Following Dev Virahsawmy’s opinion pieces on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in our sister publication, l’express, Yatin Varma, former attorney general in the Labour government, reacted strongly in defence of the Indian prime minister, contradicting his own fellow party member. Weekly asks him why the piece provoked such a reaction.

Your reaction to Dev Virahsawmy’s opinion piece on Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised many and shocked some. Why such virulence against a fellow party member who’s done nothing but express his personal opinion?
My outrage was directed at the biased and prejudiced opinions expressed against one of the leading and towering figures of modern history. I was simply expressing my shock and dismay that such virulence against a leader loved and a hero worshipped by people all over the world sprang from a lover of history and literature. 

Since when has Narendra Modi been established as an international hero? As far as I know, he’s a very controversial figure, isn’t he? 
Modi dared to dream and to work towards his dream with renunciation and love for his motherland. 

Well, you can’t call abandoning an old wife back in the village as “renunciation of love”, can you?
When Modi separated from his wife, he was about 18, a young man in pursuit of his dreams and his wife was only 16. They were both married against their wishes. A follower of Swami Vivekanand, Modi embraced sanyas as he believed in renunciation to achieve nirvana and also in selfless service to the nation. He empowered his wife to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. Both practised renunciation just like the mystic saint of India, Ramakrishna worshipped Durga Ma in his wife Sharda Ma. Siddhartha, the prince renounced his wife Yashoda, to become Gautam Buddha. We should not forget that Modi nurtured the dream of becoming a swami but he was gently persuaded by his guru to embrace love for the motherland.

Cynics might say that what you call ‘the love of the motherland’ is a much more lucrative project than becoming a swami but I won’t follow them in that route. Neither will you?
No. Modi is the icon of millions of fellow human beings who see in him a glimmer of hope – a small town boy, a “chaiwallah” working on the railways who became the symbol of hope of countless millions. His brother still works as a caretaker. Modi is an audacious leader who dared to challenge destiny and renew a tryst with destiny through his passion, grit and unflinching spirit of sacrifice.

Still, isn’t Virahsawmy entitled to express his opinion, even if that means criticising someone you seem to have raised to the status of divinity?
I would have applauded Dev Virahsawmy's criticism if it was an honest critique of Modi's achievements and his qualities. Mr Virahsawmy sounds like a pseudo secularist who has no inkling of what the true meaning of secularism is, which encompasses respect and love for all fellow human beings. His attitude was condescending and contemptuous with the aim of disparaging Modi.

What about your own use of such strong terms as “contemptible, “defamatory”etc. in relation to what Virahsawmy wrote? 
The terms used were a reflection of my deep sense of shock that Mr.Virahsawmy embarked on a tirade against Modi who, like Mahatma Gandhi, has embraced a life of service and is an unflinching patriot whose only passion is love for his motherland. 

What ‘life of service’ are we talking about here? Gandhi devoted his life to serving his country. Modi has only been in power for five years. And Gandhi never wore a $15,000 outfit with his name engraved on it, did he?
Gandhi too was vilified by Winston Churchill as the Naked Fakir of India. And in Mr. Virahsawmy's attitude, I could sense the same derogatory attitude against the “chaiwallah” who dared to enter ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’ given his humble background.

Virahsawmy is not the only one who does not believe that Modi is not the God many try to portray him to be, is he?
I espouse the Vedanta philosophy, as embraced by Gandhi, who believed in the Self, Atman housed in our transitory bodies... this Atman is pure and created by God in his image and all Atmans are inherently pure. Even Jesus was martyred and crucified after being judged and condemned. Then who are we to judge or misjudge Modi? I am simply stating my philosophy... as I believe that all of us are beloved by God and we are all his children. Indian culture respects its leaders and at times deifies them as it strongly believes that God exists in all of us... To understand Modi, one should understand the Vedanta philosophy which he embraced in his adolescence. In fact, I am intrigued by his multilayered personality. Will he also ultimately embrace sanyas?

You are entitled to be intrigued by whoever you like. That is your right. But you must concede that not everyone is as intrigued as you. Arundhati Roy, a very well know Indian writer, went further than Virahsawmy and said that Modi’s rule is also associated with “arrests, assassinations, lynchings, bomb attacks, riots and pogroms”. Are you going to ask that she be banned from India for having expressed an opinion different to yours?
First of all, Arundathi Roy is a novelist “par excellence” and her God of Small Things espouses the cause of the backward castes, fighting oppression and Modi is a symbol of grit in the midst of poverty. Arundhathi Roy through the character of Velutha, a paravan, an untouchable, challenges stereotypes and the patriarchal society... a character who, like Modi, defies fate through his creativity. By the way, I never asked that Virahsawmy be banned from Mauritius!

No, you only asked for the Labour Party ‘to take bold steps’ against him and for India to sue him for defamation. 
Indeed…

You seem to talk about Modi as another Gandhi whereas Virahsawmy believes that he is an extremist and that he and his party have “no place for the compassion and tolerance Gandhi taught us”. Somewhere in between must lie the truth, mustn’t it?
Even the British saw in Gandhi's resistance and non-violence weapons of extremism and he was labelled a troublemaker who was jailed a number of times. We should not forget that the most loved and popular prime minister India has known, loved and cherished is Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was also a karsevak (volunteer) from the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS) and one of the founding fathers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi, like Gandhi, is a figure of defiance against all odds. Gandhi dared to challenge British imperialism; Modi dared to challenge our notions of equity and parity... Can we accept an Ekavlya (the match for Arjun and discipline of Dronacharya who was asked to give his thumb as gurudakshina-student’s debt) as our champion or we do reject him with Mahabharatha Revisited? Modi is a son of the soil. Modi taught us to review our prejudices just like Gandhi taught us to rediscover our real selves.

Most Indians today agree that Modi, like the Jugnauths, overpromised and under-delivered. Virahsawmy talks about 50 million people living in extreme poverty alongside 131 billionaires. What has Modi done for the 50 million poor in the last five years?
He brought hope and a dream that hard work will ultimately bridge the rich and poor divide and some of his projects are ambitious and life changing such as health policy schemes for all Indians, financial support to poor farmers, investments in irrigation systems, pro poor welfare schemes, Clean India campaign, beti bacho-beti parao schemes (daughters’ education and protection), electricity and toilets in remote villages, clean fuel, housing and banking in the remotest villages... Laudable initiatives which will nurture the poorest villages to become self sufficient provided all share the same vision of Garibi Hatao (alleviation of poverty)... And India should be proud of its billionaires... the Ambanis, the Mittals and the Hindujas who dared to challenge western capitalism.

All these concepts you are throwing at me sound great. But they have remained at the level of rhetoric. 
All these schemes are being successfully implemented.

Modi is also accused of having installed a climate of repression and fear. Are you disputing that too?
Modi helped to create a feeling of optimism and buoyancy, a Josh (passion) as the Bollywood greatest hit, Uri, in recent times displayed. Anupam Kher, the famous Mumbai intellectual and theatre personality speaks of Modi as “Here is a man (Modi) who is constantly working day and night, who has enhanced our country’s image throughout the world. But they (critics) are trying to find loopholes in each aspect of his work and run him down. Modi is constantly talking about the country and no prime minister prior to him ever spoke about women’s toilets from the ramparts of Red Fort.”

So? No one has ever said there is a shortage of sycophants or followers in the world. You just have to listen to Bobby Hurreeram and Zouberr Joomaye every week.
There is no place for turncoats in such a serious interview.

One of our readers recently wrote in Weekly that many Muslims in today’s India have to live under fake Hindu names to avoid persecution. Doesn’t that reveal a surge in religious intolerance?
India in 2019 is a deeply embedded secular country.

Your own party colleague, Arvin Boolell, once talked about the lack of transparency shared by most of our compatriots in relation to Agalega. Is that ‘despicable’ and ‘defamatory’ too?
This is a debate between who is the better man, Dev Virahsawmy or PM Modi. Please do not try to put words in my mouth.

OK. Let me put the question differently: Aren’t you worried about the secrecy the whole deal is shrouded in?
The government should answer that question.

You know we are not getting any answers to that. Virahsawmy – like many other Mauritians – expressed his fear about our sovereignty in relation to India, particularly with the loans being dished up to strangle our public purse. Don’t you share these fears?
I trust the deep and unshakeable bond between India and Mauritius.

So you trust that the government is doing the right thing and that the fears expressed by Arvin Boolell for example are unjustified?
Arvin is a very good friend of mine and a brotherly figure.

Modi was the first Indian leader to have visited Israel and also the first one to have invited and received Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India. Isn’t that a far cry from the Congress’s stand which was staunchly pro-Palestinian and therefore very much in line with the stand of your own party?
Who am I to comment on the foreign policy of the Indian government?

Being a member of the Labour Party, Virahsawmy should perhaps have specified in his opinion piece that his views were his own rather than the party’s. You started your reply by putting that right. Isn’t that enough as a disclaimer. Why go to the extent of asking for his expulsion and asking the Indian government to take legal action against him? Doesn’t your party stand for the freedom of expression? 
Freedom of expression should come with a sense of responsibility. The intellectual Mr. Virahsawmy proclaims to be should have done his homework to be able to express informed views, not a series of fallacies.

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