Y.V Sharma
Lo & behold, BJP has won elections in three important states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh to which elections were held recently. Even in Telangana it has done fairly well though will have to make a massive effort in taking its message of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas & Sabka Vishwas” to the people of the state.
To a discerning ear the people of Telangana too have begun to feel that there is life beyond the “hereditary parties”& the key to progress & prosperity lies in the civilisational& infrastructure development of the country. The path to progress is in staying connected to one’s roots&taking pride in one’s civilisation whiletakingstrides& making best of the opportunities provided by the present political, social& economic environment provided by Sh. Narendra Modi government in the ever changing, ever improving scientific, industrial & engineering fields.
This victory has come to BJP in spite of the self-styledpsephologists, political Pundits &print/electronicmedia who were declaring a doom for the BJP. Obviously, they were not able to gauge the mood of the people of the states where elections were held. They did not realise that their old templates& tools of psephology were no longer valid.
The reason for failure of the old templates & tools are manifold. It has something to do with the old order that is failing to see the titanic shift in the faith, belief systems& aspirations of the modern-day Indian society.
The Indians have steadily started to understand that the old templates from the day of independence, in fact much before,made the Indians believe that they belonged to a regressive civilisation &for the new nation to take a respectable place in the comity of nations they had to look for new culture &adopt newalien attributes. The political leaders pushed India into socialist system of economy thereby fettering the growth of the newly independent state. Consequently, when the GDP of the nation continued to stay below 2% for decades following independence,they conveniently called it Hindu rate of growth!! This was one of the first deliberate slurs flung on a civilisation that had traded successfully& excelled in businesses with nations beyond its civilisational &cultural boundaries since times immemorial.
The leadership of the time forced secularism on a society that was liberal in its thought, behaviour &was tolerant towards new ideas. It heartily welcomed people from all across the globe.Many of the foreigners who came here settled down permanently. The resistance from the original inhabitants came only after the outsiders started trampling on their feet&tried toshow them down by exhibiting their superiority.Later attacks on India & its culture& civilisation over the years were downplayed & portrayed as if they led to some kind of “enlightenment” in Bharat.
After independence & traumatic experiences of partition of the Indian sub-continentthe Bhartis were systematically pushed into a feeling of guilt as if the partition&its aftermath was their fault. The “two nation theory” was conveniently thrust on Veer Savarkar, a great patriot & nationalist, while whitewashing the role of Sir Syed Ahmed Khanwho was its original propounder.
Fast forward to recent times.
Secularism became a tool to malign Hindus who were& are naturally secular because of their civilisational belief in it. They were compelledto take recourse tolegalroutefor building a Ram Temple at Ayodhya in spite of historical evidence & Indic civilisational faith that Shri Ram was born here& that the original temple wasdemolished onBabur’sexpress orders. Shri Guru Nanak Dev jivisited this temple in 1510/11. During the court hearings, the nation became witness to the so-called liberals, secularists& the leftists challenging the existence of Shri Ram& foul mouthing him. This was a direct attack on the essence of the Indian civilisation, culture & tradition.
Secularism led Dr. Manmohan Singh to declare in 2006 that minorities must have first claim on the resources of the country.
And recently there was a full-fledged conference in Tamilnadu titled “Time to Eradicate Sanatan Dharma.”The speakers in the conference &thereafter compared Sanatan Dharma to dengue, malaria &AIDS. They used all kinds of obnoxious words against Sanatan Dharma unashamedly without any condemnation from the INDI Alliance partners.
That is not all, the leftists & “seculars” are demanding a caste census so that they can divide Sanatan Dharma on caste lines & reap political benefits of a divided nation while every effort is made to consolidate other community from Guwahati to Gaza!
Added to this are foreign jaunts of Rahul Gandhi where he meets the “agents” of George Sores, the American billionaire, who has openly declared earmarking of funds for defeating Modi in 2024 elections. Rahul Gandhi has no hesitation in taunting,belittling& showing downthe efforts of the Indian government led by Narendra Modi to put India on a road that will transform Bharat into a developed country by 2047 – the centenary year of the Indian republic.
That is not all. When Narendra Modi government stands upto the attempted aggression by the Chinese forces an INDI Alliance partner choose to invite them to “settle the Kashmir problem” & the INDI Alliance “leader” meets the Chinese ambassador in a hush-hush manner.
And then they believe that India is not watching them!!
Unmindful of the tactics of the “opposition parties” the government led by Narendra Modi is continuously in the process of transforming the face of India. The air, road & rail infrastructure, power infrastructure, water ways, provision of piped water to households&provision of houses to the poor &downtroddenis in the centre of his scheme of things. They are not schemes & projects onpaper alone, as used to be the case under earlier governments, but thescale & speed at which the projects are executed &commissioned is a new high for project execution in Bharat. It was a delight to travel over Ambala – Narnaul &Kundlini – Manesar -Palwal (KMP) expressway recently. These expressways are amongst the best in the world withcomplete access control. These two are a few amongst the hundreds that have come up all across the country.
J&K is also reaping the benefits of anindulgent government at the centre. The Indian Institute of Technology & Indian Institute of Management near Nagrota have completely transformed the landscape & educational environment of the area. Jambu Zoo is another tourist attraction that has come up in this area though it is yet to be fully populated with animals. AIIMS is likely to be made functional very soon.
The Jammu – Srinagar National Highway & the tunnels over it are just mesmerising, though work is still in progress in some sections of the road. The Delhi – Amritsar – Katra express way, ring roads in Jammu & Srinagar & several other such road connectivity projects are going on at a very fast pace. The road from Banihal to Srinagar is a traveller’s delight. So is the road from Srinagar airport to the city. Embankments of Jhelum River, Polo View, iconic Lal Chowk& several other projects have completely transformed the face of Srinagar.
By the beginning of 2024 the Delhi – Srinagar rail link is also likely to be commissioned that will add a new dimension to the tourism & travel industry.
If you travel from Kishtwar to Padder you will come across three hydroelectric projects the work on which is in progress. Once commissioned they will together add 3000 MW to the installed capacity of power generation in J&K which will be equivalent to the generation capacity developed in last 75 years. This is Modi magic.
The Ayushman Bharat card available to each & every resident of J&K has made the treatment of the sick much easier & affordable for the common man. The free rations provided to the poor of the country during covid pandemic & later extended for some more time has made it possible that no Indian stays hungry.
But then neither Kashmir based political parties nor the INDI Alliance (or what remains of it)can see it. They can’t see that offices, schools, colleges, businesses & other establishments in Kashmir are working 365 days in a year. The calendars declaring bandhs & strike call have become things of the past. There is no stone pelting & common people are generally attending to their errands gainfully & happily. During the CMship of the Kashmir politicians around 250 youth died in stone pelting. Incidents of terrorism are still there, but the Kashmiri political leaders need to be asked as to what their contribution is in minimising them. Do they speak against this ideology? No!
Even now they side with theanti-national elements who work overtime against national interest or raise slogans against India.
The unprecedented tourist flow to Kashmir is also not visible to them. They also forget that it was because of machination of the Kashmir based political parties that President’s/Governor’s rule had to be applied nine times in J&K since 1947 in which Jammu political parties or individuals had no role.Thus, democracy was always derailed in J&K because of the Kashmiri political leadership. They also forget that as soon as situation improved in J&K during President/Governor rule &they came to power through democratic elections the situation in the erstwhile J&K state would always deteriorate because of their mis-governance, nepotism &pandering to the extremist elements. Yes, we should have elections in the UT of J&K& BJP wants them as much as any other political party&BJP will fight elections to win them. However, with what face are the Kashmir based political parties looking for elections. As per their record, whenevervoted to power, they areadept atencouraging lawlessness, terrorism &finally President/Governor rule back again.
The divisive politics of Kashmiri politicians resulted in the Amarnath agitation in 2008 in Jammu region that increased the gulf between the two regions of the erstwhile state.
The shrillness of Mehbooba Mufti, when she was a coalition partner of BJP, during the unfortunate Rasana case & her abuse of Jammu people led to widen the chasm between the two regions. BJP was compelled to withdraw support to the Mehbooba government as it was felt that her political interests lay elsewhere.
Thus, while the political dispensation represented by INDI Alliance is busy in maligning the central & state BJP governments, Narendra Modi is busy making India ready for the centenary celebrations of the country in 2047 with a dream to make India a developed country.No wonder INDI Alliance & their cahoots in media &their psephologists misread the mood of the people in the states that went to elections recently.
(The writer is Spokesperson J&K BJP).
