Dismissing the Third Front as a ‘Congress bachao front’ rather than a serious contender for power at the Centre, Narendra Modi exhorted the people of Odisha to vote for complete change as the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections would be held simultaneously in the State. Addressing a mammoth rally at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Vijay Sankalpa Samabesh at Baramunda Playground in Bhuvaneshwar on Tuesday, he pointed out that nine out of the 11 parties comprising this Front either support or have supported the Congress; “they save the Congress whenever it is in trouble but wear the mask of the third front when elections come.”
The Gujarat Chief Minister claimed that Oriyas of all districts come to work in Gujarat, so much so that Odia has emerged as the second language of Surat as sari and silk weavers of Odisha flock to the city for employment. This is not the first time Narendra Modi has made such an assertion in States on his campaign trail. Since it has never been contested by his political rivals, it would seem that unnoticed by the rest of India, Gujarat under his leadership has quietly emerged as a microcosm of the nation, where virtually every State is well represented in its employment profile. It is pertinent that unlike Delhi under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Gujarat has no problems adjusting to or accommodating its varied migrant guests.
In a frontal attack on Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, his Gujarat counterpart said that while talking to his migrant guests, he was surprised to learn that many hailed from Ganjam, the Chief Minister’s district. Pointing out that both Naveen Patnaik and he (Modi) have been ruling their respective States for 14 years now, he questioned why workers from Patnaik’s own district had to migrate for employment. India, he intoned, is a young country because 65 per cent of its people are below the age of 35; but it is tragic that in States like Odisha youth leave their villages and cities at the age of 18-20 years in search of opportunities, leaving only old folk behind. The challenge now is to retain those are still here and bring back those who have left by providing opportunities at home.
The 2014 election, the Gujarat strongman asserted, is not about forming the Government at the Centre or deciding who would be the MP from each constituency, but about realising the vision of the stalwart former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, whose legacy had been frittered away by the current incumbent, and the vision of Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, who gave the concept of antodaya, caring for the poorest of the poor, the most marginalised sections of society. It is a scathing commentary on the 60-year misrule (kushashan ki nitiyan) of Congress and one family, he said, that India in the 21st century is still grappling with problems of unemployment, health, education, housing and the safety of women.
The big leaders of Delhi come and bombard the State with their speeches, he charged, but “do they ever speak on price rise and related issues, on the pain of poverty?” Nor do they dare speak about corruption; “they put locks on their lips when the issue of corruption is raised”, he mocked.
The poverty of the people and the backwardness of a resource-rich State like Odisha, he said, is an “induced poverty”, a clear reflection of the poverty of governance. There are five models of governance in India – that of the Congress, the Communists, family-based parties; regional parties; and the Bharatiya Janata Party – and economists should judge which model has best served the people. “I can tell you,” he said, “that the BJP model is best for progress”.
Compare eastern and western India, he invited, and see the situation in the BJP ruled States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and Gujarat, and then see the States run by the Third Front-walas, “saari barbadi wahin hai,” he insisted, be it due to the BSP or SP in Uttar Pradesh, the leftists in West Bengal, and the sheer mess in Andhra Pradesh. The cleansing (shuddhikaran) of politics, he said, would come from recognising who is who in the so-called Third Front.
Elaborating, Narendra Modi said that two States, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, suffice to show how the country should be run. Chhattisgarh, he reminded the gathering, which responded with voluble chants of approval, is a neighbouring State which like Odisha has a huge tribal population. It too has a Maoist problem. But in the past 10 years under the leadership of Dr Raman Singh and his vikas ki rajniti it is one of the well-run States of India. Chhattisgarh once relied on the Centre for grains to feed its people, but now its farmers produce surplus rice and cater to the needs of neighbouring States. Odisha in this same period has not progressed an inch, and the reason is only that Odisha never got a good ruler. The nation and Odisha both need good rulers, he exhorted.
Madhya Pradesh too, was on the list of BIMARU States; it was considered beyond improvement, and lived on the charity of the Centre. In fact, the rulers in Delhi wanted it to remain backward. But Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken it to new heights; while agriculture development in India averages 2 to 3 per cent, in Madhya Pradesh agricultural development has risen above 15 per cent. Odisha has jungles and scheduled tribes, the Gujarat Chief Minister said, but do the tribals own the trees? In Gujarat, if any tribal owns a tree, he can get a bank loan to start his own business; this model can easily be extended to other States. Like many States, Odisha too has a drinking water problem despite having many rivers. In Gujarat, in just eight years, water pipelines took the Narmada water to 9000 villages, criss-crossing the State; but here nothing was done in 14 years.
The time is ripe for change, he said, and urged the people to change guard at the State and elect the BJP in all 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in order to build their own “pipeline to Delhi” so that “every district, every ilaka, will progress”. Expressing his love for all languages, Narendra Modi could not resist a dig at Naveen Patnaik’s inability to speak Odiya after 14 years at the helm. He added pointedly that when some parties organise meetings they have a problem of attracting crowds, but the BJP has a problem of accommodating them!
BJP president Rajnath Singh said it was a paradox that a resource-rich state like Odisha was mired in poverty and backwardness. This land of Jagannath and Balbhadra, he said, contained 62 per cent of the nation’s bauxite; 25 per cent of its coal reserves; 92 per cent of its manganese and had huge deposits of iron ore. The poor governance of the Congress and the Biju Janata Dal, he said, was responsible for this state of affairs.
Directly attacking the Congress vice president and “undeclared prime ministerial candidate of the Congress” for asking what had happened to the huge funds given to the State by the Centre, Rajnath Singh said that Rahul Gandhi needed to understand that the Centre had not done any charity but only given the State its due share of revenue from the Central kitty. Of the gargantuan corruption in the State, he said, the mines scam was the most serious; but the Centre was loathe to investigate it until forced by the Supreme Court. The Report of the Shah Commission has since been submitted, but he had learnt that only one volume of the 3-part report has been tabled in Parliament. Rajnath Singh said there is need for a CBI enquiry into the Rs 60,000 crore mining scam.
He accused the Congress of failing to move on the long pending Mines and Mineral Development Bill and assured Odisha 26 per cent royalty for its mineral wealth once the BJP came to power at the Centre; tribals would also get the first rights to land and forest resources. At present, he said, Odisha farmers pay 8-12 per cent interest for bank loans, but in neighbouring Chhattisgarh farmers are given zero per cent interest loans. Under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he reminded the people, the NDA had set up the Eklavya model of schools for the education of tribal youth, and for the first time, a Ministry of Tribal Welfare was set up. Nation-wide, as many as 270 tribes, including many from Odisha, were included in the Scheduled Tribe List, and more would be benefitted once the party came to power, he promised.
Mocking at the Congress and its leaders, he said that despite the garibi hatao slogan of the 1970s, the party brought the Food Security Bill on the plea that over two-thirds of the population of the country does not get adequate food to eat! Nehru spoke of building the nation, but today on television they are showing advertisements about ‘Bharat nirmaan’ which is still going on after 55 years at the helm.
Niticentral.com, 11 February 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/02/11/in-odisha-narendra-modi-unmasks-third-front-189127.html