Earlier this year, the news of plotting PM Modi’s assassination floated around across the media channels. Consequently, the CPIM (Maoist) was accused of hatching this conspiracy. However, the party denied all the charges.
Later, many public intellectuals, including renowned activist and free-thinker from Telangana Varavara Rao, were arrested on the charges of hatching PM’s assassination plot. These arrests compel us to dismiss all these allegations as they appear to be an attempt to polarise the masses and also curtail critical thinking. If one were to think critically and profoundly on the implications which occur in the aftermath of assassination by looking at it from a historical perspective, one will conclude that killing would actually increase acceptance and reverence of the individual
Lessons From History
Let’s look at US President John F Kennedy’s assassination. While Kennedy was quite popular among the masses, he was facing severe criticism for his policies as well. Apart from the entire Marilyn Monroe episode, Kennedy received flak over the failed operation in Cuba, American role in the Vietnam war, among many others. Even Che Guevara, the iconic Cuban revolutionary, regardless of those allegations of sexual abuse, extrajudicial killings and torching of his villages, became a symbol of anti-imperialism resistance after his assassination in 1967. Similar is the case with Indira Gandhi. Despite her involvement in abusing power, sending the army inside the golden temple, and declaration of emergency, she’s portrayed as an Iron Lady after her Sikh bodyguards assassinated her.
Coming to Modi
Apart from the charges of complacency of his administration in the Gujarat riots in 2001, as of today, India stands in this fragile line between its secular fabric and a theocracy. In case the allegations of his assassination plan were right, and, god forbid, the accused did succeed in their endeavors, the governance issues of his administration will be forgotten. His demonetization move would project him parallel to Trotsky(who was given historical justice, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union). His schemes would be cherished, and a new legacy and even a 183-meter tall statue would be built as well.
Was There Actually A Plan To Kill Pm Modi?
I’m not speaking for the party or the wrongfully arrested intellectual. CPI(M ), even though a party establishing on the lines of overthrowing the state, would not want to assist in the building of a legacy of a cultural nationalist to a national hero. Considering this, if one were to look at the profession of Varavara Rao, a staunch Marxist for decades not to mention a poet trained in romantic and humanistic thought would naturally be aware of the idea of conducting revolutions. Even considering his affiliations, it would be contradictory to Marxist literature itself if Varavara and his colleagues would have planned an assassination. He would be aware that also if he were to kill the head of state, the system is so well designed to exploit that it would install another head of state, which would result in the efforts for fighting for economic justice futile.