BJP under Modi and Amit Shah is suffering, fuelled by hate
Have you noticed how the BJP has run out of specific socio-economic programmes, policies and specific regional and localised agendas, and is fighting elections on rhetoric alone?
While all of you can easily recall that Congress won the Pondicherry elections recently with its vision of providing 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies and a job for each household, and that the grand alliance in Bihar scripted success in 2015 with a promise of 35 per cent reservation for women in government jobs and unemployment allowance for nine months in a year, can you really recall what are the BJP's specific visions for elections?
No, you cannot.
And that is because, in state after state, the saffron party is going to the electorate with a scare rhetoric, in which either the majority community is misled with false stories of a rapidly growing Muslim population that would overtake the Hindu population, or an idea is created that Hindu customs and traditions are in danger.
On other occasions, in the case of border states like Assam, people are told about an imaginary case of immigration without any evidence or data being shared to support the claims.
In Bihar, they went to the extent of saying that Pakistan would celebrate if the BJP loses that state. Before you clap for them for being loyal to the so-called nationalistic cause, please pause for a moment and think why are they doing this.
Is it truly because of nationalism, or is it because they have no vision to offer to the electorate when it comes to economy or governance? The latter is correct.
BJP under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is suffering from lack of ideas like never before. While former party veterans Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani mixed policy perspectives with nationalistic undertones, the current BJP disposition is completely void of socio-economic policies when it comes to making a poll manifesto.
Making hoax promises of bringing back black money is easy, but since they even failed to deliver that, they are not even left with hoax promises to offer. Rhetoric is the only option left.
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| BJP under Modi has probably even forgotten that there is a word called election manifesto. (Photo: PTI) |
What you find in their manifestos are not specific programmes for social upliftment, employment or education, or guaranteeing minimum wages or taking up agricultural crisis or farmers' issues, but rhetoric and rhetoric alone.
So while you expect they will tell you how they plan to take Bihar's success story further, you hear them talking rubbish like "Pakistan me patakhe footenge" (Pakistan will burst crackers). When you expect they would mention their master plan for Delhi, they compare rival party's leaders to Naxalites.
When you are expecting they will mention the sorry state of industries in West Bengal and how they are prepping up to modernise things, you get to hear about Bangladeshis. No wonder, they fared dismally in all the three states.
But those who are arrogant seldom mend their mistakes. So, in Uttar Pradesh again, you hear their loud rhetoric.
No, they are not talking about generating more jobs, or increasing the state's GDP, or addressing farmers' issues, or the deteriorating law and order condition.
Instead, what you get to hear, or rather see, are aartis and poojas... Ramleela addresses and felicitation of Buddhist monks, all designed to religiously polarise the majority community.
Why can't the BJP run an election talking about policies and governance issues? Well, the last time they ran an election campaign more or less without rhetoric was in 2004. Maybe because they were too confident of a victory, although it is another matter their overconfidence backfired big time.
Today, they have probably even forgotten that there is a word called election manifesto. That elections are about chalking out public policies, informing the people about your plans and promising good governance.
And the way they are shaping up the Uttar Pradesh campaign more than validates this argument. Not many people will be aware that the BJP is working on a Ramayan museum in the garb of promoting tourism. One right opportunity and they will strike back with their favoured Ram Mandir plank.
Add to that is the brazen exploitation of the surgical strikes with posters that feature tiny mugshots of the actual martyrs and larger than life images of the prime minister. And of course, their ignoble defence of an encounter that seems to be fake and their reluctance to initiate a probe further tells us about their polarising tactics.
Don't let this be mistaken as an expression of nationalism. This is a display of losing ideas.
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