CM Modi & Ex COAS Vk Singh, THE NATIONALISTS DO NOT HAVE TO BE DEFENSIVE: Sandhya Jain | Gen VK Singh is target of collateral damage in slander campaign Congress launched against Modi. Singh must ask Sonia some tough questions. To delight of his hosts, Modi’s presence at the veterans rally at Rewari, Haryana, on September 15, though previously scheduled, metamorphosed into his debut as the BJP’s PM candidate for 2014 general election. It coincided with Defence Research & Development Organisation’s successful test-firing of the Agni V missile, which the firebrand leader said symbolised a ray of light amidst nationwide gloom. First sitting CM to be anointed as PM candidate by any party in independent India, Modi wisely used this platform to inform nation about his background, unfulfilled dreams, and aspirations. It was known that his father ran a modest tea stall at minor railway stn, where sons helped out; he revealed that background was rural and he studied in the village school. Describing with élan how poverty frustrated a desire to study at the Sainik school in Jamnagar district (attended, ironically, by his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda), he skillfully nixed demeaning factoids put out by some admirers about his caste and class origins. He is, incidentally, a post-graduate in political science. Contrary to media projections of 4th-term CM as an outsider (even usurper) in New Delhi, Mr Modi has been entrenched in the BJP’s central hierarchy after rising through the ranks by helping it win the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls in 1986. He helped organise the Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra in September 1990, though media highlighted the flamboyant Pramod Mahajan. However, he played the principal role in the Ekta Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 1991 and made a major contribution to BJP’s 1995 victory in Gujarat. When Shankarsinh Vaghela defected in 1996, Mr Modi saw to it that Mr Vaghela’s supporters were denied tickets during the 1998 elections in Gujarat, and ensured the victory of the loyalists led by Mr Keshubhai Patel. He might have remained a general secretary in Delhi had not the Bhuj earthquake of 2001 forced Mr Keshubhai’s exit; he went to Gandhinagar as a ‘caretaker’ while the leadership decided between the then front-ranking State leaders. He managed the relief and was biding his time when the Godhra train carnage took everyone by surprise; the rest is history. Gujarat strongman is a seasoned politician with a rare ability to keep his cards close to his chest and plan winning moves in advance of his adversaries. In the Gujarat election of 2012, he decimated Mr Keshubhai’s breakaway party and won spectacularly, before visiting the vanquished stalwart to seeking his ‘blessings’. He similarly ignored Mr LK Advani’s tantrums, knowing that the old man had no cards to play, no grassroots following to ensure his own victory in any constituency, and had, above all, lost traction with the RSS. So, just as Advani’s absence could not check Mr Modi’s elevation as campaign committee chief at Goa in June, his seething rage could not thwart the latter’s anointment as prime ministerial candidate on September 13. His coming around subsequently suggests that he wishes to contest the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar once again and expects Mr Modi to ensure his victory. It remains to be seen what the Gujarat electorate thinks about such tenacity. At Rewari, Mr Modi played the Hindutva card with finesse; nationalist card with fanfare. Touching Hinduism’s reformist face, he said the Arya Samaj had a deep impact in Haryana and that he received much respect when working there because he hailed from the land of its founder, Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He linked himself to the Sanatana Dharma by recalling that it was on the battlefield of Kurukshetra (Haryana) that Sri Krishna, prince of Dwarka (Gujarat), delivered the eternal message of the Bhagvad Gita. A small anti-Congress jibe followed — dissident leader Morarji Desai was jailed in Haryana during the Emergency. Nationalist card received thundering applause from the audience of ex-servicemen. He recalled how as schoolboy in class six or seven, he left home without telling his parents to serve refreshments to jawans returning from front at Mehsana station in 1962; he lauded their sacrifices in Kargil, their services during the Bhuj earthquake and Uttarakhand floods. Seizing the moment to attack the UPA regime, Mr Modi recalled that amidst the Uttarakhand relief work for which officers and jawans sacrificed their lives in a bid to save as many persons as possible, Pakistani soldiers butchered five jawans in the Poonch sector in August. Yet the Defence Minister, unmindful of the anguish caused to the bereaved families, informed Parliament that ‘terrorists wearing the uniforms of the Pakistani Army’ had committed the atrocity. Collateral damage from this skilful oratory has been a vicious and sustained attack on former Army chief General VK Singh, for being present on the dais and attracting the huge nationwide constituency of ex-servicemen towards the BJP. It is a crying shame that the Union Government is the source of the slander. One allegation is that Gen Singh misused secret Army funds to topple the Omar Abdullah Government in Jammu & Kashmir, though there is no corroborating evidence in the form of actual destabilisation of the regime during the impugned period. As Kashmir has been mentioned, it is pertinent to mention that Congress president and National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and former NAC member Harsh Mander, are both associated with foreign bodies committed to the secession of Jammu & Kashmir from India. Sonia Gandhi is co-president of the Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific which supports the secession and independence of Kashmir. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation she heads has accepted funds from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, a foundation which funds the FDL-AP. Mander is a member of the Working Group of Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre UK, of which Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai is director; it has received funds from Pakistan’s ISI. Fai is American citizen of Kashmiri origin who was arrested by FBI in July 2011 for secretly receiving $3.5 million from ISI to fund illegal lobbying on Kashmir issue. He hosted seminars to promote Pak’s viewpoint on Kashmir internationally; prominent guests include Dilip Padgaonkar, Indian Govt appointed interlocutor on Kashmir. UK media calls the Foundation a front for Paki spies. US prosecutors said in court that Fai ran Kashmir Centers on behalf of Pak Government, including the ISI. Surely it is others who have some explaining to do. Gen Singh should switch from defending himself to asking questions.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 02:50:08 +0000
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