Here goes Prime Minister Narendra Modi again -- stumping the opposition with his out- of- the-box thinking. One by one he has tried to remove from the clutches of the Congress, historical icons that the party considers part of its history. This time, he has raided not only the Congress camp but also poached on the Aam Aadmi Party’s symbol. And that too ahead of a likely assembly election in Delhi sometime early next year. Scores of BJP leaders, hundreds of bureaucrats, thousands of BJP workers and lakhs of people across the country wielded the broom on 2 October to launch an extensive Swacch Bharat Abyihan or Clean India Movement on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. Image courtesy PIB Image courtesy PIB The move and objective is laudable, with the prime minister himself leading the campaign to give it the necessary backing, motivation and impetus. But in that one fell stroke, he would have, to the consternation of the Congress, turned both the Mahatma and Lal Bahadur Shastri---whose birth anniversary also is October 2---not only into a BJP icon, but more importantly removed them from the stranglehold of a single party and restored them to the country by recalling their slogans of a Clean India and Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. At the same time, he would have riled Arvind Kejriwal by wresting the broom from his party. In an inspiring decision to associate itself with the downtrodden and the poor and lower middle classes, Kejriwal had adopted the broom as the symbol of the party to represent his outfit’s pledge to sweep out the corrupt and the unclean from Indian politics. The party performed impressively in the Delhi assembly elections in December 2013, robbed the BJP of its chance to come to power and went on to form a shortlived government with the help of the Congress in the Capital. The images of broom-wielding AAP leaders and volunteers which had been imprinted on the minds of the electorate are now likely to be dislodged by photographs of Modi sweeping the road and collecting garbage to make cleanliness a mass movement. The goal is that in five years’ time, India will be sparkling clean and free of open defecation through a massive programme of construction of individual, cluster and community toilets, including separate ones for boys and girls in schools by next year. Modi, who came to power on his promise to fight corruption and provide good governance and development, is now literally trying to springclean India. Indeed, he had begun his innings by directing all ministries and departments to free the work space and environment of junk and dirt. To make the campaign a success, the Modi government had sought the cooperation of everyone to make it a people’s movement. The AAP, however, responded with caution. “Such a symbolic gesture may inspire people but it is certainly not enough to make the country clean, was Kejriwal’s reaction. Ahead of the campaign, his party said that it would participate in the 2 October programme but would not be involved in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. But the party is in no position to voice its discomfiture about how the broom is now inadvertently being associated with the Modi regime, given the emphasis on fighting a second battle of freedom---this time of mounting garbage and filth. After all, when Kejriwal, not long ago, christened his outfit the Aam Aadmi Party, he robbed the Congress of its vote catching slogan of ‘Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath.’’ The Grand Old Party could not have used the slogan without confusing its voters, though it is another matter that after the fractured mandate delivered in the Delhi elections, the Congress had extended a helping hand to AAP to form a government. But it isn’t only AAP that will be worried at the political ramifications of the 2 October campaign. PM Modi has also successfully brought the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi within the ambit of the BJP. And since it is former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birth anniversary as well, Modi began the day by paying homage to the Mahatma and the former prime minister---both leaders whom the Congress considers part of its legacy and lexicon. In fact the then UPA government led by the Congress succeeding in persuading the UN to declare October 2 the International Day of Non-Violence - a philosophy associated with the Mahatma. The Congress has already hit out at Modi for neglecting to mention this while speaking at the UN General Assembly or even while talking about Swachh Bharat. Spokesman Anand Sharma also underlined that while recalling the Mahatma’s contribution, Modi had referred to his fight for independence and cleanliness. But Gandhi, he reminded Modi, also believed in and stood for non violence, tolerance, harmony and secularism. It would have been better if Modi also pledged to make India violence-free, he said. Earlier on 5 September, he had used former President S Radhakrishnan’s birth anniversary, which is celebrated as Teacher’s Day, to reach out to millions of school children. The move served the four-fold unstated objective of showing up the Congress at not according due respect to anyone who is outside the Nehru-Gandhi family, adding the former president in the pantheon of leaders the BJP holds in high esteem, reaching out to teachers and building a constituency for himself and his party among the children who would be future voters. But there is little doubt that the Congress must be ruing that it could not think out of box like Modi whose latest move is notable for at least four main features. One, it has turned what has been essentially a day of paying lip service into a living and vibrant movement of Gandhigiri with the Mahatma not recalled in this manner for years. Two, he has freed the Mahatma and Shastri from the confines of a single party and restored them to their place as national icons. After all, when was the last time one heard slogans of Mahatma Gandhi amar rahein or Jai Jawan Jai Kisan by anyone even on October 2, or even try to apply their philosophy to contemporary India? Three, Modi has tweaked the BJP-NDA’s government-centric failed Shining India campaign into a Shine India campaign that calls for the involvement and participation of people from the house to the neighbourhood and beyond, at different levels to create a new India that calls for a change in mindsets and civic behaviour. And four, by addressing the entire country on an issue that would resonate with the people, Modi is in a way also helping the BJP consolidate its position as an all India party even though he has projected Clean India as a salutation towards Gandhi and the country. Perhaps conscious that other parties may shy away from involving themselves in the mistaken notion that it is only the BJP-led government’s programme, Modi acknowledged the role of and contributions made by previous regimes, the network of NGOs and societal leaders in trying to make India clean and hygienic. He made it clear that no political motive should be attributed to the move and requested that the movement be kept above politics so that it becomes a people’s movement that involves everyone, cutting across political and power divides and imposing a social responsibility on corporates and business houses.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:46:33 +0000
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