BJP’s ‘havan’ for victory: Modi’s birthday turned into political event

It’s Narendra Modi’s 63rd birthday today. The prime ministerial candidate from BJP went to seek blessings of his mother early in the morning at Gandhinagar.

After receiving greetings of his family and people present, he addressed the media. Today also being jayanti of Bhagwan Vishwakarma, the god of engineering and labour, he dedicated his birthday to the dignity of labour. He also remembered the day as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s major achievement of merging the princely state of Hyderabad into the Union of India.

The BJP has already turned his birthday as a major political event. The party kicked off its Delhi election campaign today where senior leaders will address the public at the Talkatora stadium in the national capital.

The birthday of the leader is being used as a major ‘reaching out to minorities’ drive. The Gujarat BJP has gone into a major membership drive starting from today and expected to culminate on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Various BJP cells, dedicated to affairs of minorities, SCs and STs and youths, among others, have been given a target of enrolling 1 lakh people each during the nine-day drive.

Besides the enrolment drive, some 20,000 BJP workers will also carry out social work to strengthen the organisational structure of the party over the coming nine days in order to woo the public. BJP workers plan include spreading awareness about the fight against malnutrition, distribute food at anganwadis, organise medical and blood donation camps and undertake tree plantation.

While talking to the media, Modi said that not celebrating his birthday was something he had been doing since childhood. He, however, told the youngsters that he would welcome their greetings sent through email or any social media.

Modi had received his birthday gift in advance from veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani who came out of his shell and praised him at full length at a function in Chhattisgarh yesterday.

Congress hit out at him yesterday saying that Modi was “not a national leader like Rahul Gandhi”. Their statements have now flipped. The Congress leaders, who were accusing the BJP of making the elections look like Presidential in nature, are now doing the same thing by projecting Rahul as a “national leader”. “Those who fight for the oppressed and the poor, the dalits and adivasis know that their only hope is Rahul Gandhi and there is no leader like him. The country needs a national leader and not a mere Prime Minister,” part spokesperson Bhakt Charan Das had said yesterday. But by saying that becoming a prime minister was “no big thing” for its leader Rahul Gandhi it showed its own fears. The party which was consistently pestering the BJP for nominating its leader is now gradually pulling its feet away from “Rahul is our leader” to “we will nominate our leader on time”.

While Modi has been able to address more rallies than Rahul Gandhi in various states, he has also been accessible through social media platforms widening his reach. He has been constantly slamming the government on its various derogatory policies and poor governance giving an example of his own near perfect administration in Gujarat. Rahul has only been able to talk about the food security bill meted out by his government for the vote gain due to its scam-hit figure.

The Prime Minister, who has been silent on the involvement of Congress leaders in the Muzaffarnagar riots, yesterday went to meet the victims at Bassikalan along with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Receiving wide criticism from the oppositions and the residents of the riot hit area, Rahul and Sonia Gandhi chose to refrain from speaking about their plans on the issue. They pushed the PM on the front who only assured security and swift action. Neither was there any demand of invoking article 356, nor there were any words regarding the MLAs named in the FIR. The public is still expecting a crackdown by them on the state government for its inaction.

BJP termed this apparent “vote gain activity from UP government loss” as “secular tourism” by the trio. The only tough task it has at hand is keeping the only blot, 2002 riots, in the near perfect career of Narendra Modi away. The party performed a ‘havan’, a sacred fire ritual, too for Modi’s long life and victory in the upcoming general elections. But the best gift to Modi will be that day when BJP will succeed in making the general public aware of situations in Gujarat, where no riots took place after 2002, leading to his actual victory.