By Nasiruddin Haider Khan
I have been to Gujarat for the third time this year for my studies and work. Every time I have returned with a new experience. New dimensions get added to my database which I have gathered by reading and talking to others.
The Gujarat election’s first phase of polling is over and the campaigning for the second and last phase reaching an end. In a few days we will all know the results. While all of India is looking towards Gujarat, the air in Gujarat itself is placid. There seemed to be no enthusiasm, no hustle or bustle of election. From Vadodra to Ahmedabad, via expressway in a fast moving bus, election was not a topic of conversation. When I enquired a passenger about it, he said that the election this time will not be ‘one-sided’ (Nishpakachh), like it was last time. It will not be a cake walk for Modi this time around, he said. He was not a Congress supporter; in fact, he claimed to be a BJP voter. Another man weighs in, “Where is the party now! It is all Narenedra Modi, didn’t you see the people wearing Modi masks?” They give many reasons for their theory of why it is difficult for Modi this time around, and that seats for BJP will be less this election. Same thing is heard on the streets of Vadodra, Ahmedabad, Maninagar, while talking to auto-rickshaw drivers, shopkeepers and the general public etc.
Modi’s difficulty in this election is more to do with Modi himself than anything else. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is a cadre-based party, where ideology is more important than personality. This cadre-based party’s organization has become subservient to one person. I don’t remember ever seeing a BJP election poster where only one leader had his picture. If for no one else, it is a must for Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishan Advani’s photo to be in posters. This time, as in most cases, it is just Modi and no one else all around. For a cadre-based party to wrap itself around only one person will certainly carry long term harm., the BJP have suffered in UP for this samereason.
While I was still in Gujarat, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi visited Gujarat on the 1st of December. In both the places where she had her public meetings, there were huge crowds present. Gujarati newspapers and ETV Gujarati also reported this. BJP (Modi) camp was getting restless. That time Modi had started selectively raising the issue of terrorism but it was not resonating within the public. His development plank was not showing the expected magic. Intellectuals and teachers in Ahmedabad and Vadodra were afraid that now Modi might stage an attack or raise a controversy to stop the slide in polls.
Modi got his chance and declared that he is proud of Sohrabuddin’s killing on Gujarat soil. And this statement brought the real Narendra Modi out. For the last five years he and his friends were riding on the slogan ‘Vibrant Gujarat.’ This is the real truth behind the propaganda of five years of Gujarat’s development. But when the actual battle started, it showed that this slogan is not going to work. You may not believe on ‘merchants of death’ expression but I have no objection over it. Those who take pride in Gujarat’s so called development are the same people who think that what happened with pregnant Kausar Bi was also justified.
But listen carefully to what Narendra Bhai had to say, he justified the killing of a person who has a Muslim name. Why didn’t he mention Tulsi Ram Prajapati, Mahendra Kadhav, and Ganesh Kunthe, who were also killed in staged encounter killings? Modi also did not remember that his government has accepted in the highest court of this country that these were fake encounters. But what was lurking in his heart managed to slip out through his lips. He mentioned what he did.
His confession points to the fact that the election in Gujarat this time around, is not one-sided. There will be no cake walk this time. The hollowness of a development claim is visible. If this was not the case he would have stick to his development plank. Then, if he would have won, the credit would have been to his development work. Now, the situation is different, even before the polling, he has lost the election. Now he is only raking in and raising the communal issues just as in 2002. Even when he is talking about terrorism, he uses his rhetoric to raise communal feelings. Although people are wearing his masks, he uncovered himself and showed he has no change of face and heart. He is the man who uttered only hatred. Narendra Bhai has proved once again that for him a dead man is more useful than a living one. This fortunately cannot last long. It seems that it is the beginning of the end for Mr. Modi.
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Journalist Nasiruddin Haider Khan blogs in Hindi at www.dhaiakhar.blogspot.com