| News Details |
| Modi phobia grips the nation | |
By Yash Bhasin
The Gujrat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was tipped as BJP’s election campaign committee Chairman by the party president Rajnath Singh, at the party’s national executive meet, at Goa last week, has acquired a Central stage in the political circles, cutting across party lines and the media in general. The entire politics in the country has set to be revolving around him. His future role in country’s politics and fortune is widely being discussed even in the households by the people not active in politics.
Narendra Modi is dubbed by his detractors of pursuing a divisive politics and being a polarizing factor. But ironically, it are these Modi bashers who have set in motion political polarization against him and in the process consolidating the forces supporting Modi. Thus, it are these critics of Modi, who by default, have set in motion a divisive politics in the country and even dividing the society between Modi supporters and Modi haters.
Modi is also charged of creating personality cult around him, which has an element of authoritarianism. But again, it are the strong opponents of Modi, who by ganging up with a single objective of checking Modi’s rise to the highest political executive in the country and even as a catalyst of new political and economic philosophy, are unwittingly building a personality cult around Modi. The battle lines are drawn between the supporters and opponents of Modi, not only for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and elections to some state assemblies, either to be held simultaneously with Lok Sabha elections or little ahead of these, but also for future political alignments, with new combinations and permutations appearing on the scene.
By opting out of NDA, in haste and prematurely, the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Janta Dal United, a 17 years long ally of BJP, has removed the last hitch in BJP declaring Narendra Modi as their Prime Minsterial candidate. With JDU being a part of BJP led NDA, the saffron party had to think hundred times before declaring Modi as their candidate for the post of prime minister in the 2014 elections, since they had to accommodate the view point of their alliance partner, who was opposed to the same.
The timing chosen by JDU and particularly Nitish Kumar to part company with BJP, is a subject of speculations. Narendra Modi had not yet been declared officially as the BJP’s choice for the post of prime minister. The BJP had even announced that their candidate for prime minister’s slot will be decided by the party’s parliamentary board at an appropriate time and the view points of DA partners will be accommodated in deciding the same. This fact was even emphasized by the RSS, through its mouth piece publication “Organizer”, which along with BJP’s top leadership including NDA chairman LK Advani, making last ditch appeal to the JDU to not leave the NDA. The JDU leaders, including its National President Sharad Yadav and even Nitish Kumar himself are on record to have stated that the appointment of Narendra Modi as Chairman of BJP’s election campaign committee is internal matter of the party. Then what happened between the ten days for the JDU ultimately deciding to part company with the BJP and pull out of NDA, putting the blame on the BJP for creating conditions where JDU’s pulling on with them was no more possible. The general assessment has been that the fear of losing Muslim votes in Bihar is the reason for Nitish Kumar to prevail upon his party, particularly the party’s reluctant president Sharad Yadav, to ultimately say good bye to the perceived Modi dominated future BJP. The political analysts believe that by calculating only his present stability as Chief Minister of Bihar, even after 91 BJP MLA’s withdrawing their support to his government, he can sail through with the support of four independent MLAs in Bihar assembly, Nitish Kumar has put at stake his and his party’s future position in Bihar politics.
The social engineering and caste combinations done jointly by the BJP and JDU vote banks which kept at bay Lalu Prashad Yadav in the last two assembly elections and also in the Lok Sabha elections, has got a big jolt with the two parties separated and pitched against each other in future. The mathematical calculations and political analysis by those well aware of politics in Bihar predict the JDU to be the main loser with this split. The BJP’s vote bank is believed to remain intact and even get further consolidated and enhanced as a result of Modi’s appeal and charismatic factor. Further, some more backward castes may rally behind Narinder Modi, himself belonging to backward caste, though he has so far not played this card. There are media reports that the JDU workers at grass route level are upset over the latest development, feeling handicapped to man polling booths in most of the constituencies, where the party is non existent or has nominal presence. These booths were in the past manned by the BJP workers, even to ensure victory of JDU candidates. On the other hand it is generally stated that the BJP has a strong organizational structure all over the state, whose workers can manage booths for their candidates in the future elections. Nevertheless, Lalu Prashad Yadav has the reason to be jubilant over the development, hoping to fish in the troubled waters.
With parting of the ways mutual mud slinging has started between the BJP and the JDU, which so far is confined only in Bihar, and may in future come to the national level, unless the leaders of both the parties think it prudent to exercise restrain. Nitish Kumar’s allegation that the BJP which has shown disrespect to their elderly senior leaders Attal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani, who built the party brick by brick, is replied by the BJP senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minster of the state Sushil Kumar Modi by counter charging JDU of humiliating their own elderly leader George Fernades. While both Attal Beharri Vajpyee and George Fernades are bed ridden, having even lost conscious to take notice of these mud slinging in their names, LK Advani’s silence in the matter definitely goes to the disadvantage of BJP. After withdrawing his resignation from some top party posts, as a result of his reservations over Modi’s elevation and thus conveying his accepting the new realities of the situation, Advani should break his silence and give snub to those using his name to target the BJP with. By not doing so he is only compromising the position of his party as well as his own relevance and position as a guide and philosopher of his party.
In the meanwhile the opponents of BJP, who dubbed it as a communal force, have been expressing their concern for the future of BJP, with Narendra Modi getting a top slot in the party. By doing so, they convey to be the friends and well wishers of the party concerned with prospects of the party losing respectability and acceptability at large in the country, with Modi at the helm of affair. If they really believe BJP to be a destructive and negative force, why are they worried over its future? They should rather be happy over the fall of the party as they predict with Modi to be enjoying the top position in the party. The concern for future of BJP by J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has posed the question that with the with drawl of JDU will Modi bring the party the number of seats in the Lok Sabha which it will lose with JDU leaving it, is a case of “Begani Shaadi Mein Abdullah Deewana”. Similar is the case with Congress leader Gulab Nabi Azad, who has recently stated that Modi will only harm the prospects of BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections as well as assembly elections in some states.
The reality is that they are only hiding their being unnerved over Modi’s rising stature and acceptability among the people, beyond BJP supporters, under these pseudo concerns for BJP’s future with the Modi at the helm of affairs.
(The writer is a senior Journalist of J&K)
(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the scoopnews.in)
Editor, Scoop News
... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|