Andar Bahar Gujarat – 2 November 2012

Read this piece in Gujarati here

Ahmedabad, 2 November 2012

November 2012- A loaded month

The month of November is here. This month is going to be a festive month for businessmen for business, children for vacation and politicians for politics. Dhanteras falls on the 11th of November, Diwali on the 13th and the 14th of November is the Gujarati new year. On the 18th of November Labh Pancham will be celebrated. November 20th is the Birth anniversary of saint Jalaram and on the 28th it is Dev Diwali. In most of schools Diwali vacations begin from the 12th and terminate on the 2nd of December. A Test match will be played between India and England in the city from the 15th to the 19th of November. 28th November is the first auspicious day for a wedding ceremony directly after 29th June, 2012. There are only 5 auspicious day for marriage left in the year 2012 and it starts from 28th November. If we talk about politics, the last day for registering candidature for the first and second phase of the election is 24th and 30th November respectively. Till then the list of candidates for the legislative assembly elections will be finalized. Till Diwali everyone will be busy optimizing business and politicians will also maintain a balance and let people celebrate the festival. But after Diwali the entire state is going to surrender to election fever, that’s for sure.

After the opinion polls?

The surveys by C-Voter, ORG Marg and lastly by CNN-IBN clearly show Narendra Modi coming out victorious in the upcoming elections. This has lead to two things: The Congress Cadre is somewhat frustrated and the BJP cadre is brimming with confidence which was missing in the last few days. On the other hand the survey has also injected an overdose of confidence in the BJP cadre which was confident right from the start. But there is still enough time to control the overconfident BJP cadre before elections. People always tend to vote for the party which is likely to be victorious in the election, and they just do not want to “waste” their votes. That is why; the mood created by these surveys will definitely be advantageous for the BJP. If you have observed whenever the slogan “Islam is in trouble” is shouted, it attracts mobs of Muslims on the roads in response to save Islam. Now in every election season, the leading newspapers in Gujarat publish news like “Modi is in trouble” in a clandestine collaboration with Congress party. But this helps the BJP rather than the Congress, because double the number of voters step outside their houses to “save” Modi. But what if such a feeling is absent in this season?

And when I meet my Congress friends these days, they seem tired, despondent and depressed after an energetic and confident initial phase. Three chief reasons are responsible for this:

1) These days it rather seems like a striptease show is running in Delhi. And with each passing day it is removing one piece of clothing from the body of nationwide ruler – the Congress Government. And the entire wrath of the nation is against the Congress at this time thanks to this. Gujarat is not an exception at all. In fact history is a witness that Gujarat has always been at the forefront when this kind of situation takes place.

2) In the second cadre of Congress party, the conflict for election tickets has gone up. When Ahmed Patel gave statement in Bharuch on the need for unity, it was actually his experience speaking. Just like every river meets the ocean, in the exact same manner all conflicts of the Gujarat congress reach Ahmed Patel. I have heard that Ahmed Patel who is considered to be an extremely courteous person is also fed up with members bringing complaints about internal conflicts to him all day and night. Can talks like Ashwin Kotwal disliking Madhusoodan Mistri or Mahendrasingh Rana disliking Narhari Amin (and how many more can I mention here) remain between four walls? No.

3) Modi has successfully built a mega wave through Vivekananda yatra across the state. The gatherings of People gathered to hail Modi during the yatra can be compared to a wide ocean where as during the Congress’s yatra, the gathering of people was almost like a pond compared to Modi’s. The potential candidates of Congress believe that Modi’s mega wave hugely contributes to the victory of BJP candidates. But the candidates of the Congress party have to win on their own capability. And besides, it is really difficult to survive and win for the second time when you are constantly in an opposition party and therefore cannot manage to serve the aspirations of the people in your assembly area as well as you should.

However, the person disturbed and irritated the most by these surveys, is Gordhanbhai Zadaphia. On the one hand Keshubhai is talking of unfurling the tricolor in Gandhinagar on 26 January and on the other hand all opinion polls state that their party will hardly win two or three seats. Now, wouldn’t anyone lose their temper? That is why; Gordhanbhai Zadaphia has written a letter to the election commission to ban these kinds of surveys.

Allegations by Congress: Big in media, but dustbin item in Courts

Are accusations hurled at Modi by the Gujarat Congress a farce? Technically, we can answer it with a “yes”. Though the Congress and the media working as its tool created a hue and cry over issuing land to Venkaiah Naidu’s company Archean Chemicals in Kutch, what ultimately happened? The court passed the judgement on 28th June that Archean has been allotted the land legally and it rejected the petition filed against the allotment of land to Archean.

Keshubhai delivered a series of speeches and wrote many press notes regarding the “misuse” of ST buses during the Garib Kalyan Mela. But the High Court rejected the writ filed against it and remarked that there is nothing wrong with the use of ST buses.

The state government decided to extend the term of Nanavati commission. Congress and the media working as the tools of Congress Party opposed this decision, too. Then the entire issue went to the High Court and in July 2012 the High Court passed a judgement that nothing wrong was done by extending the term of the Nanavati Commission. The decision to extend the term was approved by the court.

Throughout the years, the Congress did not miss a single platform to portray Modi as the devil incarnate in connection with 2002 but what is the result? The Special Investigation Team formed by the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Modi and not only this, the court also explained and refuted each and every charge laid at Modi’s door by media persons, dissatisfied Police officers and foreign funded NGOs. The court also made clear on the basis of solid proofs how people disliking Modi created a foggy picture. Though the Congress promoted Sanjiv Bhatt, the report by the investigation team formed by the Supreme Court proved Bhatt a liar.

The Congress again accused the Modi Government of having illicit connections with the Essar group. The Gujarat Government proved that the previous government had provided the Essar group with unfair advantages and fought against the Essar group all the way uptill the Supreme Court and made a path for recovery of pending taxes worth crores.

And in the latest development the writ petition filed against the Gujarat Government for issuing land to Adani in Mundra has also been discarded by the court. Firstly, the Gujarat High Court rejected the writ and yesterday even the Supreme Court supported the decision of the Gujarat High Court in the case of issuing land to the Adani Group in Kutch.

On the other hand, MB Shah Commission investigated the cases of issuing land for TATA Nano and various other projects. After listening to all parties the commission has submitted the first part of the final report to the Government, and the report states that nothing wrong has been done by the state govt. Justice Shah is a retired judge who is also selected by the central government for investigation in mine cases. It is believed that when Justice Shah’s report will be made public, the truth will come out. In short, the Congress is failing in making allegations against the Modi Government stick and each time their accusations are proving to be nothing but farce.

Abundance is better than Dearth…

I gathered some interesting anecdotes from the informal chatter of election observers of the Gujarat BJP who had just returned after taking a sense of candidates for the party in various districts. The observers clearly said that at some places people used to come for claiming their candidature as if there were District Panchayat or Gram Panchayat elections. At one place a man went to Congress election observers for his candidature and later came to BJP observers as well. At one place one candidate came to the spot all dressed up. He had an impression that the observers will prioritize young candidates so he tried his best to look young and fresh.

I commented, once upon a time Jansangh was not even able to find enough candidates to field in Gujarat. Isn’t this hustle and bustle better than the dearth of candidates? The observer replied, hustle and bustle considered, but whose? And to what extent?

The big news actually was…

So the Congress public meeting in Surat was only partially attended by people and most of the chairs remained vacant. If the local organization doesn’t work enough, the convention may flop, no complaint about it. But the news is not that the Congress’s public meeting was a flop. The news is that a Gujarati newspaper reported it proactively with photograph. Believe it, anti-Congress reporting published in Gujarati newspaper ahead of the elections!