Daily Times

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing humiliation after humiliation. His whole political career is marred with controversies, scams and scandals. During his stint as the chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, he used to be called “the butcher of Gujarat.”

His hands are still stained with the blood of over 1000 killings during the communal riots of Gujarat in 2002 but he never apologised. His whole political philosophy revolves around Hindutva-a distorted version of Hinduism that demands complete hegemony of Hindus in a “secular” India. From his Gujarat days to recent times as India’s PM, Modi is only bringing shame for the world’s largest democracy that claims to be a secular state. In a statement to the Supreme Court of India, senior intelligence officer Sanjiv Bhatt said that Modi deliberately allowed the riots of Gujarat in 2002. He said that he was part of the meeting in which Modi said that Hindus should be allowed to vent their anger against Muslims in the 2002 riots in which over 1000 people were killed in Gujarat-the home constituency of Modi. “The butcher of Gujarat” was also repeatedly summoned by the courts of the US, but he was never convicted for the violence he has committed.

Although Modi’s whole political career is a long story of controversies, his second stint as Indian PM was an abject failure. The foreign policy of India faced severe setbacks as even its neighbours were not on talking terms with Modi. He once again made the Kashmir issue an attention point for the world by revoking its special status. The economy of India is on a nosedive since then while foreign investors are fleeing its market. In utter desperation, he unleashed verbal attacks on Pakistan. He tried to malign Pakistan by orchestrating a fabricated story that we were behind the Afghanistan saga but he once again failed miserably. Modi was caught in his trap as two containers filled with heroin belonging to his close friend were seized in India just recently.

There is pin-drop silence from the administration on the fact that 3,000 kilogrammes of heroin worth Rs 210 billion ($3 billion) was seized at the Mundra Port in Gujarat; operated by his close friend and financier, Gautam Adani.

PM Modi returned Gautam Adani’s investment made on himself with profit.

Undoubtedly, it is the biggest ever drug smuggling in the history of India. The heroin was shipped through two containers from Afghanistan to the Mundra Port operated by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. It reached Mundra Port via the port of Iran. The plan was to safely move the shipment to New Delhi. Adani is a close and old friend who operates 13 domestic ports in seven maritime states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. He also owns almost one-fourth of the cargo movement in India.

It is a huge question mark how Adani not only became one of the country’s biggest private airport operators but also the largest private ports operator, including the Mundra port overnight. It couldn’t happen without the connivance of Modi. Adani won the rights to operate Mundra port that is located on the mangrove-lined Gujarat coast on the Arabian Sea in the late 1990s.

It is worth mentioning here that Adani’s business was expanded 12-fold when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It further increased manifold when Modi reached the coveted office of Prime Minister. Adani made his entry into the list of ten richest Indians in 2014 and he was earlier nowhere to be seen. Adani Enterprises started everything in the business-from trading to export-import. It started everything in which money does matter. The shares of Adani Enterprises jumped by 265 per cent and its turnover increased 20-fold when Modi just became the candidate of Prime Minister from BJP. The personal wealth of Adani was sharply increased by 152 per cent when Modi finally became the prime minister.

This happened due to Modi because he returned Adani’s investment made on Modi with profit. Modi used to take off from Ahmedabad (Gujarat) every day in a business jet to address election rallies across the country. The plane was owned by none other than the Adani Group. There were two choppers and a jet at the disposal of Modi for his busy election schedule provided by Adani. The corporate sector invests money in election campaigns of politicians to get benefits when they reach the echelons of power. So, Adani did the same as he was also a close friend of Modi.

Talking about the Mundra Port, there were 3000 hectares of mangroves but almost two million trees disappeared overnight. It was the time when Adani entered the port. Several NGOs and residents demanded compensation for damaging the environment but Adani got exonerated. The Modi government withdrew a demand of $31 million made by the environment department. The lust of Adani and the nepotism of Modi didn’t end here. Indian government relaxed the rules for Adani when it allowed the privatisation of six airports in 2018 despite him having no experience in this business.

It is now a matter of fact that “the butcher of Gujarat” has become completely unacceptable to both the world and India itself. There are now calls from within the India demanding immediate resignation of Modi over this latest drug seizure. Congress and other opposition parties are condemning this “heinous” act of Modi and his crony. Modi is destroying the youth of India through drugs after disturbing the social fabric of Indian society due to his Hindutva policies. It is the right time for him to have a look at the internal affairs of India instead of thinking about Pakistan all the time.

The writer is an old Aitchisonian who believes in freedom of expression, a freelance columnist, entrepreneur and social activist.