The 2014 general election is a straight fight between a political party that shies away from naming its prime ministerial candidate but reeks of elitist arrogance, and a party with a leader grounded in the timeless ethos of India and a vision to tap the potential of each sector of the economy and realise the potential and fulfill the aspiration of each Indian.
At a mammoth gathering of party workers at Ramlila Grounds in the capital on Sunday, at the conclusion of the BJP’s three-day National Council meeting which thrashed out the issues on which it will fight the forthcoming Parliamentary election, Narendra Modi observed that the recent meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) focused on how to save the Congress (from electoral rout), while BJP worried about saving the nation.
Congress workers had come for the convention with great hopes of rejuvenation following the announcement of the Prime Ministerial nominee, he said, but they had to go back with three gas cylinders. It was a pathetic excuse to invoke the Constitution and democratic practices to cover up the inability to declare a nominee for the top post, he said, and dared the Congress to explain under what democratic tradition Jawaharlal Nehru got the post of first Prime Minister when the whole party wanted Sardar Patel for the job.
In October 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated, Rajiv Gandhi rushed back from Kolkata and was hurriedly sworn-in as Prime Minister. Punching holes in the new Congress legend, he challenged the party to say if the Parliamentary Party had met to elect Rajiv Gandhi as leader, and show the notes and minutes of such a meeting if it was held. The fact, he said, is that a coterie decided the matter. More recently, UPA-I chose Sonia Gandhi as its leader; she nominated Dr Manmohan Singh and he was sworn-in. Ridiculing Congress for shirking the challenge, the Gujarat veteran said that the Congress president, seeing defeat staring in the face of the party, did not want to sacrifice her son’s reputation in this crucial election and pulled him back.
A more personal but equally important reason, he analysed, is that Congress is running away from the election because the parampara (tradition) of samanta-shahi (courtiership) instilled such a heightened sense of family (vansh-vaad) that they felt ashamed to fight against a tea-boy (chai-wala) because they could not see him as a social equal. They are naam-daar (persons of status), I am kaam-daar (a worker); it is beneath their dignity to fight me. Rubbishing without naming Mani Shankar Aiyar for his tasteless remarks against the Gujarat Chief Minister (which even Congress was forced to disown), Narendra Modi said this ingrained sense of inequality because of family prestige is bad enough, but the Congress elites also cannot stomach the fact that their challenger is from a backward caste (pichdi-jati-wala) who sold tea in railway wagons and whose mother washed dishes and fetched water to help the family make ends meet.
Recalling the serial bomb blasts at the BJP’s Patna rally on October 27, 2013, he said the spirit of the people who stayed put amidst the blasts (jan sailaab dataa raha) was the same spirit with which Bhagat Singh and others gave up their lives for freedom and countless youth willingly rotted in jails under the Raj. Today’s youth, he said, are fighting for su-raaj (good governance) in the same spirit. It has infected the nation at large, and even non-political persons are approaching the BJP and asking how they can serve the cause.
After 60 years of hearing about “garib ki batein, vikas ki batein” (the poor, development), he noted that when we look at the map of the country we see that there is some development in western India, but the eastern side is debilitated. Why this inequality (yeh asantulan paida kyon hua?) Given a chance in May 2014, he said the first priority of the BJP would be to raise the level of the backward regions – Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and the entire north-east, Orissa, eastern UP. Regional aspirations, he thundered, have erroneously been treated as a burden by successive Congress regimes, when they are actually an opportunity for development; if Delhi and the States join hands, the benefits to the nation can be exponential.
India is an organic whole and is not joined together only by the constitution. As a Chief Minister who has worked closely with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then experienced the hostility of the Centre, he said he understands the feelings of Chief Ministers who desire cooperation with New Delhi. Sadly, the thinking in the corridors of power today is a “big brother attitude”, but “we will change this”.
It is wrong to believe that the Prime Minister and his cabinet will take the nation ahead, Narendra Modi said, because the Prime Minister working in close cooperation with the Chief Ministers and their cabinets, and the bureaucracies at the Centre and States working in tandem, can solve all problems. Bad governance can ruin the nation, “su-shasan bahut anivarya hai”, he said, adding that the rich can buy governments but the poor can give their children a good education in government schools only if there is good governance.
The nation has to decide if it wants to trust its future to a gishi peeti tape recorder (worn out sloganeer) or to a person with a proven track record. Expressing fatigue at the Congress penchant for pushing Bills on every issue, he said, “we want political will, karne ke liye dil chahiye”; we have heard enough about this Act, that Act, “ab desh to action chahiye”. With this, he scuttled Rahul Gandhi’s claims of MNREGA, Food Security Bill, pending Bills et al in one scoop.
We are hearing the drums beat for elections, he mocked, “chunav ke liye dol dol dol, phir bhi sarkar dol rahi hai”. In the past 10 years, the Prime Minister has set up some committee or other every few days, and the country is sunk under the burden of committees, “we now want commitment”, he said, and said development and delivery and not doles are the yardsticks against which governance is measured.
Poets have mused, kuch baat to hai jo hasti mitti nahin hamari, which Narendra Modi attributed to the country’s rainbow ethos represented by kutumbh pratha (family) which made and nurtured us and said we must work to strengthen it as best we can. The second is our agriculture, cattle wealth and villages which must be protected with right policies; then follows the strength of our women, matri shakti, tyag tapasya ki murti, who must be empowered through education and economic empowerment, and protected (later in his speech he called for an end to the vile practice of female foeticide). The fourth strand in the Indian rainbow, he said, is our land, jungle and environment, which is our responsibility to future generations and must be saved with the help of modern technology. Our fifth strength is our youth, a demographic dividend that India is blessed with, and can serve the whole world’s needs if we give them skill development training and opportunities. He expressed anguish that sections of the youth were being lost to drugs and narcotics and urged people to rise above politics and save the youth so that the nation could recover its lost glory as teacher to the world, vishwa guru. The sixth strand is our strength as a representative democracy, but the challenge is to become a participatory democracy. Finally, India was famed for her gyan, knowledge, and this is the pinnacle to which we must return.
At the recent Congress convention it was said that ‘Congress is an idea’ and certainly no organisation can exist without an idea, but the Congress thinks of India as a honey beehive, and the BJP thinks of her as Bharat Mata. The Congress and BJP, he said, are polar opposites on every major issue; Congress divides society to perpetuate its rule while BJP seeks unity. He noted that Congress has pledged to give tickets to persons with Congress in their heart, but said BJP would give tickets to those with Bharat Mata in their hearts. The people have seen 60 years of Congress rule, and should now give an opportunity to ‘sevaks’ for 60 months.
The nation is facing unprecedented challenges on all fronts, he noted, from price rise to corruption, to wrong and mindless policies and people are reeling under multiple burdens. Outlining a plethora of solutions to various issues – and thereby silencing his detractors who ask what his solutions are – Narendra Modi wondered if there is really no solution to the crippling burden of prices. What the country needs, he said, is real time data on agriculture; what crop is sown where and when and how much the harvest is, and said imports and exports should be tailored accordingly. What we now have is a pernicious practice of exporting the commodity that is needed and then re-importing it; “what is this business” he asked. A national agriculture market and price stabilisation fund is needed for State intervention on behalf of poor and special courts to punish black marketers.
Education and employment too require a database which will anticipate the jobs that will open up in various fields, so that youth can find employment immediately on completing their studies. In this era of globalisation, he insisted, India needs next generation infrastructure in terms of railways, roads, water grid, river linking and coastal development, agriculture infrastructure, gas grid (so that cylinders are not needed anymore, he quipped), an optical fibre network for communications, and so on. Atal ji, he said, had visualised the Golden Quadrilateral, and it is for the BJP to take this idea forward in every transportation sector, particularly railways, which can transform the nation if upgraded in a dedicated manner as Japan and China have done. Another imperative is to realise Advani ji’s drive to bring black money back to the country and utilise it in the service of the poor.
Urbanisation, he said, is a challenge, and India should think in terms of building new cities with a walk to work concept; twin cities concept for neighbouring cities, satellite cities near large cities, all of which will stimulate industry, growth and employment, and solve the GDP problem. Above all, we must plan for the future by envisaging a roof over every head, especially for the poor.
With several successful Chief Ministers in the BJP pantheon, Narendra Modi said India should see to it that every city has its own white revolution like the Amul Dairy in Gujarat, and should devote equal attention to agriculture, animals, and tree plantation. We must end the practice of importing timber by making farmers plant trees. Each State should have its own IIT, IIM and AIIMS, and the approach to health must be tweaked towards health assurance rather than health insurance. What India needs above all, he said, is to fight poverty by empowering the poor with small and cottage industries, and to create a Brand India, like the old Made in Japan legend, through the pursuit of five ‘T’s’ – talent, tradition, tourism, trade and technology. Where terrorism divides, tourism unites, he said.
Concluding, he said the 2014 election is critical because of the dimensions of the crises facing the nation on multiple levels and fronts, with people suffering because of a rudderless government distinguished only by corruption. The AICC meeting having proved a damp squib, Narendra Modi gave a clarion cry for releasing the nation from the grip of dynastic politics (vansh-vaad) and corruption, and fighting for the idea of India based on its timeless civilisational values of satyamev jayate, vasudhaiva kutumbakam, ahimsa parmo dharma, sarv pantha sambhava, ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti, paudhe main bhi paramatma hota hai, nari tu hi narayani, daridra narayan ki seva … A fitting Chandragupta for 21st century India.
Niticentral.com, 19 November 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/01/19/namo-unveils-vision-namdaar-vs-kaamdar-181053.html