An eloquent and combative Narendra Modi defused the weapon of secularism that has hitherto been used to bludgeon the BJP, calling it a mask to cover up the twin crimes of the politics of vote-banks and corruption that have brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Addressing an unprecedented and highly enthusiastic crowd at the BJP’s Vijay Shankhnaad Maha Rally at Lucknow on Sunday, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate asserted that the herb (jadi-booti) of secularism is no longer an infallible recipe for winning elections because people want to experience the tangible benefits of governance.
The secularism practiced by parties like the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party is totally hollow, he charged, and has been repeated ad nauseum as a mantra to render all serious concerns of the people invisible or meaningless. Thus, when the youth ask for employment, they are told that secularism is in danger; when farmers ask for water for irrigation, when parents seek education for their children or alleviation of poverty, the answer again is secularism first. “Apni nakaami chupaane ke liye secularism ka naqaab pehen karke gumraah karne ki koshish ye karte hain,” (to hide their failures they wear the veil of secularism and try to fool the people), he added.
Matters have touched such a nadir that when one Minister’s buffalos went missing, “I half expected him to come out with a statement that ‘secularism is in danger’!” he mocked. Secularism for these parties is simply an election slogan (chunaavi naara) to grab power by dividing the people, but for the BJP it means India First, it means uniting the people and taking them on the road to development, it is Sarva Panth Sambhav, an article of faith, he said.
Under the UPA, politicians have indulged in massive corruption without any sense of shame, he said. One minister from Uttar Pradesh has been involved in the Coal scam; another misused funds meant for the handicapped and his honourable colleague dismissed the charges by saying that Rs70 lakh is too small an amount to embezzle and he would believe the scandal if the sum involved Rs70 crore. “There should be some limit to shamelessness,” the Gujarat strongman chided.
Puncturing more holes in the mask of secularism, Narendra Modi said the condition of Muslims in various States is the legitimate yardstick to measure genuine secularism. The Congress, BSP and SP have all ruled in Uttar Pradesh and done nothing for the minorities. All Muslims have a fervent desire to undertake Hajj once in their lifetime, and in Gujarat, the State quota is only 4800, but the annual applications are around 38,000, a reflection of the material prosperity of the State’s minority community. In Uttar Pradesh, the quota is 32,000 and the applications are only 35,000, which reflects the sad economic plight of the community; “Muslims are not treated as human beings but as a piece of vote” by successive secular regimes in the State, he charged.
Progress can be measured in terms of per capita income, and in Gujarat it stands at Rs75,000 per person per annum, as opposed to a meagre Rs36,000 in Uttar Pradesh. Barely 10,000 villages or 40 per cent of the State have electricity, whereas in Gujarat the urban and rural areas are 99 per cent electrified and power is available round the clock and all year round. What is even worse, under the Samajwadi Party supremo, there is reservation even in the distribution of power, with his constituency enjoying total electrification while the rest of the State languishes in neglect. The ruling party in the State has became a samaj virodhi and sukhwadi party, where leaders watch song and dance shows even as children die in relief camps, Narendra Modi said. Such a party should at least stop taking the name of veteran leader Ram Manohar Lohia, he said.
Lamenting at this sad state of affairs, Narendra Modi pointed out that Uttar Pradesh has a wealth of handicrafts in virtually all districts, from brass works to shoes, perfumes, locks, leather wares, carpets, silk saris, glass and wood works, all of which can capture a major share of the world market, but nothing has been done in this regard because of the negligent attitude of successive regimes and their obsession with vote-banks. In contrast, Gujarat boosted its kite industry from a mere Rs35-40 crore enterprise to a booming sector worth more than Rs500 crore, which mainly benefits the poor Muslim families that are engaged in this craft. If Uttar Pradesh is put on the road to material prosperity, the whole of India would rise with it, Narendra Modi said while recalling that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee always said that the road to Delhi runs through Lucknow.
Realisation has begun to dawn on the Samajwadi Party chief that he cannot compete with him (Modi) on the size of his rallies; Mulayam Singh has also conceded Modi’s advocacy of the importance of development, the Gujarat Chief Minister said. Uttar Pradesh asked Gujarat for lions and received them; it also asked for the Amul Dairy to help its cattle owners. As a result, cattle owners who earned only Rs15-18 per litre of milk now earn between Rs35-40 per litre from Amul and last week Amul did the shilanyas for a plant in UP. Challenging Mulayam Singh to give an account of his party’s Government, he condemned the police assault on students in Kanpur and said the SP’s brief reign has already witnessed 150 riots whereas Gujarat has been riot free for ten years. The crime statistics, particularly against girls and women, are deplorable, he added.
Narendra Modi made special mention of the recent heavy rain that wreaked havoc on the crops and assured that the BJP would take up the plight of farmers with the State Government. The future of India is linked with the future of the youth, he said, and wished the students of standards X and XI the best for their examinations (beginning Monday). The coming decade belongs to the youth, the backward, the oppressed and the marginalised, he said, because the BJP represents hope and optimism as it is a party that has had the strength to make a backward caste boy from a poor family its Prime Ministerial candidate.
Depressed and negative leaders cannot raise the nation, he said, but “I am an optimist. Life will change if we have the courage to turn weakness and difficulty into opportunity.” Promising an end to the corruption and rampant loot of the UPA years, he said he would serve as a ‘chowkidar’ of the national treasury in Delhi and ensure that neither elephant riders (read BSP) nor cyclists (read SP) could lay a hand (read Congress) on the national corpus. Asserting that he was unfazed by challenges, he cited a couplet to the delight of his audience:
Aandhiyon ki zid hai jehan bijli girane ki, mujhme bhi zid hai wahin ashiyan banane ki (Where the storms are adamant to strike bolts of lightning, I too am adamant to build my house on the same spot).
BJP president Rajnath Singh formally welcomed former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh into the party on Sunday. Others present at the rally included former Army Chief VK Singh, former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, Kalraj Mishra, Hukum Singh, Uma Bharati, Udit Raaj, Laxmikant Bajpai, Lalji Tandon, Amit Shah and others.
Niticentral.com, 2 March 2014