Amidst rising Congress dismay over vice president Rahul Gandhi failing to retain voter attention even in old pocket boroughs in the capital, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi openly challenged the party to declare the names of its Chief Ministerial candidates in Madhya Pradesh (votes November 25) and neighbouring Chhattisgarh (votes November 19).
In a last ditch effort to help his party in Chhattisgarh where campaigning has officially ended, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate took a dig at Congress discomfort on the issue in both States, and demanded clarity. He lambasted the party for spreading the rumour that those who vote for the lotus during the elections will get an electric shock.
As is well known, the Congress unit in Chhattisgarh is wary of declaring the candidature of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, partly because of suspicions regarding his role in the Darbha massacre of May 25 this year which wiped out almost the entire State leadership, and partly because of the image of lawlessness associated with his son, Amit Jogi, during his tenure at the helm of affairs. With virtually no other leader of stature left to name, Narendra Modi has constantly taunted the Congress to name Ajit Jogi; a cornered party has now tentatively begun to name his wife, Renu Jogi, instead.
In Madhya Pradesh, while former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has been completely sidelined, serious contenders include Union Ministers Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and State unit chief Kantilal Bhuria. Earlier this month, fighting over tickets reached a point when angry workers locked Rahul Gandhi aide Meenakshi Natarajan, MP, in the bathroom. Here again, Congress can only suffer by naming a candidate, a fact the BJP with its well-groomed State leaders exploits with glee.
At a packed election rally in Chattarpur, Bundelkhand, his first in Madhya Pradesh, Narendra Modi for the first time referred to the threats to his life and the enhanced security precautions by the concerned agencies, which resulted in the crowds being pushed back further from the stage than was the usual norm. The front rows are now reserved for women as they are perceived as less of a threat, he said, adding to thunderous applause that mothers and sisters are his spiritual armour (suraksha Kavach) and will protect him from all threats and conspiracies so he can serve the nation as long as it desires.
Continuing his theme of development with accountability, Narendra Modi accused the Congress-dominated UPA coalition of avoiding responsibility and refusing to give an account of what it had done for Madhya Pradesh in its two terms in office. In contrast, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his colleagues toured the entire state and informed the people in detail of the work done, the milestones covered, and the work that remained to be done.
Congress, however, cannot face up to these issues at all. Instead party leaders have adopted the tactic of going to remote villages and instigating villagers regarding the absence of a village school or hospital. But the flip side of this is that in 50 long years of Congress rule, no school or hospital or road was built. BJP did the maximum it could in just 10 years. A party veteran, who once ruled the State for a long time (read Digvijay Singh) and is famous for his big mouth, is currently in the business of manufacturing lies. Worse, said Narendra Modi, he does not feel any shame even when he is caught! The party took the State into the doldrums and it has taken ten years just to do the minimal repairs to start moving forward again.
Congress leaders habitually declare that they “gave so much money” to the State. But, he challenged the slavishly pro-Congress media, please travel 250 km along the national highways and 250 km on the state highways to know “what the Dilli Sarkar has done for the State”. Madhya Pradesh, he said, was struggling to boost tourism, especially in Khajuraho, but the Centre was not ready to repair the national highways, with the result that tourists were “frightened away”. He asked the Prime Minister, Madam Sonia and shehzade ji, if they wished to compete on genuine issues of development or just tell untruths on the strength of State power; either way, he asserted, “you cannot suppress us”.
Dr Manmohan Singh, he said, has accused the BJP of lowering the standards of debate in the country, of calling him a thief in Parliament, “Does any opposition anywhere in the world call the Prime Minister a chor” – in the wake of the serial scams dogging the regime in recent years. The Gujarat strongman countered that it was not the BJP which had tarred the prestige of the Prime Minister’s post and office, or of Parliament.
On the contrary, he asserted, it was the Congress vice president who appeared before the media and said that the decisions taken by the Union Cabinet, by an elected government, were ‘nonsense.’ This was not done by any BJP Government, but rather, “your people did it”. You, Prime Minister, he continued, were in the United States when “you got this slap in the face. Did we do this?” Claiming that he empathised with the Prime Minister, he counselled, “please blame the real culprits, don’t make allegations against us”. Further, the grandeur of democracy demanded that the Congress vice president did not go around saying “BJP chor hai.” Where in the world, he queried, are opposition parties called ‘chor’ in public rallies; “who has lowered the standards of the debate in the nation”?
If indeed the BJP had stolen anything, Narendra Modi mocked, “it was the sleep of the Congress party,” as from every corner of the country the ‘lotus’ is getting stronger and “one family is getting challenged and can’t stand it”. An elite club in Delhi, he charged, was constantly unleashing “tirades against us”. Playing the ‘common man’ card to the hilt, he said, “I am not a member of this club, I am a villager from a poor family”, and “they (the elite) don’t like us grassroots people. So in this country, we can criticise any party and person, but not one family”. Why is this, he asked, insisting, “I have the right to criticise them, to expose them before the nation if they do zulm”. This is probably the first time – since independence – that any leader has spoken this way about the Nehru-Gandhis, in public.
The Madhya Pradesh Government, he told the electorate, had many achievements to its credit despite all the hurdles put by the Centre. In 2014, the BJP would come to power at the Centre; imagine what a friendly Union Government could do for the State, he said, urging the people to re-elect his party. The Bundelkhand region which stretched across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, he reminded his audience, had received a special package from the Centre. In UP the money disappeared without a trace, but in MP, major strides were made in agriculture, for which the State even received a Central award. The State now made major contributions to the national granary, and more had been achieved in 10 years of BJP than in 50 years of Congress. For the progress to continue, Congress must be kept out, he insisted. The party, he thundered, must be punished for the crippling price rise which made it difficult for the poor to even light their stoves.
At Guna, stronghold of late Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia (to which late Madhavrao Scindia ran for refuge after his popularity nosedived in Gwalior; his son Jyotiraditya has not dared return to Gwalior), Narendra Modi said Congress had learnt the politics of divide and rule from the British Raj. They divided the nation, the communities, and even the jatis, the villages and the languages, all in quest of an electoral arithmetic that kept it in power for so many decades. It is now time to uproot this divisive politics and unite the nation.
Niticentral.com, 19 November 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/11/19/modi-dares-congres-demands-answers-159078.html