During my service I did not attend any political rally. The last election meeting I attended was of Vajpayee in Alambagh / Lucknow in 1974 during probation .Honestly I was not inspired by any politician enough to take pains of attending crowded mega rallies just as I preferred watching cricket on TV.
Tavleen Singh’s recent article about Modi at Jaipur made me try Modi’s mega rally at Rohini in Delhi today ( 29th september).
From East Delhi Rohini is about 30 kms. Parking being always a problem , I joined the special chartered bus . Since the bus was of BJP enthusiast/ supporters , Vandematram , Bharat Mata ki Jai and Modi’s slogans were freely being raised. मित्तल ,अग्रवाल व् गोयलों के कार्यक्रम मैं आतिथ्य की कमी तो होती ही नहीं है . गाते खाते रोहिणी आ गयी.
As we got down from bus at Rohini , a km away from venue , I realized what Modi mania was about as also told by Tavleen Singh in much better language. But the crowd was some thing like Kumbh mela or old 26 th January of pre TV days . The sea of humanity and its enthusiasm was to be seen to be believed.Like any communist or RSS function , crowd was disciplined and well managed .
I was about 350 meters from stage . Huge LCD pannels were kept for every one to see easily the happenings at stage .
Vijay Goyal , V.K.Malhotra , Siddhu bored us with dull speeches. None of them could enthuse crowd adequately.It does not augur well for Delhi बीजेपी .उसे आत्म मंथन की बहुत आवश्यकता है . The crowd went rapturous as Modi arrived and climbed the stage .
Modi first tried speaking of Delhi’s local problems and was flat and boring as he picked up CWG, corruption etc . It was too old and did not appeal. Very Poor people started leaving in just fifteen minutes. There was a need to skillfully translate numbers like 176000 crore rupees lost in 2G scam or 71000 mw power plants lying idle into physical entities of loss to poor in a manner so that very poor to understand and appreciate how he has been cheated..
He possibly sensed it . So he changed the tone and attacked ‘मा बेटा दामाद सरकार ‘ , crowd got interested again . He blamed central governments departments for slow progress . Quoting Railways he said that in thirty years we have added only 3000 Kms while Chinese have added 11000 Kms.to track. Power joke was the best one that even Prime Minister’s house has a DG generator .71000 mw power houses are idling for various reasons. The road construction rate has halved from Vajpayee’s time. Employment creation has halved etc .
But he was at his best in attacking PM in extremely civilized language . He said Rahul’s insult to cabinet is the cause of Nawaz Shariff calling PM old village lady( देहाती औरत) at New York . Man Mohan Singh is not respected by his party even so how will others respect him . He was attacking Nawaz Sharif very aggressively for insulting ‘HIS’ Prime Minister.He doubted if PM can raise issues of returning POK or our soldiers heads.
He spoke with credibility and justice about need of having big dreams and determination but should have given good examples to make it sink in .
Every one knows that it is his forte and will believe him .
But he was not a mesmeric speaker like Hitler . Speech could not make people feel cheated enough to hate congress . Like Vajpayee in ‘ India Shining ‘, he too gave no concrete suggestion for improving poor people’s life. He did talk about Unemployment in youth and need to reduce it but some more punch was needed.
My judgement is that he has to bring poor people of India in loop otherwise BJP will lose , particularly in Delhi .
The angrily called Gang of four, for opposing Modi and finishing Yedurappa when he was looking just unassailable , ie Advani , Sushma ,Venkaiyah etc were not mercifully invited .Advani is at best like Mahabharat’s Yayati wanting to live off young children’s youth .He should like Dhritrashtra , gracefully leave it to Modi.I hope Modi in future also will also not try becoming a pseudo secular avtaar . Because the only reason Mayawati springs back from near eclipse is because her core group of supporters are totally loyal to her and she never ditches them. After failing to construct Ayodhya , Advani’s turn round to win muslim votes was the best revenge Jinnah could take for Ayodhya movement . UP became unwinnable by just one statement of Advani. Modi I am sure will not make the mistake of ditching his core constituency of voters ie Hindutva supporters.Gadkari alone was there amongst central leaders.
But BJP is making a mistake by solely depending on Modi charisma , which may peak too soon . It must have a second line of defence because Congress will concentrate on puncturing Modi. Apart from its brilliant focus on economic development, it must broaden its campaign on lines Modi did by comparing poor performance of Central departments . Regional issues must be equally well thought out . Delhi rally could not focus on Delhi issues .Today he was not at his best and definitely needs better speech writers like Kennedy if he has to pilot BJP alone. His speeches need more depth and instant appeal , the type he does best by picking on Nawaz Sharif .
But who will tell him that ?
Honestly I am little apprehensive about Modi now. He will undoubtedly remain our best bet and will push India to 9 % growth trajectory in say just two years . India will be a great economy and great power in ten years and far more honest and respected far more in world .He will control terrorism also.
But what about core hindu issues particularly removing reverse discrimination against them done by this government . Will he falter there again like Vajpayee.
But like Indira Gandhi , it will be a one man government .
अगर डर कर बड़े नेताओं को इंदिरा गाँधी के जैसे हटाया तो देश बौनों का हो जायेगा
परन्तु अभी भी देश तो चीटियों का है , जिन्हें सोनिया / राहुल / अहमद पटेल जब चाहें मसल दें जैसे दादा की उम्र के प्रधान मंत्री को राहुल ने आर्डिनेंस पर शर्मनाक रूप से मसल दिया .
चीटियों से बौने ही अच्छे होंगे , पर बौने तो फिर भी बौने ही होते हैं न. इस लिए मेरी कामना होगी की देश का सर्वोत्तम वर्ग मोदी जी से जुडा रहे !
I returned from rally with reinforced view about his being indispensable and very good but needing to become better to make BJP win single handedly like Indira Gandhi did for Congress .
