Choice between 'Majboor' and 'Majboot' Sarkar: Modi

Setting the tone for BJP’s campaign for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told electorates that the choice before them in 2019 is between a strong government provided by BJP and a helpless ragtag unstable coalition as he projected his government’s performance in last four years as ‘taint free” and one that gave momentum to development.

Cautioning that the momentum to growth that has been achieved in last four and half years of NDA rule will be lost if his government is not repeated in 2019 general elections, Modi drew the allegory of a servant to take potshots at Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s foreign trips.

“When you keep a servant at home, do you bring one who divides the family members through rumour mongering, criticizes and insults family members among the neighbours and goes on for a two-month leave to an undisclosed location when the house needs him most. As you decide the Sevak (servant) for your home, you take the decision what kind of Pradhan Sevak you need for the country. Do you need a Sevak which works for 18 hours a day and takes everybody in the family along or the other one. Let the nation decide what kind of Sevak it wants,” Modi said.

Amid cheers from party workers on the concluding day of the two-day national council meeting of the BJP, which brainstormed the party strategy for next Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister also cautioned on excessive dependence on Modi factor to win polls for BJP saying had he not been an organization man, he would have carried away by it.

Drawing the analogy of a farm, he said, “The buzz gains that if Modi visits, he will change the direction of the wind and everything will be turned upside down (for BJP) and everybody will win. It feels good to hear it and I would have also got carried away by it had I not been an organization man. But then you should remember, how good the rain may be and how good the seed may be, they will not work unless the farmer ploughs the field.”

The message to party workers to get down to work and reach out to each household in 2019 polls was given by Modi, a month after BJP lost three Hindi heartland states ruled by it—Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The state polls were being dubbed by sort of a semifinal before 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Besides, BJP has lost a string of Lok Sabha by-polls last year, which has eclipsed its 2014 magnum opus performance, which had made it the first party to get a single majority in last 30 years.

Debunking Opposition unity efforts as an attempt to repeat a “failed experiment” in the name of grand alliance, Modi said while they are trying to join dals (parties), he connects dils (hearts). He rued that parties, which were born opposing Congress are now rallying behind it and called it a “fraud with voters”, who supported them in past to become an option to Congress.

He said it was for first time in the history that parties which shared no ideological glue are coming together to stop “just one person”.

Coining “Us versus they” catchline, he said that these parties want to form a “Majboor sarkar (helpless government) to further their family interests in engage in all sorts of corruption, the BJP led by him wants a “Majboot Sarkar (strong government) to deliver.

While the Prime Minister hailed his government’s recent move to provide 10 per cent reservation to the poor among upper castes, he also asked the party worker to “go an explain to all sections in society that this was done without any compromise on reservation for existing categories” as “some people are trying to create confusion and fuel dissatisfaction among people”. “Their conspiracies have to be exposed,” he said underlining a realization within the BJP that some Opposition leaders could fan OBC and Dalit outrage by projecting BJP’s bid to provide EWS quota as its tilt towards a section of society.

Accusing the previous UPA governments of “pushing the country into darkness”, he said as the country’s fate would have been different had Sardar Patel become Prime Minister in place of Jawaharlal Nehru after independence, similarly the picture of the nation would have been entirely different had Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued as Prime Minister in 2004 when UPA came power for 10 years.

Seeking to reassure farmers, whose anger seem to have cost BJP in recent state polls, Modi said that unlike Congress governments, which treated them merely as voters and worked for them with elections in mind, his government believes that annadata are urjadata (energy givers) and is working on permanent long term solutions for them.
Modi also conceded that he is aware that not all problems have been solved but “we are making honest serious efforts”.

He also referred to the recent repatriation of Agusta Westland middleman Christian Michel and past corruption cases to paint Congress as corrupt and dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s campaign on Rafale using an analogy of an empty sack and sack filled with rice and wheat, which will have different price tags.

In the backdrop 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.

Modi also accused Congress of undermining institutions and asked “whether the country can be handed over to such people” and targeted the former for “not trusting any institution”.
In wake of TDP and Trinamool Congress barring the entry of CBI into Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal ruled by them, Modi asked what is that they want to hide.

He also recalled that how he never tried to stop any central agency from investigating cases in Gujarat even as agencies under the influence of the then UPA government tried to implicate him and had even jailed Amit Shah.