Gujarat Polls – Omissions and Opinions!- II

As the Election Day and the end of campaigning are nearing, it is quite amusing to watch the “secular media” going overboard in demonizing Mr.Modi , in order to help the rudderless Congress party, which is struggling far behind BJP in the run up to the assembly. In particular, the electronic media is repeatedly hovering around the Gujarat riots of 2002 and concocting a few scenes on the “supposedly” neglected status of Muslims.

CNNIBN’s Sagarika Gose, in a special program titled “Moditva” attempted to create a picture as though Modi’s administration, had totally neglected the minority community, in its march towards development. She was alternatively showing Hindu & Muslim localities to drive home her point. In the process, with or without her knowledge, she had clearly come out with the various developmental achievements of Modi’s government, to the advantage of BJP. She had also stooped to the level of showing a Muslim lady saying “I want to kill Modi and only then I will be satisfied”. While showing a Temple, where ‘pooja’ was being performed, Sagarika termed it as “aggressive Hindutva”! Is it not sheer stupidity to term a “Pooja” as “aggression”? Can any one help BJP more than this? In a similar kind of program titled “In search of Gandhi”, in the same channel, Anuba Bhosle attempted to show that Gandhi and his principles were not to be seen at all in his home state. She was portraying the present group of BJP legislators as criminals, as if the Congress legislators are all noble & good Samaritans. At the end, she brought Sanjay Dut in to the picture saying “Munnabhai’s Gandhigiri was a great hit in the state”, in order to drive home her point that, the absence of Gandhi is felt in the state! She must understand that Gandhi’s absence is felt not only in Gujarat, but also in the whole country, as we have been ruled by one single family of “Fake-Gandhis” including a “foreign-Gandhi” for almost fifty years!

The latest onslaught of the secular brigade comes from the NDTV, which attempted to fix the responsibility for the killing of terrorist Shoraubuddin in the “fake” encounter, on Modi. The channel has been repeatedly showing an election speech, which was a fitting response to Sonia’s indecent & arrogant charge that Modi is a merchant of death, in the guise that Modi has justified the killing of Shoraubuddin. Some of the Congress spokespersons have dreamt that Modi is sinking and that has made him to talk about Shoraubuddin now. The Congress, Left and the entire opposition, along with the secular brigade, can talk about Shoraubuddin, but Modi should not give a reply! What is this, a secular logic?

Similar attempts of demonizing Modi were presented by other TV channels as well, repeatedly. The presentations were so mediocre that the plus points, if at all there is any of the Congress, were not projected at all! As the viewer is aware of what he has got from the government in the last five years, he must be told of what he will be getting in the next five years if he votes for a change, and that precisely was not there in the stupid secular presentations.

Now, let us have a look at the latest election survey conducted by the weekly magazine “The Week”, which also belongs to the “secular brigade”. The ‘WEEK/C-voter’ poll says, 51% of the people have said Modi would make a better CM and 31% (can it be true?) have said Vaghela and only 5% have voted for the much hyped Keshubhai! Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki has polled only 3%. A phenomenal 58% have said that the quality of life has improved while 24% have said it remained the same and only 8% have said that it has deteriorated. Again 52% have said that they are satisfied with the current regime. Another shock for the secular brigade is that, 45% of the people have blamed “Muslims + Congress” for the Gujarat riots and only 27% have blamed “Modi+VHP+BJP”. If the voter turnout is 45% both BJP and Congress stand to win 83 to 99 seats; if the turnout is 50%, BJP is expected to win 91 to 107 seats and Congress is expected to win 71 to 87 seats; if the turnout is 55%, BJP is expected to romp home with 100 to 116 seats, while the Congress is likely to get only 63 to 79 seats. That is an increased voter turnout would ascertain the rout of Congress. After all this, the magazine says that the BJP is facing a “resurgent” Congress, which is pinning its hopes on “anti-incumbency”.

Let us analyze the two factors “Anti-incumbency” and “Resurgence of Congress”. The survey points out more than 50% of the people want Modi as CM, feel quality of life has improved and are satisfied with the current regime. They are also happy about the development of the state in almost all relevant factors. In this kind of a scenario, where is the question of anti-incumbency? The pollsters could not give any specifications or reasons for the so-called “resurgence” of the Congress. The party doesn’t have a leader to match the stature of Modi; the party has internal feuds between the various factions led by union minister Vaghela, party president Solanki, opposition leader Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel, S/O Late Chimanbhai Patel; the much hyped visits of Sonia couldn’t draw crowds, which is evident from the TV Channels showing only Sonia reading the prepared speech and not the crowds; The so-called ‘future’ of the party, the heir apparent Rahul doesn’t have the self confidence to risk campaigning; dearth of orators from the center, unlike BJP, which has good speakers; nothing worthwhile to boast about its own governance in the center. So, where is the resurgence?

But, the ‘secular media’ talks about resurgence of Congress based on certain unreliable factors such as, seven or eight dissident BJP MLAs, an old spent force like Keshubhai, who is wanted by only 5% of the people, Uma Barathi’s antics of confusion, ‘imagined’ lack of support from VHP / RSS to Modi, non-entities like NCP & LJP and caste & communal cards. On its part, the Congress party also depends heavily on the ‘secular media’ both print & electronic to help carry a hate campaign 24X7 against Modi. While preparing a charge sheet on Modi’s government with lies, baked lies & secular lies, the party didn’t even attempt to prepare its plan of action for the development of the state for the next five years in the most unlikely possibility of coming to power. Instead, it makes promises like free TVs, free ration with wheat, rice, dhal, sugar & kerosene, etc, similar to the Dravidian style of electioneering. It clicked in Tamil Nadu because, a major chunk of the society have been deliberately kept poor without access to education and health care and they have been used to this kind of ‘freebies’ since 1967. Whereas, the Gujaratis are known for their pride, self-respect and intelligence and they may even take this announcement of freebies as an insult.

On the other hand, Modi’s strategy has been clear and sleek. He has been focusing on further development, a society without caste differences, a clean & corrupt free governance, maintaining the Numero Uno status of Gujarat and ensuring the pride & respect of 5.5 crore Gujaratis. He has given special attention to youth & women. Apart from all these, he is also giving befitting replies to the cheap charges of Sonia & Co in their own language.

There is another shock for the secular brigade from the most unexpected quarters. The Indian Express-CNN IBN-Divya Bhaskar-CSDS survey says that, about 13% of the Muslims in Gujarat intend to vote for BJP. About 16% of the ‘educated’ Muslims and 19% of ‘rich’ Muslims also intend to vote for Modi. Support for the party is higher among the educated, women and youth. Narendra Modi’s style of functioning and governance in Gujarat finds more supporters among the young and educated Muslims than among older and uneducated Muslims, the survey says!

Apart from Modi, the BJP has got another great strength, which the Congress doesn’t have and that is, the man behind the success of BJP in many states in the past, the master strategist Arun Jaitley . The temperature of the campaign is increasing, which will result in higher voter turnouts. As per the WEEK/C-voter survey, increased voter turnout will result in a thumping win for BJP and a rout for Congress.

Keep watching Gujarat!

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