WILL HISTORY CONTINUE TO BE KIND?

Mohan Guruswamy

Ten years ago, today, Manmohan Singh spoke to the media on the looming Modi spectre. He was at his acerbic and pungent best when he commented on the desirability of Narendra Modi as PM and his being a strong man because he presided over "the mass massacre of citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad."

MMS more than once said that history will be more kind to him. How history will judge him is not important to the country? What he did and did not do during his tenure is. He did preside over a decade of unprecedented growth. He also presided over a decade of rampant corruption, few new jobs and a huge flight of capital from the country. On a net basis more went out than came in.

But MMS is right. History will be kind to him nevertheless. History is always kind, unless you are a real monster like Hitler. Why even Stalin and Mao Zedong are enjoying major rehabilitations in Russia and China. PV Narasimha Rao and AB Vajpayee too look burnished and bright now. And look at how so many long for Indira Gandhi now. In the end Indians are a very kind people. We put up with so much and yet can be charitable. Thats why we have had six decades of regime transitions without bloodshed on the streets.

Question now is whether history will continue to be kind ever after? What kind of a Modi will history bequeath to us?

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