By M. Usman Baki
Chicago: With no reservation whatsoever, let me congratulate and wish well to our Honorable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. After a landslide election victory, he vowed an “inclusive” future for ALL Indians.
A rolling vote count by the election commission showed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) increased its majority, with 303 of 543 elected lower house of Parliament seats.
Will Gujarat be known as Land of Gandhi or Modi? Five years ago, reflecting on his initial parliamentary election victory, I was a bit apprehensive, but not now. All of his humble actions, pronouncements and tweets, such as:
“Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong and inclusive India. India wins yet again! The faith placed in our alliance is humbling and gives us strength to work even harder to fulfill people’s aspirations” — lead me to believe that he is to be trusted. Rather, that he has earned our trust and respect. I have confidence that my former neighbor/chaiwala from Vadnagar (I am from Visnagar), from a very humble background, is one of the strongest Prime Ministers India has ever had and am sure he will make India great again.
Although some Hindu extremists have been emboldened by the rise of the BJP, leading to a rise in the lynching of Muslims and low-caste Dalits for eating beef and slaughtering and trading in cattle, I hope these atrocities will now subside under his watchful eye.
Imran Khan, Pakistani Prime Minister, congratulated our Prime Minister and said he looked forward to working toward peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia. While Pakistan is consider Modi a hardliner, I believe his victory could improve relations between the arch rivals. The expectation in Pakistan is that there will be an incremental improvement in Pakistan-India relations, as Modi’s attitude would now be more relaxed.
Let us strengthen our Prime Minister’s hands in addressing the multitude of grave problems our motherland is facing, such as air, water and land pollution (some of the most polluted sites of the world are in Gujarat/India), corruption, unemployment/underemployment, crumbling infrastructure and ailing economy growth.
Having worked in the field of environment engineering all my life, if called upon, I am willing and ready to serve our Bharat Mata again! JAY HIND.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
