Skip to main content

Battlefield Gujarat: It's Congress' process of dialogue vs demagoguery of "undisputed" dream merchant Modi

By Nachiketa Desai*
It is dialogue versus demagoguery in Gujarat. It is soft civilized language versus shrill slogan shouting of a road side peddler of a male potency potion. It is direct one-to-one, two-way communication between politician and public versus one-way barrage of rabble rousing by a demi-god before his devotees.
The contest is between Rahul Gandhi, whom his opponents seek to deride by calling him ‘pappu’ (kiddo) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has earned the sobriquet of ‘Feku’ (Bluff master) from his detractors.
The battle ground is Gujarat where the Congress has been reduced to a shambles during the last 22 years of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) unchallenged rule. The Congress is still licking its wound of defection of nearly one-fourth of its MLAs to BJP barely two months ago at the time of the Rajya Sabha elections when the dates, December 9 and 14, for the state assembly polls were announced.
For BJP, Modi is like a one-man army. He began addressing rallies much ahead of the announcement of the assembly election dates. In his official capacity as the prime minster, Modi has launched new projects envisaging investment of millions of rupees. At all his programmes, audience was mobilized using state transport buses and trucks requisitioned from contractors.
However, Modi’s rabble rousing speeches have failed to impress the audience, if a large number of people seen leaving the venue mid-way is any indication.
Then, Rahul Gandhi began his party’s election campaign in Gujarat. In the last one month, he has participated in ‘Gujarat Navsarjan Yatra’ in an open vehicle criss-crossing the state. He was denied permission to use an open automobile in the Saurashtra region on the pretext of being a security risk. Rahul outwitted the ruling party by riding a bullock cart, mixing freely with the crowd, sidestepping the black cat commandos.
People turned up in large numbers to see their ‘pappu’, who broke his security ring to dine in roadside dhaba. At some places, on noticing a sizeable number of youth, he even changed into jeans and t-shirt and posed with boys and girls and obliged them with selfie snapshots.
Rahul’s sterling performance was in Surat, a city known for its textiles and diamond industry which employ more than a million migrant labourers from across the country. He visited small and medium scale industrial units, disregarding the security concerns, chatted up with both owners and workers in an effort to know their working conditions and problems.
He followed this with an interaction with the representative of the local trade and industry in the evening. During the hour-long interaction, organized in an auditorium which was packed, Rahul gave a short ten-minute speech before throwing open the meeting for questions from the audience. “Main apse kuchh kahne nahi, aapke man ki baat sunane aaya hoon” (I have come here not to tell anything to you but to listen to you).
For forty five minutes, Rahul patiently heard representatives of different trade and industry associations and replied to them. There were some uncomfortable questions too from the audience. However, this did not make Rahul shirk and evasive. “Mujhe abhi bahut kuchh seekhna hai. Maine bahut galatiya ki hain, dheere dheere sudhar lunga” (I have still to learn many things. I have committed a lot of mistakes too. But I hope to rectify them in due course), he said.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too addressed a gathering of businessmen and industrialists in Ahmedabad who cheered him with applause every time he spoke about how ill-conceived and disastrous the demonetization and GST action was. At the end of his half-hour speech, Dr Singh received standing ovation.
At all these occasions of interaction between the Congress leaders and the public, state party leaders appealed to the party workers and sympathisers to refrain from using foul language against Prime Minister Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other BJP leaders even on the face of provocation.
In a move aimed at striking a chord with the people of Gujarat, the Congress party sent Sam Pitroda, the pioneer of telecom revolution in the country, to draw up a 'People's Manifesto' after holding a series of consultations with a spectrum of social groups representing women, youth, small and medium scale entrepreneurs, artisans, educationists.
"We need to work for the 'down to up' model of inclusive development instead of the top to bottom model", he said. "A small number of the rich and powerful people have hijacked democracy the world over. India can provide an alternative model of development on the Gandhian principle of participatory and decentralised economy," he added.
Pitroda, a Gujarati born in Titlagarh, a small town of western Odisha, had done his graduation from the MS University of Baroda. He expressed grave concern over gross commercialisation of education and it's falling standards and stressed the need for government intervention to ensure good quality higher education at affordable cost.
By roping in Dr Manmohan Singh and Sam Pitroda and engage them in interaction with the people the Congress party has initiated a process of dialogue which both exposes the chicanery and demagoguery of the unchallenged dream merchant that Narendra Modi has proved himself to be.
---
*Senior Ahmedabad-based journalist

Comments

cmvairale said…
Thank You for a very well written illustration of the scene and feelings amongst the voters in Gujarat...The common is the one who needs the attention for sure.! Fabulously presented.

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.