Is Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi stuck with his barbs aimed at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and choosing to ignore he needs to move on?
The saffron party's election campaign in the five state Assembly polls was overtly marked by the Gujarat chief minister's personal attacks against Gandhi. The success of Modi's clever use of witticism and an aggressive political rhetoric was manifest in the party reaping rich dividends in the poll results.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Guharat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
However, a week in the life of politics is a very long time. In this case, it has been more than three since the results to five Assembly polls were declared on December 8.
Aakashvani in Ranchi
After continuously referring to Rahul Gandhi as 'Shahzada' in his political rallies, Modi termed Gandhi's recent outburst against his own party's government in Maharashtra on the Adarsh society scam as 'aakashvani' on Sunday.
Referring to the recent meeting Gandhi had with Congress chief ministers after which he announced that he had asked the Maharashtra government to reconsider its rejection of a judicial commission report which has indicted several former Congress chief ministers in the Adarsh scam, Modi said, "The people responsible for this mess...they do aakashvani and then go and hide. It appears they have nothing to do with whatever (Adarsh scam) happened in the first place."
Narendra Modi addressing his Ranchi rally.
Narendra Modi addressing his Ranchi rally.
"We are familiar with the idea of aakashvani in the puranas but while these forced people to think, the ones coming from Delhi have exposed the deceitfulness of the Congress party," Modi said in Ranchi.
Modi's silence on AAP intentional?
Is Modi unwittingly refusing to acknowledge the change or intentionally choosing to ignore the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) effect?
The surprise entry of Arvind Kejriwal's AAP into Delhi's power circle as well as the political scene of the country has changed much and promises to change much more.
The BJP has been tacitly acknowledging this change in its silent appreciation and clever appropriation of the electoral ways of the new entrant. It began with the saffron party copying from AAP's its novel way of putting posters on the rear of the auto-rickshaws in Delhi. Secondly, it did away with its decades old practice of issuing party manifesto before polls and went online, like the AAP, to solicit people's opinions and suggestions before they finalised their manifesto.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Anna Hazare
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Thirdly, after the initial shock at the Delhi poll results, the saffron party decided to say no to the lure of power despite having spent a good decade-and-a-half in Opposition. That, too, when it had bagged the highest number of seats in the national capital. Such a move by the party is in sharp contrast to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee leading the shortest ever 13-day government in the aftermath of Lok Sabha elections in 1996. The party's game-plan than its saying no to power would put it on a par with the AAP on the moral pedestal boomeranged when the AAP decided to form the government in Delhi with Congress backing it.
Time Modi woke up to Kejri challenge
While the BJP's secret admiration of Kejriwal is writ large in the party clandestinely adopting the AAP's poll practices, the party's PM nominee chooses to be caught in a time warp and is ignoring the new realities.
With a platform in Delhi to showcase its ability to convert its utopian poll promises into realty, the AAP, even with a 25 per cent rate of success, can change the country's poll scenario in the remaining five months before India goes to Lok Sabha polls in 2014.
It can make the 2014 General Elections tripartite. More than this, AAP's little success in Delhi, and riding on that, its immense popularity spreading throughout the country like wildfire can force the Congress to save face in repeating its Delhi model in the Lok Sabha also, besides providing many secular parties, including the Left, an opportunity to rally behind someone with political freshness.
While Modi referred to 'aakashvani' in Ranchi, he might be refusing to hear a real one reverberating right on the country's political scene. In launching the same-old personal attacks on Rahul Gandhi which in all probability have outlived their utility, Modi might be barking up a wrong tree.
He needs to wake up to the Kejriwal challenge which has already threatened to take the poll thunder away from him.
He needs to invent a new poll rhetoric and save himself from being 'Kejriwalled' in the long run.
The saffron party's election campaign in the five state Assembly polls was overtly marked by the Gujarat chief minister's personal attacks against Gandhi. The success of Modi's clever use of witticism and an aggressive political rhetoric was manifest in the party reaping rich dividends in the poll results.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Guharat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
However, a week in the life of politics is a very long time. In this case, it has been more than three since the results to five Assembly polls were declared on December 8.
Aakashvani in Ranchi
After continuously referring to Rahul Gandhi as 'Shahzada' in his political rallies, Modi termed Gandhi's recent outburst against his own party's government in Maharashtra on the Adarsh society scam as 'aakashvani' on Sunday.
Referring to the recent meeting Gandhi had with Congress chief ministers after which he announced that he had asked the Maharashtra government to reconsider its rejection of a judicial commission report which has indicted several former Congress chief ministers in the Adarsh scam, Modi said, "The people responsible for this mess...they do aakashvani and then go and hide. It appears they have nothing to do with whatever (Adarsh scam) happened in the first place."
Narendra Modi addressing his Ranchi rally.
Narendra Modi addressing his Ranchi rally.
"We are familiar with the idea of aakashvani in the puranas but while these forced people to think, the ones coming from Delhi have exposed the deceitfulness of the Congress party," Modi said in Ranchi.
Modi's silence on AAP intentional?
Is Modi unwittingly refusing to acknowledge the change or intentionally choosing to ignore the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) effect?
The surprise entry of Arvind Kejriwal's AAP into Delhi's power circle as well as the political scene of the country has changed much and promises to change much more.
The BJP has been tacitly acknowledging this change in its silent appreciation and clever appropriation of the electoral ways of the new entrant. It began with the saffron party copying from AAP's its novel way of putting posters on the rear of the auto-rickshaws in Delhi. Secondly, it did away with its decades old practice of issuing party manifesto before polls and went online, like the AAP, to solicit people's opinions and suggestions before they finalised their manifesto.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Anna Hazare
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Thirdly, after the initial shock at the Delhi poll results, the saffron party decided to say no to the lure of power despite having spent a good decade-and-a-half in Opposition. That, too, when it had bagged the highest number of seats in the national capital. Such a move by the party is in sharp contrast to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee leading the shortest ever 13-day government in the aftermath of Lok Sabha elections in 1996. The party's game-plan than its saying no to power would put it on a par with the AAP on the moral pedestal boomeranged when the AAP decided to form the government in Delhi with Congress backing it.
Time Modi woke up to Kejri challenge
While the BJP's secret admiration of Kejriwal is writ large in the party clandestinely adopting the AAP's poll practices, the party's PM nominee chooses to be caught in a time warp and is ignoring the new realities.
With a platform in Delhi to showcase its ability to convert its utopian poll promises into realty, the AAP, even with a 25 per cent rate of success, can change the country's poll scenario in the remaining five months before India goes to Lok Sabha polls in 2014.
It can make the 2014 General Elections tripartite. More than this, AAP's little success in Delhi, and riding on that, its immense popularity spreading throughout the country like wildfire can force the Congress to save face in repeating its Delhi model in the Lok Sabha also, besides providing many secular parties, including the Left, an opportunity to rally behind someone with political freshness.
While Modi referred to 'aakashvani' in Ranchi, he might be refusing to hear a real one reverberating right on the country's political scene. In launching the same-old personal attacks on Rahul Gandhi which in all probability have outlived their utility, Modi might be barking up a wrong tree.
He needs to wake up to the Kejriwal challenge which has already threatened to take the poll thunder away from him.
He needs to invent a new poll rhetoric and save himself from being 'Kejriwalled' in the long run.
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