Shah targets SP govt, sings Modi paeans
13 Jun 2016 5:50 AM IST
With the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls on his mind, BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday launched a blistering attack on the Samajwadi Party government over the atmosphere of violence in the state, citing recent Mathura clashes and migration of Hindus from a western UP town to target it.
In his inaugural speech at the party’s two-day national executive, Shah also stressed on the challenges before the party in 2017, when elections are due in UP, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, as he exhorted the party workers to rise to the occasion by taking the Modi government’ s successes to the masses.
With the entire party leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, present, he also trained guns on the Congress, saying it is increasingly weakening and its atrophy is growing at an alarming pace due to its obstructionist policies. He also expressed confidence that the party will return to power in UP in 2017 and the Centre in 2019 as well.
Briefing reporters about Shah’s speech, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the National Executive wouldnot name any chief ministerial candidate for the UP polls, noting that such a decision could be taken only by the party’ s Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body.
Prasad also faced a barrage of questions on whether the party was attempting communal polarisation with Shah raking up issues like migration of Hindus from Kairana, a contention he vehemently denied. He insisted that the BJP’s foremost commitment was to UP’s development but made it clear that the Akhilesh Yadav government’ s law and order failures be it in Mathura or Kairana were a matter of deep concern.
“We don’t speak about communalism but about national interest.” Prasad quoted Shah as saying, the migration happening in Kairana due to violence is a matter of serious concern. There is an atmosphere of violence. The lack of development and the lack of governance in the biggest state of India that is Uttar Pradesh is becoming a matter of serious concern.
The party president also referred to the highest civilian honours accorded on Modi by two prominent Islamic countries, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, in a clear message to Muslims who continue to be wary of BJP’s Hindutva agenda.
Shah referred to the Modi government’s foreign policy achievements and made a special reference to the unique thing of the two Islamic countries awarding him with their highest civilians honours.
While some people are running a campaign against Modi, this is an evidence of his growing international stature as all Islamic countries where he visited spoke in one voice against terrorism and recognized India as a source of stability in Asia, Prasad said when asked if Shah s mention of these awards was an attempt to reach out to Muslims.
Shah in his speech steered clear of the Ram Temple issue with Prasad saying that it was not necessary to take it up in every meeting but it was a matter of faith not elections for the party.
Hindutva bodies affiliated to RSS have been clamouring for an early construction of the temple in Ayodhya.
The party chief said that the recent Assam assembly polls and rise in vote share in states like Kerala and West Bengal augured well for the party. He spoke about the party’ s thrust on increasing its strength in Coromandel states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Tamil Nadu besides Bengal. BJP had not won many Lok Sabha seats from these states in 2014 and Shah has focused on them with 2019 Lok Sabha polls in mind.
The gateway to the northeast has opened to BJP, he said while referring to the Assam victory. Shah also drew a contrast between the two years of the Modi government and the UPA rule of 10 years, saying that the latter was full of scams and policy paralysis while BJP has given a corruption-free and accountable government aimed at public welfare.
In the UPA, all ministers considered themselves prime ministers but did not treat the Prime Minister as one while in the NDA there is a decisive leadership which had struck a balance between rural and urban development, reform and public welfare and foreign and defence policies, the BJP President said.
Executive meet: Choice of venue is more than mere symbolism
The choice of Allahabad (the birthplace of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru) as the venue for BJP’s two-day national executive meeting is more than mere symbolism.
Political experts feel that ruling party wanted to send out a strong message to the Congress. Congress Supremo Sonia Gandhi visited Allahabad three times in last two months to energise party workers ahead of the Assembly polls in 2017.
The Grand Old party has dwindled in the state to such an extent that it now has to fall back on the Gandhi siblings. Even Priyanka Gandhi also visited twice in last two months. On the other hand, BJP has a more democratic problem in the heterogeneous caste ecosystem.
While surveys showed Varun to be the preferred candidate and Smriti Irani not getting much support, the reports on Home Minister and former UP chief minister Rajnath Singh spearheading the party’s campaign in the crucial state may not have gone down well with a section of party supporters.
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