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Amit Shah, focus on Giriraj types and spare the Congress please

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Vikram Kilpady
Vikram KilpadyApr 04, 2015 | 12:18

Amit Shah, focus on Giriraj types and spare the Congress please

BJP president Amit Shah is a man who thoroughly understands how to work with the concept of democracy to ensure his party gets to win - by any means. Small wonder then that under his watch, the party won 71 of the 80 seats to the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. A feat instantly rewarded with a hot ticket to BJP president as the Narendra Modi government took charge at the Centre. But did Shah let the shield slip when telling the Congress to scan its princeling for his errors and not find mistakes with the government?

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A simple majority is all right (yes, after 30 odd-years, a single-party government saddled with its pre-poll allies) but telling the opposition not to criticise the government's functioning is like wishing for a benign cancer. The Opposition's job is to find faults with the government, no? Otherwise they will be all sitting in the treasury benches. Was the BJP quiet when it occupied Opposition benches in the two UPA governments? No, they just did what the Congress and the other opposition parties are doing in 2015, hold up the House from functioning. This is despite continuing with the UPA's neo-liberal economic policies (psst, they are now discussing the privatisation of railway operations on the recommendations of a panel headed by an eminent economist). Wonder what the Congress thinks of railway privatisation?

On the other hand is the Congress, looking at its leadership with expectant eyes, only to find their leader missing for quite a spell after the party lost at the Centre, in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and the AAP boom-boom in Delhi. India is the birthplace of the zero, why be ashamed of the number? Own up and move on but that's yet to happen since yuva neta is away recouping with vipassana et al, ignoring the major possibility, one needs imagination here, of the return from zero in Delhi and from 44 in the Lok Sabha. In his absence, Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the march against the Land Bill. There's a rally soon and we've been warned that Rahul will be back (ah! it's the Terminator line, sounded mighty familiar). Hopefully, vipassana would have cleared Rahul's mind by showing that life is in the present NOW and not the future. He should think up strategy for the party for NOW and not wait till the grassroots turn green from the vile black it has been for almost a year.

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Almost a year later, the BJP is fast running aground with the epiphany of May 16, 2014. Amit Shah should, as party chief, tell his fellow partymen and women to behave as members of the party with a simple majority to rule India for five years. The time for crass quotes (the Nigerian episode and denying the smoking-cancer link) are over. The party rules from New Delhi thanks to its self-professed development agenda and with a little help from the polarisation it stoked in Uttar Pradesh (and elsewhere) before the polls, remember Muzaffarnagar?

Shah saheb should let the Opposition in a democracy play its role by criticising the government and he shouldn't waste his precious time lampooning the principal opposition party's already caricatured leader.

Last updated: April 04, 2015 | 12:18
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