Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Congress dismisses Modi fast as BJP's headache

Party spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi gives
a thought-out response

New Delhi: A day after Gujarat chief
minister and BJP's Hindutva poster-boy Narendra Modi broke his much
publicised three-day fast in Ahmedabad, the Congress Party's central
office maintained an eloquent silence on his state unit lader
Shankarsinh Vaghela's Modi counter-fast, collected its wits as it
were and dismissed the Modi show as a headache for the BJP and the
NDA.

Party's media cell head and general
secretary Janardhan Dwivedi in a thought-ut ex tempre statement,
pointed out, “A fast is performed for a purpose. One of the
purposes is for atma-shuddhi (cleansing of the self). In Modi's case,
it is not there. A fast is also part of satyagraha as initiated by
Mahtma Gandhi. A satyagraha is a protest against an injustice or a
fight for justice. What injustice is Modi fighting against, and what
is the just cause he is championing? As a matter of fact, it is the
victims of injustice – the victims of 2002 riots -- who should be
fasting.”

Commenting on the absence of Shiva Sena
and Janata Dal (S), two of the key members of the NDA, at Modi's fast
venue along with the BJP luminaries, Mr Dwivedi said, “Where is the
NDA without Shiva Sena and Janata Dal (S)?”

He also said that the country would not
accept a politician like Modi, who does nt believe in the national
credo of inclusiveness, and decsribed the Gujarat chief minister and
the party's bete noir as the “biggest hypocrite” in Indian
politics is the first decade of the new century.

He said that it was the RSS at the
institutional level and Mr L.K.Avvani at the individual level who had
to worry over Modi's fast and his suppsoed rise in popularity.

The party presented its characteristic
attitude of insouciance and it was implied that it was the media that
tried to project the events surrounding Anna Hazare and Narendra Modi
as popular events when they were not.

It also feels that Modi was speaking
the language of Lalu Yadav – that of social justice – when
Narendra Modi was the party in-charge of Bihar, and that he changed
his tune to Hindutva when he was placed in Gujarat, implying that he
was an opportunist.

But the Congress leaders are cautious
enough to admit that Modi's work on the economic and developmental
front cannot be dismissed out of hand.

While the party is right in assessing
that Modi's immediate challenge lies within the BJP and the
'parivar', the party feels safe that it would survive any kind of
challenge because there is no credible alternative. Congress feels
quite secure that the TINA factor will keep it safe in power, and
that 2014 is a long way off.