Narendra Modi took the country’s political spectrum by surprise by launching a searing and unexpected attack on the Trinamool Congress at Darjeeling on Thursday, accusing it of non-performance on the promise of ‘poribortan’ on account of the lure of vote-bank politics. Pledging special attention to the Gorkhas, but stopping short of promising a separate State on account of the Model Code of Conduct, the BJP’s Prime Ministerial contender insisted that India must take responsibility for the Namoshudras who have been expelled from Bangladesh and reiterated the party’s opposition to illegal immigrations.
Hoping to retain Darjeeling for BJP’s SS Ahluwalia (backed by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha), and seeking support for the BJP candidates in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, Narendra Modi said the parliamentary election was not only about changing the regime at the Centre but about punishing those who have ruined the nation. Hitherto, he said, some parties have concentrated upon keeping 25 to 30 per cent of the people happy, plied them with liquor, and secured votes, but the nation today needs a Government that is hundred per cent concerned about the nation and not one that will keep a small group happy.
Urging the electorate to throw out the Congress and the parties with the “Congress DNA”, he said some people change their loyalty and change the name of their political party, but do not change their habits. Musing that sitting in Gujarat, he once thought that better days would dawn for West Bengal with the Left defeated and a new Government in office, the BJP leader asked if any “poribortan” had come after two years.
To loud chants of “No, No,” from the audience, he lambasted the regime for getting stuck in vote-bank politics and betraying the people who elected the new party with great hopes and expectations. Appealing to the electorate in the entire State, Narendra Modi said that in order to keep the State Government in line, the people need a “bada master ji in Delhi” (big teacher), to which the crowd responded with loud cheering. An honest Government at the Centre that is devoted to development will stop small people from fooling around and will make them walk the straight and narrow path, he averred.
Narendra Modi expressed astonishment that instead of criticising the Left or the Congress, the Chief Minister attacked him hundred times a day and seemed unable to digest her meals without this. Instead of thinking about employment opportunities for the youth, or medical facilities for the aged, she was deep in the competition for vote-banks. Being part of the Himalayan range, he said he had hoped that West Bengal would join in formulating a separate plan for the development of the Himalayan States, which would help districts like Siliguri, Darjeeling and the neighbouring State of Sikkim. Regretting the limited vision of the regime, he said that BJP would initiate fresh thinking for development when it came to power.
Applauding the Gorkhas for their long struggle for their rights, he said Gorkhas are employed in every part of India as they are trusted for their integrity and hard work and excel in providing security. Recalling that in his small school, whenever the children heard of Tenzing who scaled the Everest, their chests would swell with pride, but the Government of India never once thought to honour this great mountaineer, though he was honoured by England. Gorkhas have made a proud contribution to the Indian Army and are the pride of the force, he said, and promised to honour their dreams and protect their rights and provide them all opportunities for development.
Escalating his opposition to illegal immigration from Bangladesh which has ruined the lives of the people by stealing their opportunities and making them homeless (displaced), the Gujarat veteran said that the Namoshudras who have been thrown out of Bangladesh can hardly expect to be welcome in Pakistan. They have no other refuge than Bharat Mata, and it is our duty to take care of them, he told the people, adding that there is no reason why Assam and West Bengal alone should shoulder the liability, which can be shared by Gujarat and other States. “I am NaMo too, I am one of you”, he said, to reassure the victims of forced exodus.
Responding to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s taunt that the BJP was projecting Narendra Modi as a ‘magician’ who would solve all the country’s problems, he joked that the BJP had a candidate in PC Sorcar Junior, and that the country did not fear magicians but feared those who could perform black magic! The last 10 years of UPA, he said, had witnessed some powerful black magic which made employment opportunities for youth disappear, made farmers’ lives impossible, made lives of children from the northeast unsafe.
The Naxal movement which began in neighbouring Naxalbari, he said, was dead and gone without giving any benefit to the people, and promised to devote special attention to the place. The Maoism of today, the BJP leader said, that bedevils the Pashupati to Tirupati corridor is a game of China, and has ruined many lives without giving any benefit to the people.
The world famous Darjeeling tea, he concluded, has similarly been ruined by the “black magic people” who have let Sri Lanka dominate the world market, ruining the tea gardens and the lives of the workers. While slaughter houses get subsidy under the UPA, there is no subsidy for tea gardens for curing leaves and packaging the produce. “I love tea,” he said as the crowds chanted his name, “you are chai-walas, I too am a chai-wala.”
Tearing into the Sarada chit fund scam that tainted the ruling Trinamool Congress, he said the fake poribortan was over and now the winds of genuine poribartan are sweeping the nation. He urged the people to ensure that the Congress did not open its account in the State.
At Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, Narendra Modi regretted that a city built on the sweat of its labourers was languishing with neglect, when it had the potential to become a manufacturing hub for mobile phones, had leaders with vision developed the region as the industrial capital of the State. Has anyone seen a nation that exports grain and imports chapattis to eat, he asked rhetorically, and explained that the Government of India’s policy of exporting iron ore and importing steel was preventing the development of the national steel industry. The large scale export of natural resources (kaccha maal) and huge imports of finished goods was ruining the economy, he said. He called upon the people to vote out the UPA, the Congress and it offshoot parties (AAP), so that the country could look forward to an era of sankat-mukt Bharat (trouble free India).
At Jehanabad, Bihar, Narendra Modi said it was shocking that a district so close to Patna was wracked by Maoism, and recalled the pathos of a CRPF jawan who was injured in a bomb blast and pleaded with the authorities on television to send a helicopter to rescue him as he was bleeding and wanted to live for his two children. The lack of response resulted in his death, the BJP leader charged, and said similar indifference was also the lot of farmers who are committing suicide on account of indebtedness.
Pointing out that he came to Patna on October 27, 2013 despite threats and that even when the bombs were exploding, he said with great responsibility that if the BJP forms the Government at the Centre, he would bring a special package for Bihar. He urged the people to punish those who were telling lies on this score.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he recalled, had said that a rupee sent by the Centre became 15 paise by the time it reached the village, and the Planning Commission now says that the rupee becomes 12 paise. What kind of hand does this, he mused, and answered that such hands are always on the lookout to touch the tijori (treasury) for which they take the help of the lalten (lantern, an allusion to the election symbol of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal).
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he recalled, had allocated Rs 1100 crore for linking three rivers of the region, but the UPA scuttled the project. The weavers of the district were in dire straits, but the regime had given no thought how to upgrade their product and help them find a market. Jehanabad, he said, could easily be made part of the Gaya cultural tourism circuit, by a responsive government. Urging the people to ensure that the Congress and its allies do not open their account in the State, he pointed out that the BJP manifesto had promised that the Minimum Support Price for agricultural produce would be calculated on the basis of all farm inputs plus 50 per cent profit for the farmer as his just labour. Pointedly stating the farmers of the district were not getting a remunerative price for their ‘daal’ because under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lentils were imported only to the tune of Rs 1100 crore, but under the UPA the import has gone up to Rs 11,000 crore, so why will such a regime support local farmers, he asked.
The Gujarat strongman addressed ecstatic crowds at Arrah, Bihar, where he said that the feedback indicated that his alliance partners such as Upendra Kushwaha whose Karakat constituency went to polls on Thursday, were also faring well. The fan, symbol of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), he said, was moving as fast as the kamal tsunami.
Niticentral.com, 10 April 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/10/modi-tears-into-trinamool-congress-entices-gorkhas-210085.html