Has Narendra Modi crossed the political Rubicon, casting the die Julius Caesar style, and assuring a straight run to Delhi? A hint that this may be so can be discerned from the Government-controlled Doordarshan News (DD News) signalling its Gujarat unit to conduct an interview with the State Chief Minister. Telecast solely within the State, the development is nevertheless a significant pointer of the way the wind is blowing.
The cognoscenti recall that at least three days before Sonia Gandhi did her ‘tyag-murti’ act and allegedly heard an inner voice tell her not to become Prime Minister, the intelligence agencies had steeply enhanced the security around Manmohan Singh. The bare exterior of the ambitious Arjun Singh’s home told its own story.
As the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate told DD News journalist Ashok Shrivastav in Gandhinagar on Sunday, Gujarat gives the maximum revenue to Doordarshan and yet the Chief Minister of the State was for years blacked out by the publicly-funded national carrier. “I have kept quiet”, he pointed out, “and in the interest of democracy I am still giving you time”.
He was answering a question about the heated exchanges following his speech in Jammu, in which he allegedly called Arvind Kejriwal a Pakistani agent. Refuting the charge, the BJP leader said,” I said only one word, which is that Pakistan is happy at what is happening in India, whether it is the AK-47 (weapon), AK-49 (short lived Delhi government) and AK Antony (ineffective Defence Minister”. The talk about ‘agent’ was linked to the demand for a plebiscite (by Prashant Bhushan), and then too he only posed a question, Narendra Modi clarified.
Questioned about his apparent love for political punches, which he pulls quite often (apparently he loves pineapple punch ice cream), the Gujarat Chief Minister responded that he had been bashed for so long, more than any leader in public life, that a couple of punches (by him) hardly evened the score. Where in the world, he emphasised to the discomfort of his interlocutor, will a sitting Chief Minister be blacked out of an official news channel?
Asked about his spectacular road show at Varanasi where an unprecedented crowd greeted him and triggered panic in Congress ranks, forcing its leaders to say that the ‘Modi tsunami’ would bring havoc (vinash), the BJP veteran predicted “this tsunami will destroy the Congress government, the evil and bad governance and corruption of the past decade”. After seeing the spontaneous reaction of the people, he said, no lab test was needed to see which way the wind was blowing. After all, he pointed out, “I filed my nomination in Vadodara also, but no one lost sleep; they lost sleep in Varanasi only”.
On the issue of his joining the social media, Narendra Modi said it gave him insight into what the youth are thinking, “I just listen in”. He seized the opportunity to rebut criticism by Congress spokespersons, saying that when he followed a person it did not mean that he knew the person or all about the person, “I am not endorsing anyone, just listening. Yet I get gaalis (abuse), but if we do not have even this much compassion, it will ruin the social media totally”.
Denying the charge that he had made the election about himself, the Gujarat strongman said, “They (his rivals) made it a Modi-centric election for no reason”. Elaborating, he said that when there was talk in the BJP whether or not to make him the Prime Ministerial candidate, it was an internal matter of the party. “But Congress leaders gave statements saying that name Modi fast, it will make our work easy, the election will become one-sided (in their favour) because the country will not accept him”, he pointed out. When his anointment took place, the Congress made a festive (mehfil) atmosphere, thinking it was on a roll. It felt that winning the election was as easy as drawing a line on butter, he recalled with amusement.
When the Congress observed some excitement among the people, it dismissed it saying, ‘Modi will not work was outside Gujarat”. But when the rallies began, they were taken aback, he laughed, and they resorted to all kinds of tricks to derail his bandwagon, but it all come to nothing. The crux of this election, he stressed, is development, and Congress is not prepared to explain its 10 years in power, the crushing price rise, unfulfilled promises of jobs for youth, inability to protect girls and spend even a paisa of the Rupees 1000 crore Nirbhaya fund, and above all, the galloping corruption in all areas. During elections, the ruling party and Government have to answer the people, and they are shirking this duty, he said.
Expanding on this theme, he said that from September 13, 2013 when his name was announced, “I stressed only development”. Seven months later, if the election is personalised it is not his fault, “analyse my speeches, I talked only development at Amritsar, and there was no media coverage!”
The Prime Minister, he observed, cannot be blamed if he does not see a Modi wave and feels it is a media creation, because those who live in air-conditioned rooms do not know the temperature outside. The Prime Minister has never contested elections, never faced the people, he cannot understand. As for NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s comment that Rajnath Singh could become Prime Minister, the Gujarat veteran said that Pawar was his senior and despite good personal relations, their political views were very different. Since this is election time, the NCP leader is creating confusion so that a strong NDA government does not emerge.
Denying a strategy of the BJP-RSS to highlight two leaders at the same time as hardliner-soft liner such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, Narendra Modi said this was media rhetoric. For years they said that Atal ji the right man in the wrong party. To get a complete picture, one must look at the BJP resolutions over the years, the leaders’ speeches, track record in Parliament and in Government, study the party constitution, and only then come to a conclusion.
Dismissing a suggestion that his talk of Varanasi’s Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb showed a soft new side of his personality, Narendra Modi said this had always been his position, “but now you are noticing me”. The high expectations regarding his coming to power, he said, were because people are crushed with despair. Today, if anyone goes to Varanasi and says he will clean the Ganga, no one will believe him, but if he (Modi) makes the claim, he said, they will believe because “it happened in Gujarat with the Sabarmati, so it can happen here”.
Reacting to Kapil Sibal’s contention that the Sabarmati was always clean, Narendra Modi said “there are two gems in the Union Cabinet, Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram, and they are experts in manufacturing lies. They don’t know that in Gujarat, circuses used to be held on the dry bed of the Sabarmati; children writing school essays would describe how they played cricket there. One day a child asked his father why the road was so bad and the father said, ‘this is a river’, to which the child asked, ‘where is the water?’ This was reported in the newspaper,” the Chief Minister said.
To the Congress charge that Gujarat was always developed and rich, Narendra Modi said the party should first decide if the State has improved or not. When he became Chief Minister in the wake of the Bhuj earthquake in 2001, people came and begged him to do something about the power situation so that they could have electricity at dinner time. “You can ask your DD staff, there was no light for studying for exams, no fan, no television serials were seen”. Today there is electricity 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year”.
On other parameters, he said, Gujarat was never considered an agricultural state, but the water revolution led to a 10 per cent average growth over the past decade, for which the State even received a UN award. The India average in agriculture is 2 per cent. Rahul bhaiya’s claim that children are hungry here is not worth wasting time over, he said. In the small and medium industry sector, the nationwide growth rate is 19 per cent, but in Gujarat it is 86 per cent. Employment, as per Government of India figures, is 57 per cent via employment exchanges in Gujarat, nationwide it is 43 per cent. The Planning Commission says there is minimum unemployment in Gujarat. “I give all credit to Gujaratis for this, but one must in fairness accept that change has happened”, he said.
Regarding Kashmir, he said he had met youth from the State often as he used to visit the State even at the height of terrorism; a Governor once helped him to meet hard core terrorists in Jammu. “Atal ji was the first leader to reach out to the people with his talk of insaniyat, jamooriyat and kashmiriyat; today they again feel that BJP will do something. I have met children who leave the State to study, and we should help them to study”, he said.
The core of the problem with Pakistan, he insisted, lays in Delhi, and a strong government will fix things. The days of physical force are over, he said, and today international politics is about mutual understanding and the transfer of technology, knowledge and trade. Once we revive the economy, everyone will want to talk to us, even Pakistan will want us to help its youth.
On his alleged silence on problems ailing Indian cricket despite being associated with the cricket association of Gujarat, and attacking the Prime Minister for his silence, Narendra Modi said he questioned the Prime Minister’s silence on things he knew about and not about cricket. “If you ask me anything about Gujarat, then as Chief Minister I have to reply”. Regarding cricket, he said that though he had not said anything publicly, he had said all that needed to be said in the proper forum.
Saying he had not resisted the application of RTI to political parties, Narendra Modi said this is a matter that must be discussed with the Election Commission and all political parties, and cannot be imposed willy nilly.
Sharply rebuking the journalist for asking why he boycotted the NIC meeting after the Muzaffarnagar riots, Narendra Modi said, “I never boycott”. However, the NIC meeting comprises around 1200 persons who get to talk for two minutes each. The BJP was represented, many other Chief Ministers never went, “Have you asked all those who never came why they did not come?” he asked, adding that the meeting was called at very short notice, “this is not the way to do things. The aim was to set a political agenda, it was not serious”.
Concluding with his gruelling campaign schedule which has so far covered 400 districts and 1000 kms daily, Narendra Modi agreed that no other politician has matched his outreach to the people. “I did it. I have moved across the country before this election; I lived like a majdoor (labourer). For years I would travel by night and work by day, and as Chief Minister also I worked like a majdoor. I will do this as Prime Minister as well, so long as the body supports…”
Niticentral.com, 29 April 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/29/has-narendra-modi-crossed-the-rubicon-217591.html