Never has so much partisan passion been spent on a general election campaign. But readers are advised to read the following facts unemotionally and with detachment and then decide whether it is worth losing too much sleep over election result.
It is common knowledge that the closest confidant of Sonia Gandhi and her most powerful adviser in the party is Ahmed Patel. What are . Patel’s relations with fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi? In the last Rajya Sabha election Modi chose not to put up a candidate against Patel to allow him uncontested entry into parliament. Patel reciprocated to help the Gujarat government by interceding with the Union cabinet in order to lift the duty on import of cotton badly needed by the state government.
Patel’s political protégé Miss Asifa Khan, personally inducted into politics and groomed by him, was made in charge of the women’s wing of the Congress in Gujarat. Miss Khan hails from Patel’s own constituency. In October 2012 Miss Khan inexplicably and suddenly joined the BJP to emerge as its prominent Muslim face and spokesperson on national television. Why did she make the switch? She explained that because a large number of Muslims were disillusioned with the Congress she decided to join BJP? Did anyone mediate to help her make the change? No, she said, she directly approached Modi who gave her immediate audience and promptly recruited her. Could Patel have telephoned Modi earlier? Make a gues
. Modi’s closest aide, criminally charged and presently on bail, Amit Shah, was appointed by . Modi to oversee the general election in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. When the time came for selecting BJP candidates in the prestigious seats of Rae Bareily and Amethi to contest Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively, whom did Shah choose? He shot down the candidature of Miss Uma Bharati in Rae Bareily who could have posed a serious challenge to Gandhi.
Instead a local BJP lawyer was selected. Lest the message of this move did not sink into the minds of BJP voters, a prominent local RSS ideologue and former district president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), SS Mishra, exhorted BJP members to support Gandhi. He reportedly urged: “Why should we be bothered with outsiders when we have our own Soniaji?” In Amethi Shah decided to field Smriti Irani, a close confidant of Modi. This is expected to blunt the strong challenge that was being offered by AAP candidate.
Kumar Vishwas by effectively dividing the anti-Congress vote. To counter this . Vishwas made the astonishing statement that he had earlier voted for the BJP and was a great admirer of the RS It was an obvious attempt to win back the anti-Congress pro-BJP vote.
In a campaign speech Modi made a casual passing reference to Robert Vadra’s land deal This was to comply with a party decision to make corruption by the Gandhi family a big campaign issue. After Modi’s casual reference to Vadra, Miss Uma Bharati, who had publicly aired her displeasure over being denied a chance to contest Gandhi in Rae Bareily due to Amit Shah, made a public statement that if BJP formed the government.
Robert Vadra would be jailed. Anti- Robert Vadra statements were echoed by other BJP leader It was then that . Modi in a TV interview went out of the way to assure voters that if he became PM there would be no witch-hunt against Vadra. Is it without significance that immediately thereafter to neutralize this olive branch to the Dynasty Arun Jaitley and Nitin Gadkari launched frontal attacks against Robert Vadra? Are Modi and BJP on the same page?
It was widely expected that . Subramaniam Swamy would be fielded from Delhi. He was an obvious choice but not made a candidate. Had the irrepressible Swamy been allowed to contest he would undoubtedly have made his entire campaign focused on corruption with special emphasis on certain members of the Dynasty. But Amit Shah’s poll agenda was quite the opposite. He has successfully diverted attention from corruption and made communal polarization the centrepiece of the poll campaign. Does that explain Swamy’s glaring omission from the list of poll candidates?
Other several strange coincidences suggesting convenient accommodation between the Modi team and the Congress Dynasty can be summoned. If a silent collusion exists what might be the deal? The Congress leaders seem to be reconciled to losing office. Would they not seek assurance for a quid pro quo to protect corruption by their leaders?
Is there dearth of corruption cases including the Commonwealth Games scam, the 2G scam, Coalgate scam and other scams awaiting impartial investigation? Does not Modi’s unprovoked assurance of not initiating a witch-hunt against Vadra convey a message? Let readers connect the dots and draw their own picture. Let them then decide whether it is worth getting too excited about the prospects of change if Modi becomes PM. The only change might be getting more of the same.
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