An event of near seismic proportions rocked India today . I am sure many of you who follow the Indian politics have already witnessed it. I write of this because it yet again demonstrates the unshakeable pillars of our democracy, however much a section of the western press, some leftist intellectuals and opposition shout themselves hoarse that democracy has withered in India.
It was a five minute phone call, from the Prime Minister of India to a remote hamlet lost in the riverine Sunderban delta, in now well known Sandeshkhali called Patropara accessible only at the last mile by boat . At the other end of the line was Rekha Patra, till recently , a nameless village lady of a backward class, eking out a frugal existence in a thatched house, looking after her old frail in-laws and pale children while her husband had escaped tyranny and oppression to take up the life of a migrant labourer in Tamil Nadu.
While repression and exploitation continued unabated in this remote hamlet , deprived of the reach of any social welfare schemes ,Shrimati Patra’s life changed one day.With her face concealed in her saree pallu, to prevent retribution and retaliation, she had been the face of the uprising by the village women unable to stand further oppression by feudal lords enjoying local protection
Her boundless courage had brought her face to face with the messiah of the downtrodden , when PM Modi descended in the district town of Barasat to address an electoral gathering and she was among a handful of chosen women of Sandeshkhali to narrate their tale of woe and suffering. Fate had now taken hold of her destiny for she had caught PM Modi’s attention to be the face of the BJP on this electoral constituency.
This nomination is unprecedented in Indian polity and something that is possible only in the visionary expanse of PM Modi. Even before the politically charged environment of the impending elections in West Bengal could begin to assimilate the import of this development, all were stunned by a phone call that became instant headline news.
The equanimity poise and balance with which a semi-literate lady could hold forth before the PM, the way she articulated her vision for the deprived electorate including those who were opposed to her, is something for any educated person to be proud of. It drew aeons of praise from the PM himself who saw in her the incarnation of Mata Shakti and he concluded the call saying the entire party machinery would help her lodge a struggle that she had only begun to wage.
Friends, in my life I have never witnessed anything remotely similar. I wonder what is that streak in our PM who in a passing interaction, out of the millions that he meets every day can light that spark of inspiration that evokes the likes of Rekha Patra to transcend beyond the dark dungeons of deprivation to hold a beacon of hope to Society.
PM Modi is indeed ordained by the Almighty to lead the deprived of India to a new
