Mammoth historic Hunkar Rally shows tidal support, blasts fail to dampen spirits: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s aggressive Hunkar Rally felled three birds with one stone, beginning unexpectedly with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Mongolpuri this morning, which became victim of invidious comparison with the mammoth Patna rally that could not be defeated even by serial bomb blasts in its vicinity.
Rahul Gandhi’s rally had to be postponed several hours as the crowds were dismal at the scheduled 10 a.m. Hindu channel News Nation telecast the empty stands, exposing the bleak crowd-pulling potential of Congress’s Prime Minister-in-waiting. Gandhi eventually began his speech around 1.30 p.m., around the same time as Narendra Modi, who deflected Congress anger at his mocking references to their leader with a quip, “I will give up the ‘shehzade’ reference if he quits dynastic rule”.
The second casualty was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, having failed to use President Pranab Mukherjee as a pawn to scuttle the Hunkar rally displayed pettiness by not putting up welcome posters in the President’s honour, and then literally ran for solace to Rajgir (capital of the mighty Mauryan Empire) and Munger for a yoga conference.
The flight was doubly unfortunate for Nitish Kumar. The sea of humanity at Gandhi Maidan exposed the Bihar Chief Minister’s fading popularity; the manner in which the crowds chortled at every barb against hamara mitra indicated the way the wind would blow in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and the next Assembly elections.
But the unexpected serial bomb blasts, and poor preparedness to deal with contingencies by providing first aid and taking the injured to hospitals, have sealed Nitish Kumar’s fate. One bomb burst in a newly constructed toilet on a railway platform meant for local trains; 11 trains booked by the BJP to ferry rallyists to the city fortunately arrived safely. But one person was injured in the blast, who later succumbed to his injuries. Five more bombs exploded at the venue of the rally while one more has been reported to have blown off near the twin towers and Elphistine theatre. While 5 people reportedly died in these serial explosions and 55 were injured, one more bomb was found under the dais where the BJP leadership had assembled to address the mammoth crowd. If news of the blasts was known to the rallyists, it did not dampen their enthusiasm to stay for hours to hear the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, in perfect discipline.
Narendra Modi certainly learnt about the serial blasts and made a special appeal to the people to leave the venue without haste or panic and reach home safely. To the credit of the people, these blasts in the site did not trigger panic or stampede while the rally lasted. Clearly, people are becoming stoic and prepared to face such risks while attending BJP rallies; many remember the 12 bomb blasts at BJP veteran LK Advani’s rally at Coimbatore in 1998.
Besides the obvious security lapses – less than four months after serial blasts at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Gaya in July – even stretchers were not available to carry the injured to hospital; this sparked public anger and open conflicts with the police. The blast which occurred near Eliphistine cinema hall on the western side of the Maidan injured six persons. Two crude bombs were discovered before they could explode; another bomb injured one official while being defused at the railway toilet.
It is pertinent that the District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and Senior Superintendent of Police and other senior government officials live across the street from Gandhi Maidan, which is a high security area. That so many bombs could be planted, that too at a political rally that ought to have had tight security, calls for explanation at several levels.
The third ‘bird’ – the Bihar public – was felled by Narendra Modi’s unparalleled oratory.
Continuing his carefully crafted genre of appealing to people without bias or prejudice, and doubtless influenced by knowledge of bomb blasts wreaking havoc, Narendra Modi made a special appeal for communal amity and for unity to fight the common enemy of poverty. Mentioning Hindus and Muslims by name, he asked if people really wanted to fight the other community, when they could unite against divisions fostered by failed leaders and work together for prosperity and progress. India First must be the mantra, and shanti (peace) and ekta (unity) the paradigm for achievement, he exhorted.
By way of illustration, he said that while Gujarat’s quota for Hajj pilgrims is only 4800, every year around 40,000 applications are made, because Muslims, particularly in the districts of Kutch and Bharuch where they are most populous, are prosperous enough to afford the pilgrimage. He urged a new unity to take the nation to the heights it rose to under Chanakya, which was called the golden age because he sought to unite all kingdoms in political unity. The Congress, on the other hand, divided people on lines of religion, caste, and further fractured society into sub-castes. It was time to undo such negative politics.
Honing in on Bihar’s backwardness and the demand for a special package of Rs 50,000 crores, Narendra Modi asked the people to wait for just 200 days more. As the crowds went hysterical, he said, “your love will be repaid with interest,” and the Vikas Mantra will solve all problems.
The UPA, he warned, could not deliver anything on any front. More than 80 per cent of its promises since 2004 remained unfulfilled. The Ganga is still unclean, and looks like a sewer. There is no employment for youth, no future besides abject poverty. Farmers are ruined by price rise and high input costs, while the Barauni fertilizer factory remains locked up. The Centre’s own 20-point programme – monitored by the Planning Commission – is poorly implemented in Congress-ruled States, while the top five performers are all BJP States. Bihar ranks 20; it is obvious such regimes do not care for the poor and will do nothing to alleviate their suffering.
The Bihar Chief Minister, Modi said without naming him, is our “friend”, but a man who could abandon JP and Ram Manohar Lohia, who worked for an anti-Congress regime all his life, cannot be expected to stand by the BJP. The BJP had joined hands with the Janata Dal-United in order to free Bihar from jungle raj; he reminded his audience. And though BJP had double the number of MLAs, it made a sacrifice and gave Nitish Kumar the chance to form the Government. He failed to garner the necessary votes and lost power in one week. Later, when the two parties formed a coalition Government, the best work was done by the BJP ministers. Despite this, there was reluctance to let Narendra Modi come to the State for campaigning during the last Assembly elections; said Modi, he accepted this slight in the interests of the nation and the State.
Making a direct pitch for the massive Yadav votebank that is feeling orphaned with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s imprisonment, Narendra Modi said some three months ago, he learnt that Lalu ji had met with an accident and promptly called to ask about his health. “I never told the media. But to my surprise, Lalu ji called tje media and told them ‘Modi asked about my well being because of my accident’. This was a clear message from the RJD leader to his community.
Tugging at Yadav heart strings, the Gujarat strongman thundered, “I say (to you), Yaduvansh raja Krishna lived in Dwarka, we have rishta (kinship); we have love for you (Yadavas). In both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, we will worry about the Krishna-vansh”…
Modi began in flawless Bhojpuri, flattering Bihar for its rich cultural, educational and political contributions that are intrinsic to the Indian civilisational matrix. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of India without Bihar – birthplace of Sita ji, land of prince Karna (Anga raja); land of the first Gupta dynasty of Magadh, the politics of Chanakya and Chandragupta; the democracy of Vaishali; the great emperor Ashoka; the grand city of Pataliputra (modern Patna); the famous university of Nalanda; the land of Gautam Buddha and Vardhaman Mahavir and the unmatched Guru Gobind Singh (sawa lakh se ek ladaoon tab gobind singh kehlaoon). Bihar, he said, gives India what she needs.
Not forgetting the coming festival of Diwali and Bihar’s famous Chhat Puja where the setting sun is worshipped to signify the onset of winter, he noted that Bihar alone worships Surya devata in all His forms. The people here are not opportunistic, he said, barring a few (the crowd roared).
More pertinently, political revolutions are synonymous with Bihar. From giving a black eye to Prince Alexander, to ousting the Nanda dynasty and launching the Maurya dynasty; to the Champaran Satyagraha of Gandhi (which he skillfully linked to the satyagraha at Dandi); to Jai Prakash Narayan’s fight against the then Congress government, Bihar has seen it all. This time, he exhorted, it must give all 40 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP and lay the foundations of a new history.
Party president Rajnath Singh, who spoke briefly, said Narendra Modi had a humble background and rose by dint of talent, very much like Chandragupta Maurya who was nurtured by Chanakya. Condemning the corruption and price rise under the UPA, he pointed out that under Atal ji the BJP gave credit to farmers at the rate of 4% interest; now BJP state governments have reduced this to zero percent. If the Yuvraj laments that his grandmother and father were murdered and he is himself in danger, then, said Rajnath Singh, he (Rahul Gandhi) should know that the country does not need leaders who do not have the hearts of lions (sher dil).
Other leaders who addressed the gathering included state unit chief Mangal Pandey; leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley; CP Thakur, Sushil K Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajiv Rudy, Shahnawaz Hussain; Dharmendra Pradhan and Giriraj Singh.
Niticentral.com, 27 October 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/10/27/modi-roars-from-patna-india-hears-151279.html