Modi’s visit to Leh- An Event, not an act of valour !

By Abhay Mokashi

The news channels and the great Modi followers are going gaga over Modi’s visit to Leh. When people are blinded by faith, logic fails. This applies to people from all walks of life.

Anchors of news channels have been appreciating how the Prime Minister went to Leh unannounced to take China by surprise. This has been echoed by Modi followers on various social media platforms. Have the anchors and the Modi followers forgotten that Leh is Indian territory, miles from the Sino-India border? So there is no reason for China to be shocked that Modi landed in Leh, unless of course those who say so, feel that the Chinese believe that Modi lacks courage to go to his country’s territory. Yes, China would have been surprised or even shocked to see the Prime Minister visit Galwan Valley, which witnessed skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese armies, in which our brave soldiers were martyred, though in his speech Modi had not called their death martyrdom. He mentioned that the soldiers had died fighting.

Since, he visited Leh, there was no need to keep the visit a secret, but that was done to make it an event and make the faithful believe that it was an act of valour, maybe it was, to go close to China, which was a few hundred kilometres from where he went.

One can understand his address to the assembly of soldiers, being recorded for the world to see. But for Modi everything he does is a media event, so he delivered a speech in the hospital and ensured that it was recorded and publicised.

It is not a co-incidence before every election in the country, Modi has a defence related event.

Another message being conveyed by television channels and by Modi followers, is that Modi gave a strong message to China from Leh. Modi did not mention China in his speeches in Leh or other speeches of late. So what strong message did he send to China? What prevents the Prime Minister from naming China? In an oblique reference he did mention that a country is expansionist. Yes, China is expansionist and that has to be condemned, whether the expansionist attitude is against India or any other country. Condemnation by ordinary citizens, is futile; the Prime Minister has to condemn it by naming China to make it effective.

Faith is good, but blind faith is dangerous, because it prevents the faithful to be logical or to see reason and facts. Coming to facts, today there are three kinds of facts, regarding the issue concerning China, these being the facts as presented by the Prime Minister, the BJP and his followers, then the facts presented by Congress and the third kind of facts are the facts as they are.

Human nature is strange. Many humans are often defensive when they are confronted and start blaming others. We see that when a person is caught for wrong parking or for jumping the signal, rather than accepting the crime, the person points out to the police personnel that others have also violated parking rules or have jumped the signal. But that does not condone their crime. A school child, when questioned why s/he scored less marks, the answer is that many others also scored less marks, again a wrong argument. This is what the country’s leaders and the BJP spokespersons have been doing when questioned about China’s encroachment in Indian territory. The immediate reply is that because of Nehru we lost the war against China in 1962, agreed. The reasons for that have to be gone into. Nehru’s blunders, if any, cannot be the reason for today’s failures.
Patriotism has a new definition in the country now. Affirming every action of Modi is patriotism, questioning his actions is unpatriotic; criticising Nehru is patriotism. Making repeated statements that Nehru and the Congress did nothing for the development of the country is patriotism. This is how logic has failed due to blind faith.

When leaders fail on major issues, small achievements are made to look big. News channels have been screaming that by his visit to Leh and his speech there, a final warning has been given to China and that soon it would be the end of China. A BJP Rajya Sabha MP went on record recently saying, “Our aim is to cripple China.” The statement was on the banning of the Chinese apps in the country. Is the MP so naïve as to believe that banning of the apps would cripple China or does he feel that the people of the country are idiots to believe that by banning of the apps, China would be crippled? Well, those who do not use logic and reasoning are already believing it.

The effect of the banning of the apps on the Chinese economy is like the pain an elephant or a hippopotamus would feel by the prick of a needle. Some of the blind followers are causing damage to Indian economy not the Chinese economy, by their actions. They have gone to showrooms and destroyed Chinese gadgets, the price of which was obtained by the Chinese manufacturers long back, so the loss is of Indian dealers. This is their type of patriotism.

Alibaba, the Chinese online marketing company has invested in Paytm, but that is not being banned in the country. We cannot forget that the day newspapers carried the news report of demonitisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, they also carried a Paytm ad with Modi’s photo in the ad!
Waiting for the government to take decisions which will cripple the Chinese economy.