GAMEPLAN

Is it going to be an election over development or secularism? BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is seen to be the ‘maut ka saudagar’ by Congress party for 2002 Gujarat riots, is trying to project himself as the brand of new India, capturing the imagination of the youth, talking only of development and a united India, “Ek Bharat Sresth Bharat”. On the other hand the Congress party, which has ruled the country for last one decade and has been stung by a series of corruption related cases, is trying to divert the poll battle into a fight between secularism and communalism. They are constantly attacking Narendra Modi, who, they claim, is going to divide the country over religious lines and his track record can substantiate the claim. Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Sayeed Ahmed Bukhari, and the subsequent call of the Imam to vote for the Congress is a clear attempt to polarize the voters. At the same time it is nothing but to put development issue on the backburner.

Many thought that Narendra Modi will be the brand ambassador of aggressive Hinduttva of Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh. During the election campaign or from the time Modi has been nominated as BJP's PM candidate, we have not seen Modi speaking of Hinduttva or Ram Temple the way we thought he would. He has stuck to his development agenda, but now the drama is unfolding in front our eyes act by act. The picture is getting clearer.

We are now discussing BJP manifesto and accusing the party of playing soft Hinduttva by promising ‘construction of Ram Temple within the framework of our constitution’, implementation of uniform civil code for the gender equality, ban on cow slaughter, etc.  While releasing the manifesto, Modi again reiterated his call for developing the nation. Does it mean that BJP has kept the issues like Ram Temple and cow slaughter, uniform civil code just to keep the RSS happy and essence of BJP ideology alive? Do we conclude that Modi is going to be the mascot of development and religion is not there on his agenda?

The RSS-BJP gameplan is a bigger one. We can’t trust BJP or Modi at their face value. They are, for now, being opportunistic, like those so-called secular parties, as far as playing the Hinduttva card is concerned. If Narendra Modi was so focussed in his pitch for development, then why did he choose to contest the Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh along with Vadadora in his home state Gujarat? BJP officially says it would help them to do well in eastern UP and Bihar. It is true BJP is banking on these two states to take their tally beyond 200. How are they going to achieve it? If deploying Modi’s man Friday Amit Shah was the first part of the gameplan, putting Modi as the Varanasi candidate is the second part of it. BJP is playing Hiduttva card where it needs to. In other parts of the country, Modi’s development pitch is working fine. People are joining in the Modi wave thinking him to be the saviour of the country. The fact is to win more than 40 out of 80 seats in UP and at least 25 seats in Bihar, BJP has to give an extra push. The push is to polarize the votes.

UP can easily be divided on religious line. While Hindu sentiment through various symbols of Hindu mythology is very strong in the state, there is about 26 per cent Muslim population.  BJP is trying to encash it.  The Samajwadi Party, seen to be the messiah of the Muslim community, is on the backfoot. Recently, we have heard Congress candidate Imran Masood's speech and then came BJP leader Amit Shah’s ‘revenge’ remark. Both the speeches are just glimpses of what is happening in UP. This is exactly what BJP wants it to be (and probably SP wants too). The number of communal violence in UP has gone up from 118 in 2012 to 247 in 2013 including Muzaffarnagar.  

Narendra Modi in his speech during the rally in Varanasi last December, didn’t mention Ram Temple, but played with a mix of religious sentiments and his development mantra. He talked elaborately about how river Ganga needs to be cleaned up and how Congress government failed to do that. Modi is just allowing the polarization to happen with tacit support. His party felicitated two MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana who were accused in Muzaffarnagar riots just before Modi arrived in Agra rally last November. And finally ‘har har Modi’ slogan is being chanted in Varanasi which has a history of communal violence since 1990s. This is nothing but to assure the core voters of BJP and the stakeholders of Hinduttva that BJP and Modi are on the track. We will have to wait and see what Narendra Modi does when BJP comes to power with absolute majority. Will he go back to the parochial agenda of Hindu Nationalism or stick to his agenda of developing the nation without any religious overtone.