'Nationalism, security, growth are focuses in LS polls'

“Powerful surge of nationalism” is one of the prime focuses of Narendra Modi government along with national security and growth of India, BJP said in its political resolution passed after a two-day brainstorming, during which Amit Shah committed to construction of Ram temple at the "same spot" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at Congress for “stalling” resolution of Ram temple issue.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused Congress of “playing dirty politics” with national security by “seeking Pakistan’s help to remove Modi”.

“Some leaders of Congress went to Pakistan to remove Prime Minister Modi. It is a big shame on the Opposition. That is the kind of dirty politics Congress is playing,” said Sitharaman.

The political resolution, which was a sort of report card of Modi government and listed its achievements, also recalled that before 2014 “senior leaders of the Congress party and the UPA were not only showing sympathy towards the terror accused for vote bank politics but were shamelessly equating proud saffron heritage of India with terror.”

Taking note of the debacle in three Hindi belt states, the party said, “We shall draw right lessons” and dismissed the grand alliance as a “comical alliance of desperate, contradictory and opportunistic political formations” whose “only glue is hatred for Modi”.

Hope vs despair

Seeking to build a narrative of hope versus despair, the two-day national council meeting of the BJP concluded on Saturday contrasting the “critical situation and scenario of hopelessness” that India was in when Modi assumed office and “extraordinary success of India's story” during NDA tenure and “extraordinary record of good governance”.

The political resolution defined Modi government's goals as “banking the unbanked, funding the unfunded, securing the unsecured and pensioning the unpensioned”. It credited the Modi government for a paradigm shift in the situation of the poor and taking India out from fragile five economies and making it sixth largest economy of the world.

The resolution said the choice is between effective governance and desperate governance and expressed the hope that people will repose faith in Modi, who launched a crackdown on corruption. The resolution dismissed Congress campaign on Rafale as “desperate attempt to blemish the clean governance provided by Modi.”

As he reached out to voters for a second term, Modi sought to reassure farmers, whose anger seems to have cost BJP in recent state polls. He said his government believes that annadata are urjadata (energy givers) and is working on permanent, long-term solutions for them.

In the context of Gandhi’s “Chowkidar Chor Hai” barb, Modi said that irrespective of how much he is abused and lies are spread about him, the Chowkidar is not going to stop and will not spare any “chor” in India or abroad.