By Arun Srivastava
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows
no hesitation in using abusive language and making accusations against those
who criticise him. His description of mahagathbandhan as a collective of the
rich and corrupt people can be seen only as part of this strategy.
In his eagerness to discredit mahagathbandhan,
he forgot that his own party MPs and leaders were part of the opposition’s show
of unity at Mamata Banerjee’s rally in Kolkata. A pertinent question is why his
party did not take action against the three BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Arun
Shourie and Shatrughan Sinha who participated in the rally if they were corrupt
in the last three years or so when they have been raising their voice of
protest against Modi.
Taking a jibe at the leaders present
at the rally Modi said “Those who were on the dais in Kolkata were either son
or daughter of a big wig or who wanted to make his son or daughter big in
politics”. But Modi has himself inducted such people in his ministry. Jayant
Sinha in the Modi ministry is the son of Yashwant Sinha, who Incidentally at no
stage pleaded for his induction. Instead Modi did it on his own for simply
slighting Sinha. And the junior Sinha was being used to offend his father.
Modi also dismissed the unity show
as an alliance of corruption, negativity and instability, saying while the
parties assembled at the rally have “money power”, the Bharatiya Janata Party
has “people’s power”.
Just after the day of the opposition
rally, Modi was addressing BJP’s booth-level workers from Lok Sabha
constituencies of Kolhapur, Hatkanangle, Madha and Satara in Maharashtra and
South Goa through video-conference. His speech, in fact, reflected his
nervousness. The more he was turning aggressive against his adversaries, the
more it reflected the uneasiness that has gripped his psyche.
Modi has been facing allegations of
corruption in the Rafale plane deal with France after former French president
Francois Hollande was quoted as saying New Delhi had influenced the choice of a
local partner. Modi is accused of overpaying for the planes and not being
transparent.
If Modi could cherish the desire to
continue as the prime minister, the opposition parties can in their own right
work together to prevent it. This is what the leaders from over a dozen
opposition parties gathered in Kolkata on Saturday did. They vowed to put up a
united fight in the coming Lok Sabha elections and oust Modi from power.
Modi is distressed at the prospect
of the opposition managing to come together. He was hoping to use various
tactics of keep them split. But so far he has not been able to inflict any
damage. Opposition leaders are demanding the use of ballot papers instead of
the electronic voting machines which, they said, were the source of “all sorts
of malpractices”.
He took a swipe at the opposition’s
Save Democracy slogan. “Parties which do not have even a single trace of
democracy are making long speeches to mislead the people in this country on
democracy,” he told party workers in Maharashtra. But the brute reality is the
country and democracy are facing threats from the Modi government. Lynching,
evicting the minorities from their homes and silencing them through the use of
force, denying the right to dissent are just some of the ways the Modi
government is using to subvert democratic institutions in the country. The
slapping of sedition charge against the JNU students is the latest in the
series, but the court pulled up Delhi police for filing the charge sheet
without the sanction of the competent authority, which is the Delhi government.
(IPA Service)
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