel mark…
