Electioneering heat and dusk

The uncontrolled polarized campaigning that the people of this country are witnessing of late has started to boomerang now. And rightly so, that plethora of anything is not good is what can be seen here. The two national political parties – BJP and Congress – along with other regional parties are now falling in their own soup as most of their leaders are caught making irresponsible comments thereby blushing the party leadership most of whom have distanced themselves from the culprits. These political parties have even issued rejoinders condemning the statements given by their leaders. Of late the vibratory speeches made by Praveen Togadia of RSS, Giriraj Singh of BJP, Shazia Ilmi of AAP, Azam Khan of SP, Kapil Sibal and Priyanka Vadra of Congress have been an overdose of polarization that one wonders why there is no upheaval or riot even after these comments in the country. No matter what but the commoners in the country today are not too bothered about these comments because this has been an election of change similar to the one fought in USA last time when Barack Obama sought a presidential term on the theme of change. This is also something that the BJP is spearheading with all American type campaigning but if comments and statements that is of polarized nature is not controlled and curtailed by the party’s leadership then it will deviate from the very foundation of “good governance” and “development” on which it is fighting the polls.

This poll is definitely going to be one for the people where the commoners are fighting for their livelihood and relieve the country from the dark decade of misrule. But if the situation is assessed in right earnestness then the BJP which is fighting the polls to rid the country from the Congress dynastic misrule, there is not much need of it engaging in polarized campaigning, which is ubiquitous now. If the party leadership is aware then they can go miles ahead just banking upon the number of scams and corruptions that the Congress led UPA government have committed in its tenure. When a person commits a crime or wrongdoing then the criminal carries the maximum toll since it has to maintain a cleaner picture amidst allegations, accusations, revelations, name calling, divulgences and rest of it. The political parties can at best just rely upon and highlight the devious misrule of the former government instead of indulging in something, which is only earning flippancy. The BJP is contesting on good governance and development, and that is what Modi has been harping upon in his campaigning so far. But some from the party’s feudal leaders are hell bent on raking issues that are not in sync with the real agendas. Their way of campaigning is more about cementing their lordship over the saffron party and Hindutva by which they swear. To toe that party line, some overzealous makes comments that is earning them only ire and nothing else.

Shazia Ilmi’s video wherein she asked her Muslim brethren not to be secular is not something that AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) is known for. Here too, as in BJP the AAP leadership have condemned and distanced themselves from her comments. But that the AAP is equally opportunistic and sees that their fortune dipping likes that of the Congress party in the number of seats polled so far, it has taken these last minute ditches, out of utter desperation. The AAP has not at all remained the commoner-centric party that it used to be. Now, the party is in such a perilous position that if it goes to polls in Delhi then it may not even get the 28 seats it bagged last time. This party has lost its focus in the myriad anarchist move as it has proved that it is nothing but leaning leftist ideologues and self confessed anarchists. The AAP campaign so far has been to that of brandishing animatingly while abusing the media persons, political parties and their leaders, business tycoons and what have they. Kejriwal is not talking to the countrymen about their problems and their aspirations. A new political outfit which has made its mark in the politics with hooliganism, street occupations and launching movements at the drop of a hat is eyeing seats in the general election. Now such “filmy” flaunts can impress the khaini, tobacco and paan inhalers in the northern belts but that can sway the entire electorate of the country is like expecting “fooling all people all the time”. As MJ Akbar, a renowned columnist has said in his column in a national daily recently, that Kejriwal continues to nurture the illusion that just as he became an accidental chief minister of New Delhi with INC support the same may also repeat when he can become a miracle prime minister with the INC help post election. If AAP comes to power at the centre, it is going to be a disaster watching revolution taking place every now and then. Actually Ilmi’s Muslim appeasement is not surprising because AAP has in the past has sent feelers to Maoists to join the party with an eye on the Maoist influenced seats in Eastern and Southern India. Is this the same anticorruption crusader in AAP that came to power like a blitzkrieg in the national capital? Now people are branding them as a group of rowdy elements with multiple contradictions, no leaders, only complete anarchy. The white caps with brooms don’t look exactly what they appears rather there is an “exactly opposite side”. It is the electorates who have to judge this camouflage.

One characteristics of Modi’s campaigning is that he has not tried to appease the Muslims as a vote-bank. His ideas and vision is clear that the countrymen are voting for a change this time and the BJP has taken the mandate to relieve the country from Congress rank misrule. The large-scale turnout of voters from Guwahati to every nook and corner of the country is an indication that the people are for a change which is showing in these voting. A former congressman from the region said that this turnout is indeed an outcome of the Modi-wave that has now turned into a tsunami causing sleepless nights to the Congress dynasty. The Congress’ dynastic setup on the other hand is a quintessential example of the saying “Old habits die hard”. It has yet again played the Muslim vote-bank card by approaching the Imam Bhukari of Jama Masjid in the national capital only to find that the Bhukari’s brother himself challenged him and urging his brethren to vote with an open mind. Vinod Saighal, a renowned columnist and author of “Revitalizing Indian Democracy” says that it is astonishing that none of the great secularists of India, among them artists, writers, film personalities and so many other eminent persons from the minority community who over the years have been loudest in denouncing Narendra Modi, have come out to denounce the Imam Bukhari and the Lady who went to plead with him, some say beg him. “They have turned secularism on its head. What happened to Kejriwal and his followers, notably Shazia Ilmi? By now they too should have denounced the obnoxious fatwa. All of them have turned secularism or rather their brand of secularism on its head. Only the brother of Imam Bukhari criticized him. Muslims will soon realize that Imam Bukhari and Sonia Gandhi have done the greatest disservice to them. She being a foreigner and as suspected pushing a foreign agenda to weaken India in every way that she can, might get away with it at a personal level. Meanwhile, she would have sold her party, the Congress party down the river,” writes Saighal.

Of late Priyanka Vadra has compared BJP leaders to “panic-stricken rats”. Well the boomerang part of her statement is that the Congress party is in reality panic-stricken rats today because all its frantic moves are an indication to this fact. Dr Manmohan Singh after casting his vote in Guwahati recently said that the Modi-wave is a media creation. If that is so then why his own brother, who remained apolitical so far, joined the BJP, recently? This is the latest embarrassment that the party received. There is a saying in the Bhagwad Gita that when time tends to go bad and spell immense hardships, then one should not try to attempt anything because even those attempts tends to go wrong due to the bad phase. In such a situation, the Gita says, one should leave everything to time and wait for better time to return. The Congress despite being a political party in this land of Bhagwad Gita unfortunately have not learnt anything from this greatest ever verse on earth. All its statements and stunts have boomeranged as there is a need from some right thinking individual from the party to tell the son-mother-daughter trio to introspect. But the question is whether any individual is left in the party today to guide the trio. It is also ironical and funny at the same time to see that the Congress is fighting this election not to effect the change that the countrymen are badly looking for. What they forgot is that change is inevitable.

It is also a fact that the Gujarat Growth Model was appreciated by the Congress itself in the past. On this Saighal writes, “The family: mother, son and daughter have been shouting themselves hoarse decrying and denouncing the Gujarat development model. They forget that the first time Gujarat’s development was really highlighted as the number one in India was by a report made jointly by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) in collaboration with a German Foundation. When the report was published there was an outcry of horror from 10 Janpath. Such was the severity of the dressing down for top RGF officials for publishing the report that Bibek Debroy, the well known economist and writer put in his papers. What is more (intriguing), I was personally told by the head of the German Foundation that Part II of the report that put Gujarat even higher was stopped in its track by Sonia Gandhi. These aspects should be immediately put in the public domain immediately.” He went on: “Concomitantly, the name of the dynasty should be correctly used hereafter as Nehru-Feroze Gandhi dynasty and not Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The subterfuge is evident as is the unique trait that they have actually succeeded in almost obliterating their grandsire and progenitor from the public mind. No one seems to have heard of his birthday being celebrated or his photograph being displayed. In the same manner since she has started campaigning, suddenly the media has changed her name from Priyanka Vadra to Priyanka Gandhi. Is it the same diffidence in acknowledging the true lineage?”