Why Vajpayee would be disappointed with Modi
Perhaps, perhaps, one wisecrack of Narendra Modi that might have made AB Vajpayee chuckle was about UP minister Gayatri Prajapati who is facing rape charges.
“When we do something good, we chant the Gayatri mantra. But the SP-Congress alliance is chanting Gayatri Prajapati mantra,” Modi said in a no-holds-barred attack on his chief rivals in the UP election.
That’s just one among the bursts of acronyms and one-liners that has made the UP elections so special.
Vajpayee, one of the wittiest and most powerful orators the country has seen, would have been embarrassed to watch public speeches go down to such level. He would have been shocked Modi is his successor as PM from the BJP-NDA camp.
Public speeches during one of the most hard-fought state elections of all time have touched a low never seen before. Leaders spearheading the bewildering seven-phase campaign have stooped as never seen in electoral history.
And the institution of the Prime Minister has never been compromised to the extent it has been during this election.
Be it kabristaan-shamshaan land allotment or Ramzan-Diwali power supply barbs; my SCAM versus your SCAM or BSP versus NDM - the leader of the political pack who has degraded the election discourse happens to be Modiji.
It’s true that Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati have returned the favour to Modi. They have scored an occasional brownie point here and there but the ace has always been with the Prime Minister.
When Modi coined SCAM (Samajwadi, Congress, Akhilesh and Mayawati), Akhilesh hit back with his own acronym for SCAM. It means, he said, Save the Country from Amit Shah and Modi.
 |
| When Modi coined SCAM (Samajwadi, Congress, Akhilesh and Mayawati), Akhilesh hit back with his own acronym for SCAM - Save the Country from Amit Shah and Modi. Photo: Reuters |
Rahul, much mellowed and content to play second fiddle to Akhilesh, had his own take on SCAM. For him S stands for service, C for courage, A for ability and M for modesty. Is it why the Congress scion appears to be a laggard in comparison with Modi?
When Modi coined Behenji Sampatti Party, referring to BSP's corruption, Mayawati paid back in the same coin. She coined Negative Dalit Man for Narendra Damodardas Modi. And it goes on.
The responsibility for converting public discourse during the campaign into personal attacks never seen earlier squarely lies with the PM.
Firstly, having taken no lessons from the rout in the Bihar Assembly elections, Modi has gone ahead to make the UP election a referendum not on the Akhilesh government but on his personal leadership.
Secondly, in the process he has brought his standing as PM on a par with the chief minister.
Thirdly, Modi has forgotten that his long experience as chief minister, almost three years as prime minister, his age and seniority in politics puts him in a category different from that of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi.
All the above mentioned advantages let him set the tone of the debate. All of that let him set the agenda of the discourse.
There was an opportunity for Modi to prove that he could be the tallest leader of the country, and not merely by virtue of being the PM.
He should have realised that for the successful execution of his own programmes and agenda he needs cooperation from opposition parties, not confrontation. He could have set the agenda for a decent, high-level debate during the UP election.
But one can understand his compulsions. He is aware that the BJP’s loss in UP will create an irreversible ground for the loss in 2019. He must win no matter what the cost.
His gain in UP will be the people’s loss. One shudders to imagine the low level of discourse in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the dirt and the filth our leaders will kick up during the campaign.
Will the BJP's “margdarshak mandal” gather the courage to speak out? The party’s patriarch LK Advani was perturbed when a Lok Sabha session was washed out. Why is the patriarch keeping silent?
Had Chandrashekhar been around, he would have spoken out against the personal attacks and insults that have been thrown around in UP and that have overshadowed the people’s issues.
Had Vajpayee been around and active, he would have warned the political leaders of the dangers of lowering the discourse to the pits, against the unprecedented mud-slinging the UP election will be remembered for a long time to come.
Mario Cuomo, a prominent American Democrat known for his liberal view and oratory and a New York governor, had famously said you “campaign in poetry and govern in prose”.
Vajpayee campaigned in poetry. He would be ashamed to be associated with his party’s leaders who will be known as political forebears of the worst form of demagoguery and indecency in election campaigns.