THE run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat reveals the desperation in the Opposition camps as they deal with the virtually invincible Chief Minister Narendra Modi once again. This is evident from the fact that it is Madame Sonia Gandhi herself who has decided to spearhead the campaign in Gujarat instead of dispatching her understudy son Rahul Gandhi whose posters had been plastered around the state weeks ago. Interestingly, during her whistle-stop tour of Anand a couple of days ago, Sonia, taking a leaf out of CM Modi'selection campaign, targetted the women electorate in a town where cooperatives have been the prime movers of the economy and women play a pivotal role. It may be mentioned that the CM has been consistently focussing on the enormous contribution nari shakti has made to the growth and development of Gujarat.
This is Sonia'ssecond visit to Gujarat this year which speaks volumes about uncertainty which plagues the Congress about its poll prospects in Gujarat.
The UPA chairperson'sspeech too was devoid of any issues and she merely harped on the ?misrule in Gujarat? without being able to provide tangible evidence to back her claims. What was really hilarious, however, was her attempts to pass on the onus of the infamous Ram affidavit controversy on the BJP and that too in a state which is not only well-known as Hindutva'slaboratory but where the political awareness of people is well acknowledged.
Even the tacky Tehelka sting on what it claims are shockingly candid confessions of the foot soldiers of the 2002 carnage in Gujarat which has been released less than two months prior to the elections and almost six years after the dastardly burning of karsevaks in the S2 coach of Sabarmati Express and the spontaneous backlash is clearly a last-ditch attempt to tarnish the CM'simage once again. The Hand of the Congress in this blatant plot to sully the name of Shri Modi by projecting him as the perpetrator of the riots is evident even to a juvenile.
But while some private TV channels milked the expose for all it was worth for a couple of days, the Congress, realising that the communal card is unlikely to yield rich dividends has consciously decided to downplay the controversy. Not only has it hardly given any space to the Godhra riots and the Tehelka sting operation in its recently released election manifesto but is hardly playing it up in the poll campaigns of its leaders.
But what has surprised political observers here is the fact that the Congress and the Modi-baiters within the ruling party could actually be foolhardy enough to even contemplate stirring the communal cauldron with such a sting operation. Despite having failed to do so umpteen times in the past almost six years, the Opposition camps are yet to learn from their mistakes. Elections 2002, in fact, gave the Opposition enough fodder for thought by virtually decimating it even as Shri Modi made a clean sweep with 126 of the 182 seats which went to the polls.
At that time, the Godhra riots were fresh in the minds of the electorate in Gujarat and even then, the verdict clearly showed that no one was buying the theory that the carnage was a state-sponsored pogrom. Subsequently, the clean sweeps that BJP made in the panchayat polls as well as the municipal corporation polls in major cities of Gujarat including some like Vadodara and Jamnagar, which had been Congress citadels for long, have only driven home the point that the voter in Gujarat is in no mood to be swayed by new theories being churned out regularly by the Congress on the Godhra massacre and the riots that followed.
In fact, the more the Congress is flogging the dead Godhra horse, the more sympathy it is evoking for the Chief Minister as the victim of such unfounded allegations. ?Why doesn'tthe Congress introspect for a change? Its role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 has been clearly proved unlike Godhra where nobody has been able to substantiate the allegations against the Gujarat CM,? says an indignant pro-Modi BJP leader.
As things stand now, CM Modi is poised to win a mandate for a second term as CM not only because he is in no way connected to the Godhra riots which were a spontaneous mass uprising but also because he has decided to focus his energies not on Opposition-bashing but on the concrete development of his state. Gujarat showcases the country'sdevelopmental strides as few other states can and has become a role model for all other states to follow. ?Call it a sheer coincidence or perfect timing that well-known global consultancy firm Ernst & Young released its latest report on Gujarat titled Gujarat: Beyond the Obvious on the same day that the Election Commission announced the dates for forthcoming elections in the state.?
The report has lauded the state government for its commendable work in sectors ranging from education to culture and from infrastructure to investment. It goes on to elaborate that the Gujarat government has implemented 72 initiatives in as many months which have generated a remarkable socio-economic transformation in the state making it a role model for other states.
?It is this sterling developmental track record which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will use as a poll plank this time around. Unlike poll 2002 which saw communalism emerge as the main emotive election issue, poll 2007 in Gujarat may all be about good governance,? says a senior BJP leader. He goes on to elaborate, ?We have shown the world how to run a state efficiently. Modiji'sachievements with regard to good governance have even been acknowledged by surveys conducted even by the ruling UPA coalition at the Centre.?
That Gujarat has risen phoenix like after having been battered in quick succession first by the devastating Bhuj earthquake of 2001 and then by the post-Godhra communal riots of 2002 to top the country'sinvestment sweepstakes as one of the most preferred investment destinations under five year'sof Shri Modi'srule is an indisputable fact.
?In such circumstances where Gujarat has made significant strides on the road to development and where people are happy and prosperous, any conspiracy to denigrate the man who is now popularly known as the architect of Gujarat'sprosperity is bound to be thwarted in no uncertain terms,? observes a Gujarat-based industrialist. After all, at the end of the day, actions speak louder than words or allegations.
The more the Congress is flogging the dead Godhra horse, the more sympathy it is evoking for the Chief Minister as the victim of such unfounded allegations. ?Why doesn'tthe Congress introspect for a change? Its role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 has been clearly proved.?
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