In his most comprehensive attack on the ruling establishment till date, Narendra Modi accused the Congress-dominated UPA of compromising the nation’s institutional integrity and particularly its security by creating tensions with the armed forces; mangling the federal structure; misusing the office of Governor and browbeating Opposition leaders to keep the regime afloat; and above all, of creating an unconstitutional body to run the Government from behind the scenes. Berating the elitism of the establishment for denigrating his humble origins, the Gujarat strongman countered that hard work, not Harvard, would carry the day.
Speaking to a gigantic crowd throbbing with enthusiasm and patience as his speech was translated line by line into Tamil on Saturday evening, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Prime Ministerial candidate charged that the Planning Commission, a premier institution from the time of the first Prime Minister, has been reduced to a “zero”. Instead, a National Advisory Council of “jhola chaap NGOs” is running the Government without accountability, reducing the Prime Minister and his entire Secretariat to ciphers.
Worse, for the first time, a situation of confrontation between the Party and the Government has been created wherein decisions of the Government are publicly ridiculed by a party leader, he said, alluding to Rahul Gandhi’s habit of publicly denouncing Government decisions and having them overturned. Such is the “work culture” that the Cabinet rejects recommendations of the Planning Commission when that body is headed by the Prime Minister.
Never has independent India seen such tension with the armed forces which are so vital for the security of nation. But the UPA has built up so many incidents of stress and even tried to sow the poison seed of communalism in the armed forces by pressurizing them to do a communal census on recruitment within the forces (as recommended by the Sachar committee). To their credit, the forces refused to succumb to this devious design. Referring to the attack on Army jawans along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, Narendra Modi said it was disgraceful that the Defence Minister gave one statement in Parliament while the Army headquarters gave another. The work culture and political culture of the UPA were bringing the nation to the verge of disaster and fragmentation, he warned.
The smooth running of the nation requires the cooperation of the States, but UPA perverts the federal structure and considers the states as subordinate fiefs (suba). Atal Bihari Vajpayee respected all State Governments regardless of the party in power, but Congress uses the office of the Governor to stymie the functioning of elected regimes by denying assent to legislations passed by the Assembly. Raj Bhavans have been reduced to subordinate offices of the ruling party in Delhi, he charged; the sanctity of constitutional offices have been compromised, and the CBI is misused to keep Opposition leaders in line. He accused the Centre of using Income Tax raids and notices to frighten investors away in Gujarat. Commissions for human rights, women, minorities et al are misused for political purposes and their sanctity ruined.
Needless confrontations were created, Centre vs State, State vs State on issues of water or land or even the running of inter-State buses; there are problems getting railway permission to lay a water pipe across a track to reach water to villages in Tamil Nadu, yet smaller parties in the alliance are allowed to indulge in corruption to keep the UPA afloat, and Tamil Nadu has seen many such beneficiaries, he mocked, in an allusion to the 2G Spectrum scam.
Had the concern that the UPA pretends for the poor at election time been genuine, Narendra Modi charged, poor fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat would not be rotting in jail in Sri Lanka or Pakistan. India’s foreign relations have been messed up so thoroughly, he charged, that even small countries do not respect us. If India is strong, he asserted, everyone will try to befriend us.
The Supreme Court is also disrespected by the Government, which preferred to sell grains rotting in the open to alcohol producers rather than distribute them to the poor. The national river grid conceived by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to manage the problem of floods in some parts of the country and drought or water shortage in other parts was shelved when the UPA came to power, particularly the report of the Ganga Cauvery Task Force. The Supreme Court in response to a public interest petition directed the Government to resume work on the project, but it is now 15 months, he said and (amending his assertion in Guwahati earlier in the day) even a committee has not been set up. Yet one leader (Rahul Gandhi) goes to Gujarat on Saturday and says that the State Government is making a fool (ullu) of the people; such language is usually not used in public discourse, he chided, and the people are not fools to keep Congress out of power in the State for the last 25 years.
Narendra Modi reserved his maximum fire power for the Union Finance Minister, whom he dubbed as “recounting Minister”, who lost an election in Tamil Nadu but won in the recount! Lambasting the arrogance of the Finance Minister (inki arrogance ab chat par chad kar bol raha hai), Narendra Modi said the former was using loose language against him and recently said that ‘Modi’s knowledge of economics can be written behind a postage stamp’. The UPA, he conceded, is headed by an eminent economist Prime Minister and the Finance Minister also considers himself a competent economist, “he thinks no one is more intelligent than him”, but “I have proved myself with my delivery, what have you have proved as top economist?”
The Gujarat Chief Minister said that he came from a village school and had not seen the doors of Harvard University, but when the NDA demitted office the GDP was growing at 8.06% and today the UPA’s own estimates for 2012-13 show a growth rate of only 4.5%. In Gujarat, the GDP rate was -4.8 per cent when he took over in 2001, and it was hard work that has taken it to 10.2 per cent in 2012; this is double digit growth and compares well with the national average of 7.6 per cent in the period from 2001 to 2012. Facts, he said triumphantly, speak for themselves.
Disputing the Congress charge that the Gujarat Government is creating liabilities and debt, he countered that the Central Government, as per its own data, has incurred debt of Rs 50 lakh crore, which is 50 per cent of the national GDP, “this is their economics”. Under an Act of Parliament, the maximum fiscal deficit for States is 3 per cent, but the Centre has breached these norms itself, “buddhi ka ahankaar karne wala, desh ka khazana tabah kar diya; you are responsible”, he charged. Even unemployment, as per the latest NSSO figures, stands at 2.2 per cent nationwide, in Gujarat it is 0.5 per cent. So colossal is the Congress failure, Narendra Modi lambasted, that not only are no jobs being created, but people are losing jobs, due to the faulty vision and policies of the regime. Only hard work, not Harvard, would see the nation through in the days ahead, he said, urging the people to adopt just one mantra for success – vikas vikas vikas.
Narendra Modi got a standing ovation from the crowd; six political parties were represented at the rally, indicating the seriousness with which the BJP is attempting to establish a presence in the State.
Niticentral.com, 9 February 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/02/09/harvard-is-not-enough-hard-work-matters-modi-188365.html