Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

BY R.K.MISRA Prime Minister Narendra Modi who sired the Clean India Campaign of 2014 has left the 2017 Gujarat poll narrative patently polluted. Irrespective of what the outcome may be, the Prime Minister led from the front in sullying election campaigning, plumbing dismaying depths in a desperate bid to beat down a two decade old anti-incumbency and a youthful combination welded by Congress president Rahul Gandhi that was giving the BJP nightmares. The BJP had only one ace, Modi and he, in turn, always has an ace up his sleeve, went the common refrain. Predictable in his unpredictability, the Prime Minister  was quick to pull off the velvet gloves and bring out the ugly clawed hand as the race for Gujarat moved past the roundabouts into the straights for the final dash. The ace was nothing but harking back to hindutva (mandir-masjid) and the age old ploy of communal polarization as well as injustice caused to Gujarat by criticizing Modi. Very early in the campaigning

BY R.K.MISRA The end of polling  in the western India state of Gujarat 2017  on December 14, brought the curtains down on one of the most bitterly fought Assembly elections in the last quarter century , with two national entities  sweating it out for a state neither can head. The election campaign was a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had a tough fight on home ground from emergent  challenger Rahul Gandhi of the Congress even as exit polls unanimously voted his BJP to power in Gujarat. The truth, however, will emerge only on December 18 after the counting is completed. Though assessments varied in terms of quantification but the common thread of all of them gave a lead to the BJP forecasting it’s return to helm the state. The Times Now-VMR exit poll predicted 115 seats to the BJP and 64 for the Congress while the Republic-C Voter exit poll gave the BJP 108 seats and the Congress 74, the ABP-CSDS survey by ABP news predicted a BJP victory in 117 seats as

BY R.K.MISRA Polls pulverize political parties, making them explore the range of antics from about turns to headstands. With love at a discount, all is fair in war and elections. Gujarat, which is poll bound a week from now, is a case in point .Here we have the sanctimonious spectacle of the Congress vice-chief going temple hopping and the BJP prime minister’s partymen courting maulvis to convass for them. In what is increasingly veering towards a tight fight with the Congress playing the caste card as well if not better than BJP, the ruling party is realizing to it’s chagrin that there can be no pariahs in this poll, where every vote will count. More so with the Congress strategizing to neutralise the BJP propaganda of muslim appeasement through a conscious resort to soft hindutva. If the BJP is perturbed over Gandhi’s temple visits(20 in the last 50 days),the congress seems disturbed  over news that a team of maulvis shall be campaigning for the BJP in minority domina