PM's Carrot And The Club Capers

BY R.K.MISRA

Over two decades ruling Gujarat, BJP is getting an attack of nerves with less than a month to go for  polling on December 9 and 14. How else do you account for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi dangling a caramel coated carrot one moment and menacingly wielding the club the very next .

Three days before elections were declared in Gujarat, (October 22) Prime Minister Modi was in the state, sweet as sugar enumerating the manifold benefits of having the same party government, both at the centre and in the state to ensure speedy development. Modi was making a case for continuing with the BJP government in Gujarat where he was the chief minister from 2001 to 2014. He reeled off names in support of his argument. Morarji Desai as PM and Babubhai Patel as CM in Gujarat: Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Delhi and Keshubhai Patel in the state and off course he in Delhi and Vijay Rupani in his home, state conveniently choosing to omit the long line of Congress CMs  in Gujarat with the same party government at the centre.

Gujarat should take advantage of a sympathetic government at the centre  , he said , pointing out the example of the Vajpayee government which helped Gujarat tide over the earthquake.

The same day, speaking at a rally in Vadodara, Modi was clearly menacing when he said that the centre would not spend a rupee in states where anti-development governments are installed. More often than not Modi, both as CM and as prime minister, has termed the Congress as anti-development and anti-Gujarat. Who elects governments? Quite obviously, the people, so who was  the Prime Minister threatening with cutting off development funds if they voted the present opposition to power- the very people who had four times elected him to head the state. In fact the importance of this statement goes beyond Gujarat to hold out a warning to people in states who vote non-BJP governments countrywide.

Federalism  and  the Constitution ordained state-centre relations apart, what are the factors that make a PM issue a stern warning to the people of his own election-bound state?

Irrespective of the outcome of the polls, the fact is that the ruling BJP-both at the centre and in the state-is flustered. Modi ruled Gujarat with an iron hand but after his departure for Delhi in 2014, it’s tongue-tied state leaders have been flexing their atrophied muscles to the detriment of the party. And this includes national BJP chief Amit Shah who may have worked wonders for  the party countrywide, but his petty feuding with the then chief minister Anandiben Patel has left it shambled in Gujarat. Ms.Patel was a taciturn lady but Vijay Rupani is a greenhorn, who is seen as a poor proxy for Shah. In fact, Modi’s successors are quite simply lost in his outsized shoes.

Three of the most  prickly thorns embedded in the ruling party’s flesh are all creation of the BJP’s internecine warfare. The Patidar agitation and it’s spearhead Hardik Patel was born out of the movement to shake down the invincible Anandiben, who was Modi’s handpicked and selected successor. Some blessed ambitious patidar leaders within the BJP began the game but could not control it’s outcome. Alpesh Thakore, the OBC leader received backing from present deputy chief minister Nitin Patel until he outgrew him and joined the Congress recently. Jignesh Mevani, the dalit leader was born out of the july11, 2016 dalit youth lynching and the countrywide outrage that cost BJP it’s first lady patidar chief minister.

 All three have remained immune to the ruling party’s charms because it would be a  kiss of ‘death’ for their respective political careers. The opposition is thus their natural ally. The Congress stands to benefit from it. The communities that the three represent can influence the outcome in at least 100 hundred of the total 182 Assembly constituencies in the state !

Nothing seems to have gone right for the BJP in post-Modi Gujarat. This is despite the rain of sops over the last three months and a publicity blitzkrieg at huge cost to the public exchequer. ”it has been drained dry and Gujarat is sitting on a mountain of public debt’, says a bureaucrat who does not want to be named . When the BJP came to power in Gujarat in 1995, the public debt was Rs 10,000 crores which has now risen to Rs 1.82 lakh crore, an increase of Rs 18,647 crores over the previous year alone. It rose approx. three times in the first ten years of Modi rule.

BJP’s poll forays in the public domain have received a very lukewarm response. The statewide Narmada yatra, a ploy to hog credit for the Narmada  dam came a cropper and was shooed away from some of the patidar dominated villages. Gaurav yatra, a hark back to Modi’s Gujarat yatra after the Godhra train carnage and the statewide communal riots in 2002 received an equally tepid welcome when re-invented in it’s new ‘avatar’ with the old name recently.

In stark contrast, Congress  vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been receiving an enthusiastic welcome in the state. He has been raising issues of farmers suicides, rising joblessness and the sheer arrogance in power of Modi, which has been striking a raw nerve among st the voters. 

Ever the leader, this time it is Modi who is trailing the Congress vice-president. Rahul began  a 3- day Saurashtra campaign from Dwarka. So did Modi days later. Rahul climbed to the Chotila temple to pay obesience, Modi held a public meeting in the temple town soon after.

In the social media  too, the hunter has turned the hunted with the hugely viral’vikas gando thayo chhe(development has gone insane)) and ‘mara beta chettri gaya’ (bloody hell,cheated us) taking the social media platforms by storm. Once the domain of the BJP under Modi, the party is fumbling and at a loss, matching paces. 

Realising the steep drop in popularity, the prime minister has in the last six months increased the frequency of his visits to his home state –five in as many weeks and tenth this year. 

According to party sources ,he is slated to address 30 to 35 public meetings in the state making it clear that he will lead from the front and the BJP will fight the Gujarat elections in his name. It has little else to show except Modi !.

http://www.orissapost.com/epaper/101117/p9.htm