It’s 2024, the big election year, but the battle lines were drawn a couple of months back and 2023 ended on a very healthy note for BJP, when Congress lost assembly polls in three states in Hindi heartland, the region essential to forming the government at the centre. The good signs for the Modi led NDA government was it’s comfortable victory in Chhattisgarh, where the political pandits were giving no chance to BJP. Rajasthan might be a call of anti-incumbency but good governance in Madhya Pardesh failed the concept of anti-incumbency.
With ‘X’ factor ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ 2024 has started on three key notes for BJP. ‘Mandir wahin bnayengy par tarekh nahi btayengy’ the light weighted punchline vanished on 22nd of Janauary, when Pran-Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla was solemnised by Prime Minister Modi in Ram Janambhoomi Temple.
Bhartiya Janta Party champions Ayodhya with a solid and clear ideological vision, a central pillar of which is building Ram Rajya, where its politics of Hindutva and development find common cause. This idea of tapping into Ramayan isn’t a new one, rulers from Cholas to the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi’s definition of Ram Rajya have used it as a political ploy.
Savarkar, in his ‘Essentials of Hindutva’ reads Ramayan as a nationalist text for Hindus, just like Genesis is for Jews. Hinduism is not just a religion but as an art of living and Maryada Purshotam Ram signifies this art, that occupies the minds of Indians as a text with more than 300 versions across languages, celebrated in popular traditions of Ramlila.
Mahatma Gandhi advocated self-rule for India with Ram Rajya, saying, “Swaraj is synonymous with Ram Rajya.” He also used this terminology not religiously but historically to create a new India’s polity and democracy based on its own historical self rather than importing Western norms and culture. He always laid emphasis on Ram Rajya as part of self-reliance in Swaraj.
With ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’, this has happened for the first time in the history of independent India, that in an election year we didn’t get an interim budget as a bribe to voters. There were no revdis, freebies and excessive political grandstandings. This time the interim budget reiterated government’s achievements over the past ten years and focused on long-term measures that will make India a developed nation, Viksit Bharat, by 2047.
An interim budget with no spoon-feeding, but emphases were laid on social guarantees rather than promises of free power or free bus rides. The vision of the Modi government is loud and clear, if you want free power, get it from rooftop (solar equipment). Modi is very clear that if government lends a helping hand, citizens will do the rest.
Modi government has re-emphasised on it’s focal areas for empowerment of women, youth, farmers and poor. Modi is effectively telling voters, “You know what I have already delivered. Trust me, I will not let you down.” Although Free food under Food Security Act, universal delivery of power, gas and water in homes, near-total financial inclusion and ability to access credit, housing for all and universal medical insurance coverage has already been done or is about to be fully completed, but this interim budget confidently asserts that ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ is superior to freebies.
With ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ around the corner no opposition can bake a cake for May 2024. The INDI Alliance is going, going, gone. INDI Alliance is no UPA and there is no charismatic leader like Modi around, the big Biryani party is almost over before even the invitation cards are distributed. The INDI Alliance without it’s foundation where everyone wants a bigger slice of seats, may be it stood for ‘I’m Never Doing It Again’.
Mamta Didi believes in ‘Ekla Cholo Re’ and she doesn’t want to share a single Boti from the Biryani in Bengal, AAP’s ‘Sadda Punjab’ will not allow them to share their plate of Biryani and Nitish Babu knows the art of sitting on the same chair and for Biryani the company doesn’t matter to him. Maya Bhenji has already made her stand clear and for Lalu and Akhilesh it is just the number of days before they also part away from alliance, because Congress reaches out to other parties only in desperation.
With voters’ belief on ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’, the BJP is all set for a third term. The core agenda of Ram Mandir is settled and registered in golden words on the pages of history, voters have faith in ‘Viksit Bharat’ and they proved it in the just concluded assembly elections and there is no united face in opposition to take on the ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’.
The brand MODI is the new world order. Not only Indians but the whole world also believes ‘Modi hy tho mumkin hai’. With every passing day Modi is growing as a leader with difference, who reads the heartbeat and has solution for every problem. The common citizens of the country are looking upon him to take India into the Amrit Kaal. The foundations laid down today will sail India with the top most economy in the world when we celebrate the centennial celebrations in 2047. Modi has given the guarantee and “Guarantee hy aur Mumkin bhi hoga’.
