Friday 20 / September / 2024
Allahabad: With the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls on his mind, BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday attacked the Samajwadi Party government over the "atmosphere of violence" in the north Indian state, citing recent Mathura clashes and "migration" of Hindus from a western UP town to target it.
In his inaugural speech at the party’s two-day national executive, Shah also stressed on the challenges before the party in 2017, when elections are due in UP, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, as he exhorted the party workers to rise to the occasion by taking the Modi government’s "successes" to the masses.
With the entire party leadership, including the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, present, he also trained guns on the Congress, saying it is "increasingly weakening" and its "atrophy is growing at an alarming pace due to its policy of repeatedly obstructing the government’s path to development”in the last two years.
He also expressed confidence that the party will return to power in UP in 2017 and the Centre in 2019 as well.
Briefing reporters about Shah's speech, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the National Executive will not name any chief ministerial candidate for the UP polls, noting that such a decision can be taken only by the party’s Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body.
Prasad also faced a barrage of questions on whether the saffron party was attempting at "communal polarisation" with Shah raking up issues like migration of Hindus from Kairana, a contention he vehemently denied. He insisted that the BJP’s "foremost commitment" was to UP’s development but made it clear that the Akhilesh Yadav government’s law and order failures be it in Mathura or Kairana were a matter of deep concern."We don't speak about communalism but about national interest."
Prasad quoted Shah as saying, "the migration happening in Kairana due to violence is a matter of serious concern. There is an atmosphere of violence. The lack of development and the lack of governance in the biggest state of India that is Uttar Pradesh is becoming a matter of serious concern."
The party president also referred to the highest civilian honours accorded on Modi by two prominent Islamic countries, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, in a clear message to Muslims who continue to be wary of BJP due to its Hindutva agenda. Shah referred to the Modi government’s foreign policy achievements and made a special reference to the "unique thing" of the two Islamic countries awarding him with their highest civilians honours.
"While some people are running a campaign against Modi, this is an evidence of his international image as all Islamic countries where he visited spoke in one voice against terrorism and recognized India as a source of stability in Asia," Prasad said when asked if Shah’s mention of these awards was an attempt to reach out to Muslims.
The national executive on its first day and Shah in his speech did not refer to the party’s core issue of Ram Temple with Prasad saying that it was not necessary to take it up in every meeting but it was a matter of "faith not elections" for the party.
Hindutva bodies affiliated to RSS have been clamouring for an early construction of the temple in Ayodhya. The party chief described its win in the recent Assam assembly polls and rise in vote share in states like Kerala and West Bengal as "happy beginning for a good future". He spoke about the party’s focus on increasing its strength in Coromandel states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Tamil Nadu besides Bengal.
BJP had not won many Lok Sabha seats from these states in 2014 and Shah has focused on them with 2019 Lok Sabha polls in mind.
The gateway to the northeast has opened to BJP, he said while referring to the Assam victory. Shah also drew a contrast between the two years of the Modi government and the UPA rule of 10 years, saying that the latter was full of scams and policy paralysis while BJP has given a "corruption-free" and accountable government aimed at public welfare.
In the UPA, all ministers considered themselves prime ministers but did not treat the Prime Minister as one while in the NDA there is a "decisive leadership" which had struck a balance between rural and urban development, reform and public welfare and foreign and defence policies, the BJP President said.
The massive publicity and public outreach launched by the government following its two years of power was termed by him as the "new standards of democratic accountability" as he noted that union ministers and party’s office bearers travelled to over 250 places to give people an account of its work.
"It’s a unique example of public contact," he told the Executive. Modi also spoke briefly and is believed to have praised the party’s growing strength.
He is set to deliver the concluding speech on Monday and then address a rally.
Shah spoke about the rise in the growth rate under the BJP government and listed various pro-people schemes like Swachh Bharat and Skill India to project its economic agenda as "GDP with a human face".
