He is attempting to appear 'secular' ....... how long before he wears a skull cap ? People are not fools, this is a short term gain and a long time loss. His gain will be temporary but his loss will be permanent.
No he is not trying to appear secular,because..
You would have been right if he had done this for the first time(after being the prime ministerial candidate)...but if you listen to this particular speech even he has admitted that he had already taken this stand earlier in Gujarat...except that it had somehow escaped media attention...Now that he is in full limelight the media has jumped over it..
what he has now done is that he has reiterated and reemphasized this nationalistic stand of his at an open national platform in full media glare thereby committing a possible political blunder....
On the other hand his statement is profoundly unethical.
Again you are taking it as a matter of ethics.....There is no ethics involved in this....Basic necessities of life are not ethical or unethical....they are just uncompromisable in the national as well as humanistic interest...Sanitation just like food,water,shelter etc is a basic necessity of life and in no case can it be related to ethics..
How can toilet before temple be factually right and the need of the hour ? ....no one has mandated the govt. of india to build temples. Nor have they mandated that they build toilets.
If the choice was between building 800 million toilet and 800 million temple then Modi's statement would have been relevant. IS this the case ?
I highly doubt that you have heard what he has said in his speech.....
What he has said is a slogan/phrase "pehle shauchalay,phir devaly" which literally transalate into
"first toilet,then temple"......there is never any mention of the act of building of toilets or temples by the government. or any other agency for that matter...This doesn't refer to the act of building a toilet first and the a temple later....
It refers to the way how our(or the governments)
priorities should be...it means that we should put a basic necessity like sanitation etc above the our spiritual need of worship...and not that we have to build toilets first and then only build temples...our media headlines quoted that Modi has said to build toilets first and temples later...which is not the truth...
If Modi wanted to be ethical then he cold have said his focus is on building toilets. There was no need to mention the temple.
This doubt of yours will be clear if you hear his full speech....after giving this slogan of his-"pehle shauchalay,phir devaly" he went on to say that even now there is a shameful case that many of the mothers and sisters of our county are forced to use open areas for sanitation purposes...
he asked that what could be more shameful than this....he even gave specific examples of villages where there are so many places of worship but still where there are no toilets in houses and even the ladies are forced to use open areas for sanitation purposes...
Can there be any shameful and humiliating situation than this????
See the problem is that the media has reported his statement in a skewed way as always...so I urge all people not to go by the media version but listen to his speech and then judge him.....
Why not say that he would prefer building toilets over mosques ? ........... you know why. That would have given fresh fodder to the 'secular' thugs.
See he used a rhyming slogan "pehle shauchalay,phir devaly"
He did not even use the exact term for temple which is "Mandir" but he used the word "davalay"(which literally means a place where devata resides) only because it rhymes with shauchalay...at no point was the emphasis only on a Hindu places of worship or temple over other places of worship..why should he use the words mosque just for the sake of using it....
I would not like to make this a temple vs mosque argument which it is not in its true spirit....
By dragging temple into lack of toilets (where was the need to do so?) , Modi is insulting hindus for political gains making it apear as if temples are responsible for lack of toilets in India.
There is no reason for hindus to get angry at this statement unless they don't listen to what exactly he said and the context in which he said thatand they don't take it in its real essence and spirit....
I am sorry to say, it is not courage but cowardice and greed that had made him say that. Either that or he really does not believe in hindutva. I have no problem if he deny's hndutva, but let him not start sitting on the fence himself.
He is not denying Hindutva.This is not against Hindutva at all.Where in hindutva is it mentioned that to get basic necessities of our life should not be our utmost priority...
Even the conventional saying says: "Cleanliness next to Godliness"
In fact it is even asserting and emphasizing the principles of true hindutva which says
Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah(Om, May All become Happy,)
Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah(May All be Free from Illness.)
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu (May All See what is Auspicious,)
Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet (May no one Suffer)
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih (Om Peace, Peace, Peace)
How can there be Happiness everywhere when there are no basic sanitation facilities even for the sisters and mothers of our country?
How can there be no illness in the absence of sanitation facilities?
How can every one see auspicious days in this dirty and humiliating environment exists???
How can there be peace and no suffering in such a case???
Yes it may be against the petty and cheap vote-bank hindutva which only focuses on building temples over mosques.
Where as hindutva says "sarva dharma sambhava"
That's precisely why people like Pravin Togdi is opposing this.....and this is also why this is a politically suicidal move...Please don't consider their views as the true Hindutva views...In fact by this statement Modi has shown the courage and conviction to keep the true spirit and values of hindutva well above petty vote-bank politics...
But unfortunately he may loose the votes of some followers like Pravin Togdia and others who have skewed meanings and interpretation of hindutva...
