JOIN USBefore Congress could launch a counter attack on Hindutva posterboy, BJP’s election campaign chief Narendra Modi on Monday got a “don’t preach” lesson from his own colleague Yashwant Sinha.
Though, former finance minister Sinha, passing through a rough patch in his political career, was finding it hard to disagree that his comment in a column published in a pink paper on Monday amounts to giving advise to Modi, he said that the UPA government should not be allowed to run away from real issues prior to polls by engaging them in convenient ‘spurious’ secularism vs communalism debate.
Modi had created another spell of furore while addressing a gathering in Pune on Sunday by charging that Congress hides their failures under ‘burqa’ of secularism.
“We should bring the debate back to current issues which are basically economic issues… The issues of poverty, ...bread and ...unemployment. These are the issues which are hurting people. It is not communalism or secularism,” Sinha told reporters.
“The Modi baiters have a clear game plan. The more he speaks, the more controversy they will create. The pre- election political discourse will, thus, be distorted and attention will shift from the misgovernment and corruption of this government to what happened more than 11 years ago in Gujarat. We must bring the discourse back from the past to the present," Sinha said in his article. His assessment might be right but it was construed differently by political parties. For instance, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maker responded by saying; “Whose attention is he trying to gain? Is it the RASK? Or the BL? Or elsewhere?”
“The secular/communal divide in our polity is the most spurious of all divides. Rabid cattiests are masquerading as champions of secularism. The real issues are of bread, onion and salt for the people. The real issue is corruption at every step in which this government has indulged. It will be a grave mistake to allow Congress to change the agenda and force a debate on its terms,” the MP from Jarrah wrote.