Modi's politics of development is destructive, says URA

The writer admits he is a Congress supporter

Continuing his scathing attack on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, veteran writer U R Ananthamurthy on Tuesday said that Modi’s  politics of development is “destructive.”

In an interaction with the media here, Ananthamurthy said, “Development politics that Modi propagates benefits only big corporates. It destroys the health of the nation. The need of the hour is politics of sarvodaya (progress of all). We need politics which reaches out to the underprivileged and humble sections of society...

Behind corruption is development. Development-oriented society has been corrupt.”
Ananthamurthy had recently stoked a controversy saying that he could not think of living in a country led by Modi. He clarified that he will not quit India or Karnataka if Modi becomes the prime minister.

Referring to media hype on Modi, he said it may be because of advertisements and, remarked that “Modi is trying to market himself.”

Asked whether he had any fears about Modi, he said: “I fear Modi the way I feared Hitler.” Though Ananthamurthy admitted that he is a Congress supporter, he said Rahul Gandhi is not capable of occupying the post of prime minister.

He was also critical of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government and said that he cannot say this government should be brought back to power. He said “the Congress is perennial like the Ganga river (Battalarada Ganga). It is the party which has history. The BJP does not have it. No political party is free from corruption. I am with social activist Medha Patkar.”

‘Brahmins were beef-eaters’

Ananthamurthy said Brahmins in the Vedic age used to sacrifice cows and eat them. Narrating a lore from the Mahabharata, he said there was a mention about Brahmins sacrificing cows in the Vedic age.

“As long as cows were used only for agricultural purpose, farmers found maintenance of these animals economical. But, when cows became animals of commercial utility, maintaining them became uneconomical. Some thing of this kind might have happened then. One should not make it an emotional issue,” he said.

He said the Mahabharata was full of lores on how politics and politicians should be.
This is Hindu dharma. Modi does not know this. Nor does anybody in the BJP. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru knew a bit of it, he observed.