In election campaigns, truth is often a casualty, and lies walk on four legs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed two to three public rallies a day for the past 40 days and raised the ruling BJP’s campaign frenzy. So did Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Less than a week more is left for the campaign to close, and three days thereafter for the results to stream out. With all claims and counter-claims, allegations and counter-allegations, the wisdom of the voter is what the nation can fairly bank on.
This season has seen leaders on the rival side displaying all the tricks of the trade even to funny levels. PM Modi’s latest, by this week-end, was to fight back Mayawati’s barbs at him. She had said the PM was unfairly seeking to project himself as a ‘Backward,; whereas his community happened to have been ‘Forward’ but included in the BC list in Gujarat only around year 2000. Caught on the wrong foot, the PM quickly made an attempt to recover lost ground. He is now claiming that his caste is none other than the “caste of poverty.” The logic behind this claim is all too clear… he wants to project himself as being part and parcel of India’s single largest segment of the population – the poor – who form more than 50 per cent of the population.
A question arises as to what Modi as PM has done in the past five years to change the lot of the poor. It was his government’s last budget which, after years of vacillation, turned to the poor, to offer pensions to the small-time farmers and the unorganised labour. Those budget proposals were introduced just weeks before the Lok Sabha polls with an eye on votes. No element of sincerity underpinned it. A new government would decide whether these are implementable or not. So much for Modi’s claim to appropriate the electoral base of the poor!
On the other hand, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi now promises to eradicate poverty through the NYAY scheme and expresses his moral indignation over the sweep of poverty in India – and not mindful of the fact his family ruled India for 60 of the 70 years after India won right to Self-Rule. Note, also, PM Modi’s promise that he would, if elected back to power, put Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in jail for the “crimes” he committed in the real estate sector. His jailing was what Modi had promised in the past too, but could not do in all the five years. Vadra, for sure, is smarter than Modi.