By – M.R.LALU
A battle ready BJP? Does it rattle the rest of the parties that are eagerly waiting for a potential eradication of the saffron saga? It probably does. A repeat of 2019 in 2024 would further shake the existing ambiance of political aspirations of many warlords in India. Alarm signals from different corners of the country are evocative of the dangerous battle readiness of one political outfit, the BJP. More and more aggressive groupings of desperate naysayers would transform their perennial calumny into frantic hobnobs and undeniably in extreme situations, they would choose to merge their intentions and emotions intermingling in one heave of unity. Situation is slowly changing. We see it vividly but little speck of dust is withering the clarity. The ‘Moditva’, with its axiomatic collaboration with the Hindutva is all set to peel out the bulges of anomalies.
2024 will be a prestige battle for all parties. Impatience to stitch new coalitions is thickening in the air. The National Executive of the ruling BJP saw its ultimate leader’s headmaster role. He admonished the party cohorts to remain vigilant before they spit contentious vocabulary on issues that would catch up fire with severe rapidity. He had special reference to the cancel culture against Hindi movies. The controversial ‘Pathan’ movie now would have a smooth sailing without any Hindu radical outrage. With the nine states due to go to polls before the National Election, Modi understands the electoral value of his image. He literally cautioned his party men to come out of the shadow of the Moditva and work hard taking the success stories of the government’s initiatives ensuring the last mile delivery to a larger audience. He is aware of the discontent among the opposition and pacing towards a third term, the opposition parties would utilize their last ounce of energy to patch up new equations. With his party’s humongous victory in his home state, one thing is clear that brand Modi’s indomitability is his clarity of vision and his administrative acumen, a colossus for the last two decades. The Hindutva that his opponents accuse him of is the plank that he consecrated with his ethno-nationalist ethics. His policies and politics had an unequivocal impact on the larger welfare of the country and a huge audience is always ready to swallow his views without any ambiguity. This should worry the entire opposition.
Modi’s moves throughout his tenure in the last eight years have been futuristic and he kept chasing his ambitious targets. His target oriented steps to put India on the pedestal of a developed nation were more convincing than the vilifying propaganda that his opposition came out with. Along with the country’s emergence as a strong global player, Modi ensured its cultural renaissance on an international scale and his visits to different countries could transmute India’s image from an average overcrowded country to one of the potentially democratic nations. The parties desperately trying to fence his popularity with vehemence could so far gain nothing. Their defamatory exercises to paint him as a divisive and hate-inciting majoritarian dictator always misfired. The position of the opposition on the Prime Minister often gets scrambled and underrated as the parties opposing him frequently fail to establish their indoctrinated views. Modi’s prominence as a successful politician for the last two decades and his ability and agility to remain popular in public opinion surveys with his reputation towering internationally cannot be the result of his political trickeries. Without a certain level of sincerity, no politician can stick to the popularity that he has been able to carry forward.
Impregnated with its animated vision of uniting the country, the Congress seems to have lost its credibility with its teeny-weeny temperament on the essence of Indianness. The party’s long march to revive its lost reliability is at its last leg. Metamorphosed into his bearded holy man’s appearance, Rahul Gandhi seems to have garnered the idea of Bharat Jodo from Adi Shankaracharya’s spiritual strides across the landmass of India. The Congress leader’s interactions with the media throughout his yatra produce a spiritual caricature of a political leader.
His spiritual gimmicks do not qualify to match the deep-rooted spiritual sentiments of India. The whole makeover of the Gandhi scion appears to be a deliberate imitation of Narendra Modi, who has largely managed to attract the attention of the political and spiritual class of India. Rahul Gandhi’s religiously enlightened version of the new avatar is seen quoting from the Vedas and other Hindu texts and referring to the Hindu deities. Running around the circles on an imaginary unification of India, the Congress and its revivalist should not forget its rabid acrimony on India’s civilisational heritage throughout the decades of Congress Raj in India. The complete revival of the Congress before 2024 is not less than boiling the ocean.
Interestingly, the Congress thinks that the BBC controversy on the Gujarat riots portraying Modi as a butcher will sell like hot cakes. Before the state elections and the national election, the party’s shatterproof vigour is ready to expose Modi through the BBC revelations. After the Ayodhya movement, it was the Godhra train carnage that got the Hindu sentiments emerging as a political unity. Modi’s astounding post Godhra victory in 2002 in his home state exemplified this Hindutva sentiment gaining a fillip. His strongman image was cultivated through consistent hard work while his genuine visionary approach strengthened the country both militarily and economically. India’s G20 presidency this year brings it a significant strategic role to play. The BBC documentary would probably be a shot in the arm for the BJP and Modi.
Taking a long stride across the country would not erase the Congress party’s past karmas and their consequences. It had never shied away from demonising the Modi phenomenon. And whenever it did, the resultant impact was its defeat. Every time its anti-Modi rhetoric backfired and brought shame to the oldest political party. Indubitably, Rahul Gandhi’s yatra does not hold any justifiable reason to whitewash the barbarity that one of the minority communities had at the hands of the Congress. It has conveniently forgotten the massacre of Sikhs post-Indira assassination. The majority of the BJP voters wouldn’t be surprised as the BBC let its cat out of the bag. The British media with its colonial mindset has always been spiteful on India. At present, Modi’s nationalist image is extremely capable of toppling this slanderous global agenda. Crying for spilt milk is futile. The Godhra accusation on Modi would not change the mindset of the Indian polity. It has its resolute plans for India and Modi is totally aware of the fact that every cloud has a silver lining. For him, there is still space to go for an extra mile before 2024 elections.
