Narendra Modi campaigns in Gujarat

By Nimesh Bansal

Narendra Modi addressed over 7 lakh BJP workers in Gandhinagar, as Gujarat prepares for its first assembly polls since Modi became the Prime Minister of India. The event marked the culmination of BJP’s Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan which began on October 1.

With the BJP hoping to retain power for a record fifth time in Gujarat, Narendra Modi responded to Congress’s recent criticism of BJP’s work, or lack of, in the state. The Congress had recently run a social media campaign in Gujarat with the hashtag #VikasGandoThayoChe (development has gone crazy). The campaign involved sharing images of broken roads, upturned Gujarat state transport buses, flooded railway tracks, and more, aimed at showing that contrary to BJP’s promises, development was not actually taking place in the saffron-dominated state. Seeking to invalidate the Congress’s claims, Modi roared, “The 6.5 crore Gujaratis will chant only one mantra–hun vikas chhoon, hun Gujarat chhoon (I am development, I am Gujarat).”

Modi’s comments

The Indian PM took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, who is widely expected to take over as Congress chief, saying, “(The Gujarat Assembly election) is a battle between vanshavaad (dynasty politics) and vikasvaad (development politics). Development will win, and the dynasty will lose.” He proceeded to challenge the Congress to fight the elections on the pillar of development, instead of ‘trying to manipulate the people’ saying, “The Congress party has always had a negative approach towards the development of Gujarat. In fact, they are now abusing vikas. Gujarat elections are around the corner and the Congress has developed fever once again. Gujarat has been an eyesore for the party and the family. I won’t repeat what they did to Sardar Patel, his daughter Maniben, and Morarji Desai. They did not speak about the work of Morarji Desai or his dedication and commitment to Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals. They instead chose to talk about what he ate and drank.” Modi added that the Congress, a party that had given the nation so many prime ministers and chief ministers, now only focuses on ‘spreading lies’ and has created an ‘atmosphere of pessimism in the country’.

Narendra Modi also took time out to defend BJP’s alleged abuse of power in implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST). He said that the decision to implement the reform was not of the BJP alone and that nearly 30 parties were consulted and involved with GST implementation. He singled out 1 of those 30 parties saying, “The Congress is an equal partner in GST decisions. They should not spread lies on GST.” GST and Demonetisation have been labelled as significant contributing factors to the slowdown in economic growth, which according to top union ministers is at a 3-year-low of 5.7 percent. Modi rebuked these claims saying that a ‘handful of pessimists’ are playing fast and loose with facts to misrepresent a blip in the economy.

The BJP’s goals

In 2 months time, when Gujarat goes to vote in the assembly elections with their own Narendra Modi as the nation’s PM, BJP’s expectations will be high. At the Mahasammelan, BJP President Amit Shah already set a high bar, “We want a victory by a three-fourths majority. When Modi was chief minister, we got 127 seats. Now when he is the prime minister, this figure looks too small.” A figure of 150+ seats out of the 182-member assembly has been set as the target by the BJP. Considering the turnout and reception at the BJP’s Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan, the BJP look on course to retain their status as a Gujarati’s gaurav.

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