Author: Saroj Sharma
Publication: Organiser
Date: November 18, 2007
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=210&page=8
The run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat
reveals the desperation in the Opposition camps as they deal with the virtually
invincible Chief Minister Narendra Modi once again. This is evident from the
fact that it is Madame Sonia Gandhi herself who has decided to spearhead the
campaign in Gujarat instead of dispatching her understudy son Rahul Gandhi
whose posters had been plastered around the state weeks ago. Interestingly,
during her whistle-stop tour of Anand a couple of days ago, Sonia, taking
a leaf out of CM Modi's election campaign, targetted the women electorate
in a town where cooperatives have been the prime movers of the economy and
women play a pivotal role. It may be mentioned that the CM has been consistently
focussing on the enormous contribution nari shakti has made to the growth
and development of Gujarat.
This is Sonia's second visit to Gujarat this
year which speaks volumes about uncertainty which plagues the Congress about
its poll prospects in Gujarat.
The UPA chairperson's speech too was devoid
of any issues and she merely harped on the "misrule in Gujarat"
without being able to provide tangible evidence to back her claims. What was
really hilarious, however, was her attempts to pass on the onus of the infamous
Ram affidavit controversy on the BJP and that too in a state which is not
only well-known as Hindutva's laboratory but where the political awareness
of people is well acknowledged.
Even the tacky Tehelka sting on what it claims
are shockingly candid confessions of the foot soldiers of the 2002 carnage
in Gujarat which has been released less than two months prior to the elections
and almost six years after the dastardly burning of karsevaks in the S2 coach
of Sabarmati Express and the spontaneous backlash is clearly a last-ditch
attempt to tarnish the CM's image once again. The Hand of the Congress in
this blatant plot to sully the name of Shri Modi by projecting him as the
perpetrator of the riots is evident even to a juvenile.
But while some private TV channels milked
the expose for all it was worth for a couple of days, the Congress, realising
that the communal card is unlikely to yield rich dividends has consciously
decided to downplay the controversy. Not only has it hardly given any space
to the Godhra riots and the Tehelka sting operation in its recently released
election manifesto but is hardly playing it up in the poll campaigns of its
leaders.
But what has surprised political observers
here is the fact that the Congress and the Modi-baiters within the ruling
party could actually be foolhardy enough to even contemplate stirring the
communal cauldron with such a sting operation. Despite having failed to do
so umpteen times in the past almost six years, the Opposition camps are yet
to learn from their mistakes. Elections 2002, in fact, gave the Opposition
enough fodder for thought by virtually decimating it even as Shri Modi made
a clean sweep with 126 of the 182 seats which went to the polls.
At that time, the Godhra riots were fresh
in the minds of the electorate in Gujarat and even then, the verdict clearly
showed that no one was buying the theory that the carnage was a state-sponsored
pogrom. Subsequently, the clean sweeps that BJP made in the panchayat polls
as well as the municipal corporation polls in major cities of Gujarat including
some like Vadodara and Jamnagar, which had been Congress citadels for long,
have only driven home the point that the voter in Gujarat is in no mood to
be swayed by new theories being churned out regularly by the Congress on the
Godhra massacre and the riots that followed.
In fact, the more the Congress is flogging
the dead Godhra horse, the more sympathy it is evoking for the Chief Minister
as the victim of such unfounded allegations. "Why doesn't the Congress
introspect for a change? Its role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 has been
clearly proved unlike Godhra where nobody has been able to substantiate the
allegations against the Gujarat CM," says an indignant pro-Modi BJP leader.
As things stand now, CM Modi is poised to
win a mandate for a second term as CM not only because he is in no way connected
to the Godhra riots which were a spontaneous mass uprising but also because
he has decided to focus his energies not on Opposition-bashing but on the
concrete development of his state. Gujarat showcases the country's developmental
strides as few other states can and has become a role model for all other
states to follow. "Call it a sheer coincidence or perfect timing that
well-known global consultancy firm Ernst & Young released its latest report
on Gujarat titled Gujarat: Beyond the Obvious on the same day that the Election
Commission announced the dates for forthcoming elections in the state."
The report has lauded the state government
for its commendable work in sectors ranging from education to culture and
from infrastructure to investment. It goes on to elaborate that the Gujarat
government has implemented 72 initiatives in as many months which have generated
a remarkable socio-economic transformation in the state making it a role model
for other states.
"It is this sterling developmental track
record which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will use as a poll plank
this time around. Unlike poll 2002 which saw communalism emerge as the main
emotive election issue, poll 2007 in Gujarat may all be about good governance,"
says a senior BJP leader. He goes on to elaborate, "We have shown the
world how to run a state efficiently. Modiji's achievements with regard to
good governance have even been acknowledged by surveys conducted even by the
ruling UPA coalition at the Centre."
That Gujarat has risen phoenix like after
having been battered in quick succession first by the devastating Bhuj earthquake
of 2001 and then by the post-Godhra communal riots of 2002 to top the country's
investment sweepstakes as one of the most preferred investment destinations
under five year's of Shri Modi's rule is an indisputable fact.
"In such circumstances where Gujarat
has made significant strides on the road to development and where people are
happy and prosperous, any conspiracy to denigrate the man who is now popularly
known as the architect of Gujarat's prosperity is bound to be thwarted in
no uncertain terms," observes a Gujarat-based industrialist. After all,
at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words or allegations.
The more the Congress is flogging the dead
Godhra horse, the more sympathy it is evoking for the Chief Minister as the
victim of such unfounded allegations. "Why doesn't the Congress introspect
for a change? Its role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 has been clearly proved."
