Russian President Vladimir Putin, the New Hero of Indian Fascists.

 A speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Duma (Russian Parliament) on 4^th February 2013 against the minorities in Russia is being circulated by Modi supporters through internet. They present Putin as a role model for India and by implication say that Modi will be the only person in India who will dare to speak like Putin.  We all know that Putin is not a widely respected World Statesman. There are too many allegations against him and in the last Presidential election in Russia he somehow scraped through by hook or by crook. There was even allegations against the genuineness and impartiality of that presidential election and it was alleged that Putin manipulated the election process to ensure his victory. He first became President of Russia in 2000. Soon on becoming President he took out his true fascist colour. First victim was N.T.V. owner Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinski. The reason: President Putin was provoked by a programme telecasted on N.T.V. showing him as a joker. In June 2000 a case for cheating and forgery was charged against Gusinski and he had to flee Russia.

Next on the victims’ list is Boris Berezovski, a self-made billionaire with investments in oil, aluminium, car and airplane industries and T.V. channels. He played a substantial role in Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000. Subsequently their relationship became soured and finally he fled to England. Very soon on 23^rd March 2000 he was found dead in his bathroom under mysterious circumstances and it is suspected that the long arm of Putin was behind the mysterious death of Berezovski. (One former Russian Federal Security Officer had given evidence for this.) The super-rich Russian Oil baron Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky became Putin’s enemy on his public allegation that Putin is corrupt. He was arrested on 25^th October 2003 on false charges of fraud and sentenced to 9 years imprisonment. He is still in the prison cell.

A Russian accountant and auditor Sergei Leonidovich Magnitski brought to light a scam of 230 crore dollars against Putin Government in 2008. He was subsequentl y arrested on charge of tax evasion and thrown into prison. In 2009 he was killed in custody at the young age of 37 years as a result of cruel persecution. Former Russian Federal Security Service Officer Alexander Valterovich  Litvinenko was murdered in London in 2006 by poisoning with polonium. The reason is that he accused Putin and Co. for ordering the assassination of Russian industrial tycoon Boris Berezovski.   A vehement Putin critic and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist and reporter of opposition news paper Novaya Gazeta  was  shot dead in the lift of her apartment block. It is still an unsolved murder attracting international attention. After Putin became President four other reporters of the same news paper were killed under mysterious circumstances. Two anti Putin lady singers of an orchestra group are still in jail. Anti Putin left opposition leader Sergei Stanislavovich Udalsov is under house arrest. Elder Opposition Leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Effimovich Nemtsov  is living in and out of jail. Former World chess champion Gari Kasperov was victimized for his anti Putin views. Opposition Leader and hero of the Russian people Alexei Navalny was arrested  on the flimsy ground of stealing some wood and put into jail. Only after strong international protest he was set free. In a land where those in power wreak havoc with the law and settle personal scores with opponents, no one is safe.                                                        
Modi supporters in India now make such a person who has low esteem in the eyes of the world (the only good thing he did is to give political asylum to Snoden) as a role model for India. I fully agree with them that these are what going to happen in India once Narendra Modi is in Prime Minister’s throne.

In Putin’s speech he says,“ Russia does not need minorities. Any minority, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian. Russia doesn’t need minorities and minorities need Russia.  We will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell ‘discrimination’. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities. When this honorable legislative body (Duma or Russian Parliament) thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind national interest first, observing that the minorities are not Russians.”

No wonder that this speech finds sympathetic resonance with the Indian fascists. They wonder if there is any leader in India other than Modi to give a similar statement in Parliament.  As far as they are concerned minorities are not Indian citizens. In their view minorities mean Muslims and Christians. But there are other religious minorities like Sikhs, Jains, Budhists, Parsees and ethnic minorities like Gorkhas, North Eastern People, South Indian People etc. Linguistic minorities like Konkanies, thulus etc. are there. In Putin’s view only people speaking Russian language can be considered Russians and those who speak other languages are minorities. If we stretch this argument to the Indian situation only those people who speak dominant Hindi language can be considered as Indians. People speaking Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam will be considered as minorities and not to be fit to be Indians.  That may be the reason this Hindutva fascists never uttered a word of protest when genocide took place in Sri Lanka and the Tamil Minority was butchered.  In their view minorities are not fit to live as equal citizens and they must live as second class citizens. Yesterday Sikhs in Modi’s heavenly Gujarat took out a protest march against discrimination of Modi Government.

It seems fitting and proper that Putin is the new hero and role model of the Indian fascistsi. I have to forewarn that the same Russian fate is waiting the Indian people and the opposition parties and leaders who doesn’t toe the fascist line once Modi is in the Prime Minister’s  throne.