The longest 72 hours in history

There is no way anyone can tell whether Modi is a normal mortal, or just a block of igneous rock

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has proved that he has an uncommon stomach for tragedies, other people’s tragedies, that is.

Last week, during the prime ministerial visit to his state, he showed how he could sit with large banners accusing him of murder staring him in the face and not flinch; how he could sit — with visage as calm as a Buddha in repose, eyes emptied of all emotion behind rimless glasses, mouth at perfect rest — and listen to accounts that would have made ordinary mortals shrink at the horror of it all.

But then, going by TV and newspaper images, there is no way anyone can tell whether Modi is indeed a normal mortal, or just a block of igneous rock formed by the gradual cooling of volcanic magma, which only happens to bear a startling resemblance to a human being.

As you may have noticed, Modi is also a great one with words, he chooses them carefully and with telling effect. Last week, he told his television interlocutor that after the first 72 hours of violence in his state, no incidents of consequence have occurred, apart from some ‘‘chut put’’ ones, that is.

Now chut put is an extremely expressive Hindi phrase that signifies most eloquently almost nothing. The implication is that Gujarat, after March 4, was a sea of tranquillity. To understand these words a little better I took the trouble to examine Gujarat’s recent history...

MARCH 4: Nine people killed in Surat. There were riots at Por. According to one account, women and children were the targets of the mobs and the local community was forced to bury the bodies of the dead to destroy evidence.

Just nine? Chut put.

MARCH 6: Ten people, including three children, killed in Panchmahals.

Clearly chut put.

MARCH 10: Fresh violence erupts in Panwad. Some 50 shops and houses burnt, 1 person killed.

Only one? Chut put.

MARCH 15: VHP, Bajrang Dal perform artis. In Ahmedabad one stabbed to death.

What’s new? Chut put.

MARCH 15: At least four killed in Vadodara and Ahmedabad. A mob indulges in stabbing, arson, and stone throwing in an Ahmedabad.

chut put.

MARCH 18: One killed, two injured in fresh violence in Baroda district.

Don’t even mention it. Chut put.

MARCH 24: A 28-year-old woman dragged out of her house in Vejalpur, Ahmedabad, stripped naked and killed. Her Muslim companion in hospital with deep gashes on his head.

What can you expect when Hindu women go astray? Chut put.

MARCH 31: Nine killed across the state in attacks.

Chut put. Unless deaths are in the hundreds, they must not be counted.

APRIL 1: Fifty houses set ablaze at Behrampura.

Did anyone even die? This is just chut put.

APRIL 2: Violence spreads to new areas in Gujarat as shops are set on fire and a place of worship damaged in Anjar.

Nobody would dispute that this is chut put.

APRIL 3: Five members of a Muslim family are burnt to death at Abasana, 70 km from Ahmedabad, even as one man was hacked to death in the state capital. Who told that family to sleep at night? Chut put.

This brings us to Modi’s fourth law — murder exists only when it happens to Us. When it happens to Them, it’s chut put. Will the NDA government realise that there are some things in life that should go without saying? Modi is one of them.

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