The day when BJP and RSS fell in line to project Narendra Modi as the chief of election campaign panel of BJP, the debate on whether pluralism will defeat Modi or this Hindutva mascot will defeat plural ethos gained momentum. The entire political class and the people of India are anxious to know in which direction the polity of India would move before and after the Lok Sabha polls. One thing is for sure that bitter political confrontation is on the cards and it will get intensified in the coming days.
The big question is: What would be the impact of the polls on the future of India and its people? No matter, what would be the outcome but the very spirit and idea of India must triumph. The very essence of India must remain intact, the spirit of democracy must emerge victorious, the unity and diversity of the country must prevail, and the thought of togetherness must continue. Let the pluralistic and cosmopolitan nature of our society and belief remain intact before and after elections. Is any political party capable of doing all these? Frankly speaking, perhaps none! Even then voting will take place and one candidate will emerge victorious in every constituency. This is the litmus test of people’s intellect, wisdom and the way they think about tomorrow’s India and its place in the comity of nations.
Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in–chief of The Indian Express, in his column National Interest on 16 November, has rightly said: campaigners of the Congress Party are building their entire 2014 election campaign on a Modi paranoia. That he will come to power and ruin our democracy, break up our country and sully every liberal value the founding fathers built this republic on. It is not for me to take a call on who the people of India should choose to lead them next year. But the fact is, whoever it is will have to work within the parameters of the Constitution and uphold its core values, whether he likes them or not. Because a democracy is neither made nor destroyed by individuals. It is built around institutions that sustain and nurture it, and protect it, in case of an assault.
Karuna Shukla, niece of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who resigned from BJP last month, has charged that BJP has made mistake by selecting Narendra Modi as their prime ministerial candidate. Karuna, while talking to NDTV, said that Modi cannot wash his hands off Godhra (or should we say Gujarat pogrom?). She said that when riots broke out her uncle was angry with Mr Modi. At that point of time Mr Vajpayee had categorically written to Modi, reminding him of his duties of “raj dharma”.
Recently, in Lakhimpur Kheri, Azam Khan raised the issue of ‘puppy remark’ made by Modi and said that those having such a mindset about Muslims are trying to convert whole of India into Gujarat. BJP is trying to do everything that can help them gain Muslims’ support. Seniour Congress leader Digvijay Singh has alleged that for BJP’s Bhopal rally in September 10,000 burqas were bought to ‘project’ Muslims’ presence in Modi’s rally. Notably, “Just to gain power, issues like the Ram Temple and the uniform civil code are being kept aside and special attempts are made to ensure that women wearing burqas are visible at public meetings,” rues an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna.
N Ram, Editor of The Hindu in his article, “Narendra Modi and why 2002 cannot go away” on 6 November has said that Gujarat pogrom is the elephant in BJP’s parlour. It is the unbreakable genetic connection between 2002 and the present that makes it clear that a Modi prime ministership would be disastrous for democratic and secular India.
According to ANHAD’s Kachcha Chittha released story -1, to expose the myth of sadbhavna says that believe it or not the high drama of Sadhbhavna Upvas was camouflaged as a ‘New Service’ in official documents. The question is was it Modi’s ‘New Service’ to buy skull caps with Govt money to create stereotyped Muslims appears in his meetings or is it much deeper. In between September 2011 and February 2012 Modi organised 34 Sadbhavna Fast programmes in Gujarat extensively covered by media and the project ‘Image Makeover’ was launched fraudulently using public money.
Evidence on record shows that a huge amount was diverted from public departments for personal gain and personal projection by Modi keeping the next year’s state elections in mind. Modi tried to justify diversion of huge funds from Central schemes by signing a general circular which suggested promotion of communal harmony programmes in states. The assembly, Governor, and citizens were deliberately misled about the actual expenditure on the Sadbhavna Upvas. Blatant lies are special characteristics of BJP’s projected prime ministerial material. This is clear misuse of public funds spent without legal procedures and authorisation.
As per Constitutional Article 266-267-283(2) and provision for contingency fund and Gujarat Financial Rules 1971, these expenses are misappropriation of public money. So in effect Modi diverted huge public funds to organise his Sadbhavna fasts and deprived people of their rights to these funds and on the other hand made a show by announcing projects which were either ongoing or were running on Central Government funds.
Some important facts underlined by ANHAD are: The estimated expenditure of the Sadbhavna fast was calculated as : Road and Housing- 30 lakhs, Dist collectors -8 lakhs, State transport- 20 lakhs, exhibition related depts.-12 lakhs. On 5.11.2011 vide letter No. CNF/1111/433/k 3,00,00,000 rupees was sanctioned from the Contingency Fund for the Sadbhavna Upvas. (One month and a half after Sadbhavna Upvas started more violation of norms was committed as more public fund was treated as personal property). The sanctioned money above should have been regularised in the budget session in March 2012 when the 2012-13 budget was presented. There was no mention in the budget of this expenditure or Sadbhavna Upvas. A supplementary statement was made in the assembly on 24/2/2012. In this, it was referred to as ‘New Service’. (Supplementary Demands are done for unforeseen expenses for which budgetary provisions could not be made. All MLAs have to be given all details of a ‘New Service’ three days prior to placing it in assembly and the assembly has to be convinced and it has to approve the supplementary demand for a ‘New Service’. No such provision was followed). (Gujarat Assembly is a place where violation is more a norm than exception, everybody is scared to objections). Budget for 2013-14 found no mention of it once again. But supplementary statement for 2012-13 presented on 20.2.2013 gave suddenly an additional estimated expenditure of 15,48,15,000.