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| Advani excels in self-goals | | | Rajesh Singh
Spoilers in the Bharatiya Janata Party refuse to give up. Party veteran LK Advani has slammed Narendra Modi's offensive over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Independence Day speech, saying it was not the day to criticise or condemn, but to appreciate everyone and "realise India's unlimited potential". He did not take Modi's name but the reference was apparent. Advani wants to run a nameless and faceless campaign, and not just against his own people. Somehow he believes that naming and shaming political rivals constitutes personal attacks, and that is bad. You cannot flay policies and flawed decisions without holding the persons responsible for them.
The BJP has been criticising the Prime Minister' I-Day speeches from the year he began giving them in 2004. What is different this time is that Modi has taken centre-stage in doing so. Perhaps that troubles the likes of Advani. His position has been usurped. What is also different this time around is that a party leader has gone beyond banalities like, "The Prime Minister's address is lacklustre" or that "The speech does not inspire confidence". Modi said all of this but he also took on the Prime Minister on every major issue the latter raised in his Red Fort address to the nation, rebutting him with the thoroughness which his Government in Gujarat is known for. It was not a rhetorical counter-reply but factual.
And why is Advani so sensitive about Independence Day? If it is a day of reflection and introspection, it is also a day as good as any to call a spade a spade. In the run-up to an election year, the Independence Day address of the Prime Minister offers a legitimate opportunity to the Opposition to comment, to criticise, to hold the regime responsible for its acts of omission and commission. For the nine years gone by, the BJP patriarch and his team have failed to gain advantage for their party despite the many blunders of the Congress-led UPA Government. The good thing is that Advani appears to be an isolated voice even within his so-called camp. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, apparently differs from him, and none of his other supporters has sung his tune on Modi's counter-attack.
Since Advani is so concerned about the propriety of the timing, may we ask him if it had been appropriate of him to launch the Ayodhya Rath Yatra when the dangerous Mandal agitation and counter-agitation had begun to simmer - it eventually boiled over and divided society like nothing else in recent decades? Why did he add to the division by what was clearly a communally-driven agenda? And it is said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not comfortable with the idea.
Modi did not make any divisive comment in his reply to the Prime Minister's address. He spoke what the country is saying and raised queries for which the nation is demanding replies. He did not even appropriate Gujarat's progress all for himself; he credited earlier Chief Ministers regardless of their party affiliations for the success.
The 'strike but not harm' strategy that the BJP has adopted for some time now appears to be an Advani legacy after the veteran leader sought to 'restructure' his image from being a hardliner to a 'visionary statesman'. He believes that a statesman like him should not dirty his hands by speaking the truth bluntly and bruising his rivals in the Congress. He is entitled to his opinion and to protect his newly-created persona, but he cannot allow his personal beliefs to come in the way of his party's political prospects. He must remember that he is dealing with a Congress that has consistently lampooned its rivals. It's the same party whose leaders called Modi all sorts of names, including "maut ke saudagar", and now "khalnayak". Advani's righteous indignation over Modi's choice of words is funny because not too long ago, he had disparaged the Prime Minister as "nikamma" (good-for-nothing).
Unfortunately, Advani's new approach has seeped into the conduct of some central leaders of the party. A good example is the sloppy manner in which the BJP has handled the Robert Vadra affair. To begin with, the party went on an offensive in both Houses of Parliament after intrepid IAS officer Ashok Khemka's detailed letter to the Haryana Government revealed alleged irregularities that Vadra had committed in a land deal with a private real estate developer, and explained why the officer had cancelled the mutation. But suddenly, after raising the pitch, the party retreated and allowed the matter to slip into the background. Political commentators were shocked that the BJP should have allowed a potent subject to fade away. Equally shell-shocked supporters of the party want to know who in the BJP engineered the turnaround and let go an opportunity to expose the Congress on the floor of Parliament. It was a very 'statesman-like' act to do.
The BJP's 'rise above party lines' sham is also evident in the manner it has meekly submitted on the food security Ordinance. It is willing to help the Government bring in an Act, with 'some modifications' in the existing provisions. But many party leaders including Modi and others like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa consider the proposed legislation fundamentally flawed in its current form, and they want the Government to proceed only after seeking a consensus in a meeting of State Chief Ministers. The Congress is in a hurry to push it through because it wants to establish sole proprietory rights over food security and reap dividends in the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. But why is the BJP helping it out, and that too at the cost of millions of poor who will not benefit from the provisions as they stand today?
Meanwhile the Congress's reaction to Modi's assault on the Prime Minister's speech is feudal and along expected lines. Ridiculing the Manmohan versus Modi confrontation, one senior Congress Cabinet Minister dipped into history and called it a 'Raja Bhoj versus Gangu Teli' stand-off - in other words, an atrocious comparison between a ruler (Singh) and a lowly subject (Modi). Another Cabinet Minister is reported to have said that Modi was indulging in "Chota munh badi baat" (petty man talks big). He should look at his Prime Minister who has resorted to "bada munh choti baat" (man of stature who talks small). By the way, why has Advani been silent on the crassness of the Congress, even as he allows the party to fire at the Gujarat Chief Minister from his shoulders?
The Congress's arrogance stinks. Its leaders who utter nonsense must remember that Modi, unlike the babalog in their party, has made it to the national stage by his performance and not by virtue of a surname or by becoming a willing puppet in the hands of a dynasty.
(Courtesy The Pioneer) |
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