Gujarat Polls– Omissions and Opinions!

The ‘secular’ media, both print & electronic, which the Marxists and Minorities dominate, has been hostile to BJP right from the beginning. While it showed a sort of indifference & unconcern on the Godhra train carnage of February 2002, it created a big hue & cry over its aftermath, the spontaneous reactions, which developed in to a riot in which both Muslims & Hindus were killed and many of them by police firing too. Since then, the ‘secular’ media has been hunting for Modi’s blood every time when the state went for elections, whether it is for the assembly, or parliament or local bodies. On the eve of every election, the media tries to project a rosy picture for Congress and a sort of vulnerability for Modi through its opinion polls, which is “managed” by the secular brigade. In a similar attempt, on the eve of the forthcoming assembly elections, the secular brigade is again bent upon envisaging the end of BJP government, and this time it is more important, as its result is likely to influence the coming Lok Sabha elections as well, particularly when the UPA’s record of governance is abysmally poor.

Close on the heels of the so-called ‘expose of the truth’ by Tehelka, the team of Indian Express – CNN IBN – Divya Bhaskar – CSDS has come out with an opinion poll on Gujarat. The poll had been conducted at 240 locations across the state with a sample of around 3800 respondents. The result says that Modi has a clear lead as an individual leader beyond compare, and BJP to retain power with 100 seats. The poll says that the BJP has a share of 45% against Congress’s 40% (!?) and a shift of 2 to 3 percent will put both the parties at equal number of seats thereby making life miserable for Modi. The pollsters predict a sort of vulnerability to Modi by comparing his “Vibrant Gujarat” campaign at present with “India Shining” campaign of BJP in 2004. It is very clear that the report comprises of truth, half-truth (half-lies) and managed truth (lies).

With regards to Modi, the findings are, his popularity is high; his satisfactory level is high; improvement in virtually all development related indicators like electricity, water, roads, infrastructure, health, education, etc is also good; people are praising the growth & development. All these findings clearly make out that there is no absolutely anti-incumbency factor at all! So, where is the question of vulnerability?

On the other hand, the pollsters have predicted that the Congress party would give BJP a close fight this time with a vote share of 40%, but could not give a convincing reason for, how the party could gain so much! The reality is, Congress party doesn’t have a credible leader to match the stature of Modi and the party has to depend on unethical things like caste & communal factors, fake journalism like Tehelka, creating dissidents within BJP, etc, to strengthen it’s campaigning. It also depends largely on the media and secularists, hostile to Modi & BJP, to share its burden! It seems the party is focusing mainly on anti-Modi strategies, rather than what it will do if elected to power. It doesn’t seem to project itself as a viable & credible alternative to BJP or Modi. These things are unlikely to increase the already sagging credibility of the party.

Whenever election occurs and whenever Sonia or Rahul stand (not contest) in Amethi or Raebareli, the whole family, including the son-in-law, camp in that constituency and go for extensive campaigns. The entire Congress machinery will be sent. That these two constituencies have been the family’s bastions since independence and their development is absolute zero is a different matter. But, the so-called “Vote-Catchers” of the party, its President and her Son, are not confident of themselves and do not seem to be interested in an extensive campaign in Gujarat.

Moreover, the comparison of Modi’s “Vibrant Gujarat” of 2007 with BJP’s “India Shining” of 2004, by the poll managers is ridiculous. Even if it is considered for the sake of argument, one cannot say that, BJP’s India Shining campaign was a failure. In fact, the people’s mandate was only for the BJP, as it was voted as the single largest party. The defeat of NDA was because of the dismal performance of TDP in AP and AIADMK in TN and not because of BJP. The formation of a government by an opportunistic after-poll alliance (UPA), with the outside support of another opportunistic Left front, cannot undermine the mandate given by the people for NDA.

The undue haste & concern shown by the ‘secular’ media towards the Gujarat Elections seem to be because of two reasons. One, it is worried about Modi’s win and the other, the resultant possibility of BJP’s victory in the forthcoming parliament elections! More than everything, the secular brigade is terribly scared of Modi playing a big, prominent & central role in the National political arena in the very near future!