When I asked for a comment about Nathuram Godse, who is suddenly getting attention and respectability in India, Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Mahathma said, â€œI have been following the controversy closely. My personal feeling is that everyone is a hero to somebody.

â€œI am sure there are people in the world who worship Satan as well. That does not make Satan a hero for everyone. Those who want to build a statue to Nathuram Godse and even build a temple should, in a democracy, have the right to do so.

â€œThat is not going to diminish in any way what Gandhiji did or change people\'s perception of him.

â€œI believe I am reflecting the opinion of most of the (Gandhi) family. I have not had a family meeting on the issue so I can\'t say for sure.â€

A little history may be added here.

After the second Vapayee government left office in 2004, the best known and outspoken liberal in India, the intrepid Arundhati Roy said, â€˜darkness has passed..â€™

Now that the BJP has come back with a thumping majority what will the liberal, left, secular people say?

Indians in their 40s or 50s belong to a â€˜golden eraâ€™ and any change for them is a move to disaster. For India, the golden age started with the independence in 1947 and it almost ended with the declaration of Emergency in 1975.

During the same period, the world was mostly peaceful. The Second World War ended in 1945 and the Cold War did not reach to an armed conflict. Gandhian pacifism was the standard, at least for India.

Naturally, those who were born in this era inherited a liberal world dominated by Nehruvian ideals, utopia of the socialists and promised world of the communists. In the 70s reality sneaked in and the cherished ideals crumbled like the World Trade Center before our eyes. The Nehruvian ideals did not bring prosperity, socialism did not bring equality and communism ended as an unrealistic dream and promised world of the proletariat was not attainable.

What remained was the old beliefs, traditions, and hostility of a millennium. The liberals continue to bark at the darkness brought by a new system, when Godse has become venerable and as patriotic as the Mahathma.

The secular, liberal, leftist Indian in America is not happy at the turn of events in India, not to mention that he was happy with the rule of the Congress! He looks at the land of his origin with romantic mist in his eyes to see only good things and old values ruling there. He wants India to remain as it was when he left the land forgetting that he himself had changed over the years and Indians too have a right to change, whether he likes it or not.

While the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi get the greatest support from the dispaora, especially in America, the liberals are a fringe group here with no articulate policy or organization and leadership.

Views of theses two groups -the BJP supporters and the liberals- are diametrically opposite to each other. It is difficult to be impartial but most people donâ€™t care. The policy of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, may be a good example. The organization would not comment on any political development in India, but only support India. Though GOPIO was not existing during the Emergency, many leaders now associated with GOPIO, kept mum about it keeping this policy of keeping quiet about internal political developments in India.

It may be a wiser policy too, considering that 1.2 billion Indians are in India who can determine their destiny without the advice of the non-returning-Indian (NRI.)

Apart from the misgivings about the political scene, people who look objectively at India, see some big things happening there. The most important is none other than the smooth change of guards at the government. Unlike in many developing countries, the ruling conglomerate lost election and they bowed out to the will of the people gracefully.

India showed the world that is as mature a democracy as Brittan or America. Parties and persons at the helm would change but the basic structure of the democratic framework, as visualized by the founding fathers remain in tact.

Apart from this shining example, another welcome change is the bureaucrats losing their power before a strong prime minister and his authority. Ever since India attained independence the babus ruled the country, made laws to fit their perception of things, (unlike Prime Minister Modi who wants to remove as many laws as possible!) and created roadblocks to every project. The weak politicians bowed to them or their collective will.

Not any more. The babus thought they were the rulers, when they were only workers, a reality that has dawned on them suddenly. Take the example of diplomat Dr Devyani Khobragade. The present government initially showed her the door when she came out to vent her feelings public, ignoring the niceties of the protocol. No hue and cry and from any quarters were heard. (May be those who would create the noise are now part of the government!)

On a recent visit to India, I overheard older people saying that India has a prime minister after many years. They compare the days of Indira Gandhi. Does it mean that the Indian psyche wants the security and finality of a strong, authoritarian leadership?

Apart from these good things, the left, liberal and secular groups are looking at India with anxiety of the possible changes in the social fabric, where religion gains more and more importance. In America wishing somebody â€˜Merry Christmasâ€™s is not a politically correct thing, while India is going back to give religion more importance in public sphere, has unnerved many. After all, history is replete with examples of religions usurping the freedoms of the people, curtailing free spirit and dividing the society on religious and caste lines, leading to bloodshed and disaster.

George Abraham, leader of the INOC met Rahul Gandhi after the election defeat and discussed the reasons for the defeat of the Congress. Abraham said that Gandhi told him that under BJP government things have been moved back to pre-independence days. According to Gandhi, a coalition of retrograde forces have come together to undo the years of progress India has made uplifting the poor, empowering the Dalits and backward castes and creating a more egalitarian society where the hierarchy and the tall order is diminished. Obviously, they did not like it and wanted order and control. In their view, Congress has created disorder and decentralized power and control. They wanted to change all that.

Along with that, a narrative has been created that Congress has been appeasing to the minorities for the expressed purpose of creating a vote bank, however, BJP has done exactly the same in reverse appealing to the religious sentiment of the majority. No coalition that would disenfranchise the minorities and other groups will have any staying power, Gandhi told him.

The same doubt and fear are shared by left, secular, liberal groups. This may be the same irrational fear that led to the notorious â€˜liberation struggleâ€™ of 1957 in Kerala to overthrow the democratically elected Communist government led by EMS Namboodiripad. The communists came to power in Kerala many times since then and nobody feels them a threat anymore.

Apart from politics, a divisive thing always, it makes the NRI to feel happy to see the country racing to greater heights in many fields and poverty is reduced to a large extent. They know that these problems are the creation of a combination of many things over the centuries, including foreign rule, lack of resources and the ever growing population, among other things.

Yet the country achieved many things and even look at the mars as our next door neighbor. We feel proud, indeed.

Liberal, secular, leftist: A look back in anxiety (column-New Yorkwallah)