By IndiaTomorrow.net,
Patna, 30 Oct 2015: With its two most powerful leaders — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah — resorting to the communal and caste cards after the passage of half way of the crucial Bihar polls, it appears that Modi and his party are not finding many buyers in the state for ‘development’ agenda.
Even after terming Bihar a “Bimaroo State” (ailed state) time and again prior to the polling session and giving doles of crores, the Prime Minister Modi and his general Amit Shah, both seem to have fallen in the party’s eternal trap of polarization politics now after three rounds of the poll over. In the beginning of the month, BJP’s vision document did play the caste cards, but not its last bid of communal politics. The crucial question is why does the party, which swept the same state in the Lok Sabha polls a year ago on development plank, has now only Hindu-Muslim rhetoric to offer instead of clear and straight development plans for the “Bimaroo State?”
Addressing an election rally in Bihar on 28 October, Modi took a dig at the grand alliance of JDU, RJD and Congress by bringing the issue of religion-based reservations. “The leaders of this ‘Mahaswarth’ alliance are trying to mislead the people on the issue of reservation. It is clear through the discussion of our Constitution makers that reservation cannot be given on the basis of religion,” said Modi. The reference to Muslims was clear, even though he did not mention the word. And in the next sentence, he made his point clearer. “These leaders (leaders of the grand alliance) are making a devious plan. They are conspiring to take away 5 per cent reservation of Dalits, Maha Dalits, backwards and extremely backwards and give it to a particular community.”
The next and even more desperate move was BJP President Amit Shah’s. He said yesterday (29 October), “If by any chance the BJP is defeated in these elections, crackers will be burst in celebration in Pakistan.”
The two leaders’ comments clearly show that BJP has finally resorted to its old game pf communal politics. Only in the beginning of the month, BJP’s vision document mentioned giving scooties for girl students and color TVs for Dalits and mahadalits — the most underprivileged sections of the society. Releasing the vision document, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, “We need to rescue Bihar from backwardness” and “Youths from Bihar move to other states looking for jobs. We want to bring an end to it.”
A glance at, and comparison of, the BJP’s visions for Bihar and Chief Minister and JDU supremo Nitish Kumar’s seven development mantras make it clear how BJP did not have a clear vision in actuality. Nitish, aided by Modi’s erstwhile poll strategist Prashant Kishor, released not many but only seven points, making it easy for the voters to understand what exactly they might get if they elect him for the another term. BJP, in the face of Nitish “Nishchay” (vows) made a number of ambiguous promises, not much better than Rahul Gandhi’s regular rhetoric of “Suite boot ki Sarkar” against PM Modi. Scooties for intermediate-level girl students unleashed laughter-full tweets and Facebook comments, including one asking who will give the non-adult girls license to ride these two-wheelers.
While Nitish had already delivered a lot to Bihar and promises made on concrete terms, Modi advanced his doles of Rs 1.25 lakh crores, which Nitish later busted saying most of the money had already been allotted and that there was hardly any new doles the PM offered to the state. He made public an 18th September letter of the central government to counter Modi’s mega Bihar package. While disclosing a portion of the letter on his twitter handle, Nitish said he was “sharing again the farce of Modiji.”
Apart from the promises made in terms of Bihar polls, PM Modi’s BJP-led central government is also faced with a severe crisis with regard to its promises of development, amid rising prices of basic food items like potatoes and pulses.
While it was the Modi factor coupled with the anti-incumbency factor against Congress that created a favorable atmosphere for the BJP to win the Lok Sabha polls 2014, now the road does not seem to be that easy for the party and its government, which have so far failed to bring the promised “Acche Din” (good days). With the failure and being pitted against an already successful chief minister’s “vows,” BJP probably had to finally resort to its trump card of the politics of polarization. Now with two more rounds of polling in the offing, it remains to be seen whether Nitish’s “vows” win or BJP’s last-ditch communal card.
