Modi casts his spell over Bahraich: Sandhya Jain, Exoneration of BJP MLAs Sangeet Singh Som & Suresh Rana on charges of instigating the Muzaffarnagar riots was a fortuitous circumstance that Gujarat CM exploited with élan at massive Vijay Shankhnaad rally at Bahraich today, to crystallise public sentiment against the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Congress triumvirate. Without referring to any community, Gujarat strongman lambasted the politics of vote-banks and accused State Govt of failing to control the recent riots and instead misusing the law to arrest Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana on false charges. When they managed to secure bail, they were detained under the National Security Act (NSA). Yesterday, the Advisory Board of the Allahabad High Court deemed this illegal and ordered immediate revocation of the charges. This major slap in the face of the Akhilesh Yadav Government gave Narendra Modi the fillip he needed to proclaim “winds of change” from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Power for some people, he said, is an instrument of personal aggrandisement and personal comfort, to maintain which they indulge in the politics of vote-banks, but all these tricks would fail before the looming defeat ahead. Nation, he charged, had been ruined by those who could not defeat BJP in three elections in Gujarat, people who would never succeed by democratic means. Hence they resorted to dirty tricks by misusing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), unleashing the Indian Mujahideen in some places (a reference to the Patna rally of October 27), and other games with bombs (a reference to the discovery of 500 kg of IEDs in Bastar by the Chhattisgarh Police since November 7. These intimidatory tactics would not work, he thundered, because “we (BJP) are made from a different soil”. As crowd roared in approval, he added, “we will not surrender before atankwadis, we will uproot them completely, we will not tolerate attacks on innocent citizens” India is not a country that bends before terror, said Modi. The British inflicted all kinds of atrocities, but we stood up as a nation. The bullets of terrorists can never cow down the BJP, and if the party forms the next Government at the Centre, the destroyers of the nation will be shown their place. Therefore, in the next election, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress will not enter the arena, but will field the “CBI types” to fight and save the Congress. This is a “joke with democracy.” Recalling that today is Chhat Puja in Bihar, which is even grander celebration than Diwali, he lamented that bomb blasts of Oct 27 had left young women widowed, children orphaned, and mothers without sons. What will they celebrate, and why did this happen? Because they said Bharat Mata ki jai (attended the BJP rally). In a democracy there must be no space for violence, bombs, terror; he decried attempts to muzzle the voice of the party and the people. Taking potshots at the perceptible nervousness in the Congress regarding its poll prospects, Narendra Modi informed the gathering that recently the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had issued an advisory (read threat) to television channels for having telecast the August 15 speech of the Gujarat Chief Minister live, along with the Independence Day speech of the Prime Minister. It was odd, said Modi, that an event which took place on August 15 was raised on October 30. The reason, he enlightened the bemused audience, was that on October 27, TV channels again telecast the Patna rally of Rajnath, Modi live, with audio and video both. In contrast, the rally of Congress ‘shehzade’ in Delhi the same day was shown with the audio blacked out – a blatant admission by the anti-Modi media that Rahul Gandhi cuts no ice with the electorate. This sent the Congress mandarins into a tizzy; they set off on a ham-handed mission of muzzling the BJP. This is a danger to democracy, he warned, saying Opposition has rights in a democracy. However, even if Government blanks out the party from television screens, it has already entrenched itself in the hearts of the people. UP, tapobhoomi of Brahma ji, has given this country as many as 8 PMs; there are fourth generation leaders aiming for the post, yet the State wallows in poverty and lack of employment opportunities for the youth who are forced to migrate in search of jobs. Within a radius of 100 km of Lucknow, ‘big leaders’ are elected who run the country, but farmers starve for water for their fields, and there is no electricity in the villages. The State, he said, must stop tolerating such non-performers who only obsess over vote-bank politics as Indian Mujahideen cells proliferate and cause suffering to the people. Even if these big leaders had done nothing for India but had done something for Uttar Pradesh, the whole country would have benefited, but they had neither will nor vision. It is easy to claim that Gujarat was always developed, in order to deny him (Modi) credit for its progress. The fact, however, is that when he became Chief Minister, people would beg him to provide electricity at dinner time. Children could not study without electricity, and his officers said the State was 2000 MW short of power. When he said he wanted to end this drought of power, the Congress leader in the Assembly warned him about making promises that could not be kept; today all villages have 24-hour electricity. It is all a matter of will. In Uttar Pradesh, the constituencies of shehzada (Rahul Gandhi) and (Azam) Khan get electricity, but the rest of the State is starved. This is a poor model of leadership, he taunted; a real leader gives to the (other) people first and keeps what is left for himself; here it is just the opposite. The UP Chief Minister, he recalled, had requested him for some Gir lions to run a Lion Safari, and he had obliged. One of your Chief Ministers, he laughed, loved elephants, this one loves lions. My only regret, he told the spellbound crowd, is that Akhilesh Yadav did not ask for Gir cows for UP farmers, electricity for farmers, knowhow to set up an Amul dairy style network to help farmers. The Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party have the same DNA and compete in recruiting criminals and in corruption; both save the UPA at the Centre, to bend it to their will. But they do not seek railways or an airport for Bahraich, or better rates for sugarcane farmers, or employment opportunities the way Mamata Banerjee seeks help for her State. The UP leaders ask nothing for the people, they only want to be saved from the CBI, he mocked. The UP Government (of Mulayam Singh) had used an artist (Amitabh Bachchan) for political purposes; “I used the same kalakaar for Gujarat Tourism” and benefitted the State. Rubbing the point in, he said, that if one agrees that Gujarat was always ahead of other States, what Madhya Pradesh, which was a BIMARU State like Bihar and UP? Today, thanks to the efforts of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, farmers get water and there has been 11 per cent growth in the farm sector. There is more electricity generation under him than in 50 years of Congress rule, as also roads, and it is no more a BIMARU State. The youth of Uttar Pradesh have the talent and capability to change its fortunes if they are given opportunities. “Opportunity is our mantra, we must hone their skills so that they do not migrate for their livelihoods”. Regarding employment opportunities, he touched raw emotions saying that when youth get interview letters, the families become stressed, wondering who to approach to ‘fix’ the jobs. Gujarat, he said, did an experiment and abolished the interview system by giving jobs directly on the basis of examination results. This ended the patronage industry. Hitting out at the maladministration in the State, the BJP prime ministerial candidate pointed out that so many days after Diwali the sugarcane mills had not started functioning, and farmers were suffering. There were unpaid dues of Rs 6000 crore. In Gujarat, the mills are all cooperatives and work begins the day after Vijayadashmi. There is a need for farmer friendly rules. He concluded by mocking political pundits and their predictions about the BJP’s likely tally in 2014, pointing out that all debates concurred that the “horse of BJP” is running ahead of the others. Conceding the high stakes in the next election, he appealed to the land of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Ganga and Yamuna, to give India a stable Government. Uttar Pradesh, he said, can change the fate of India and give it political stability; it could vote for progress and put fear in the hearts of the Indian Mujahideen. Bahraich is close to the Nepal border where Pakistan’s ISI has established many terrorist cells. It is also the land of Raja Suheldev who defeated Salar Masud, nephew of Mahmud Ghazni who had destroyed the Somnath Temple. For Narendra Modi, it has special meaning as it was while on tour here that he was called to Delhi and given his famous Gujarat assignment! The BJP president Rajnath Singh and a galaxy of State leaders including Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar and others also addressed the rally.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 06:32:57 +0000
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