Silence is the most powerful scream. Silence is the language of God. Silence is the source of strength and the fortress for the wise. It is the best reply to a fool and sometimes, silence silences the louds. Unfortunately, our Prime Minister’s silence has none of these traits. The silence on his comments on his predecessor, Dr. Manmohan Singh, tells a different story about his nature. It’s not the first time and it won’t be his last silence on the things that would jeopardize his ‘image’ in front of his ‘followers’. He was quiet when hundreds of people died due to demonetization. He was silent when Doklam standoff did not pay off well. He was silent when economy was on the rocks. He was quiet when children died in UP. He was also quiet on Gauri Lankesh’s murder. His silence on beef lynching and the people spreading the saffron terror in the country. He used to shrew away from the responsibilities of his position and hide behind his ministers and party. Ministers worsen the situation. The fresh example is Hegde on secularism.
In contrast with his silence on these matters, he was the first person who took the credit for the Surgical Strike. When economy rose a little, he was the first person to bow in order to receive the medal. He was highly vocal in recently conducted Gujarat elections. He mocked his opponents. He polarized the vote bank directly. He even termed former Prime Minister as the Pakistani agent and would insinuate to assassinate him.
Silence was always like an offensive veil to Manmohan Singh. He used to be silent and hardly attended any rallies. But, he was highly vocal in press conferences and answer the questions well without spitting on his opponents. His silence was his shield from the mediocrity surrounding him. It was note-worthy that he spoke through his actions more. The Liberalization policy he framed in 1992 lifted Indian economy from the gallows of dark ages and eventually became the foundation for the future development. He was the mastermind when India dodged the recession bullet in 2007-08 when Greece, Spain became bankrupt. It was his tenure when crude oil touched $140/barrel and still we used to get petrol at Rs. 70/litre. The point is that the man who carried out his responsibilities with such class and perfection, the man who hardly spit any venom on his opponents, the man who endorsed the policy of true liberal and progressive politics, should deserve some respect from the nation. And on the other hand, the leader of the nation himself making such derogatory remarks on him and ignoring the issue, thinking that it would pass-off with time.
Now the consequences of Modi’s silence will be that his ‘bhakts’ will take his remarks as the truth, which they always do, and will tarnish the image of him further on social media and other platforms. This would once again divert the minds of people from the ultimate goal of development and upliftment. Congress has already been protesting against PMs silence in the Parliament and are not in any mood to stop their disruption of Parliament sessions.
BJP at last apologized for the debacle on the former PM in Rajya Sabha. Apology by Arun Jaitely was well received by Ghulam Nabi Azad and promised to break their protest. Mind that PM Modi is still silent. The shrewd and hypocritical nature of Mr. Modi won’t be tolerated in the long run by the public.
