'He has divine power... For our future, safety is in the hands of Modi.'
Gyanchand Parakh is the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Pali, Rajasthan. During a recent discussion on the finance bill in the state assembly, Parakh compared Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi to Lord Shiva.
Modi, Parakh declared, is an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
"It came to me in a vision. I saw him as Lord Shiva," Gyanchand Parakh tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
You described Prime Minister Modi as an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Why?
I suddenly realised it. It came to me as a vision. Seeing his work, I said this. The surgical strikes... he has wiped out terrorism in Kashmir. The Ram mandir is being built in his time.
See the improvements he has done to the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the surroundings there.
Nobody has done that before this. He has divine power.
We are respected all over the world because of the way he handled the pandemic.
People stayed at home when he announced the lockdown. In other countries they were protesting.
In our culture we say our parents are God. For our future, safety is in the hands of Modi.
Aren't you going overboard? What is the need for such praise?
In 1971 after the war, Indira Gandhi divided Pakistan into two. Atal Bihari Vajpayee said she was Ma Durga. You did not call that sycophancy.
The Congress talks badly about Modiji, so I told them that he is Lord Shiva. He is not the prime minister of the BJP, he is the prime minister of 135 crore Indians.
Do you realise that you are comparing a grihasti like Lord Shiva to Modi, who has renounced family life?
Lord Hanuman is an avatar of Lord Shiva, he was a brahmachari. (A Ganesh Nadar's note: I told him Lord Hanuman is considered an avatar of Lord Narayan, but Mr Parakh did not agree.)
Lord Shiva drank poison to save the people. (when Lord Shiva drank the poison which came out of the ocean when the asuras and devas stirred it together).
Modiji has also drunk poison, I mean all the criticism that people have leveled against him.
So if Modi is Lord Shiva, what does it make Amit Shah?
When it occurs to me, I will tell you.
Using the Lord Shiva analogy, how will you describe Ajit Kumar Doval, the NSA, for instance? Rajnath Singh? Nirmala Sitharaman?
They all belong to Lord Shiva. They are all in Shiva's army. They all work for him.
Like Lord Shiva, have you seen Modi opening his third eye? What happened then?
When he opened his third eye, terrorism was wiped out in Kashmir. The surgical strikes happened.
Lord Shiva, among the trinity of Hindu gods, is known as the destroyer.
Lord Shiva destroys Evil, not the Earth. He saved the people and the earth by drinking the poison that came out of the ocean.
He was Dev before that, after he drank the poison he became Mahadev.
Will Shiv bhakts be upset that you have compared a mortal to their favorite deity?
In our culture, parents are Gods, pati is parameshwar. Here Bacha bacha Ram hai, so they will not be angry.
How do you think Modi will react if he hears you have compared him to Lord Shiva?
I do not know what he will say.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com