“Unka Sankalp, Vipareet Bharat”
“Sab ka Naash, Sab ka Vinaash”

By Aravind Bhatikar

WHEN Narendra Modi appropriates to himself the sole marketing rights for the BJP, lesser mortals in the Party are perennially confused about what to talk, when to talk, how much to talk or worse still, whether to talk at all! The result? When they talk, it is a disaster for the party.
In August 2023 Narendra Modi, in one of his hollow and rambling speeches, announced that he would be taking a very “big decision” during his third term. He kept everybody guessing about what the “big decision” would be.
In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections he coined and announced a new slogan, “Iss baar, char sau paar.” The new slogan was either supposed to be reviving the sagging morale of the party rank and file, or demoralizing the INDIA!
BJP candidates for the Lok Sabha elections might have been left wondering about the actual purpose behind this slogan, why 400? Why not 450? Why not 390? Anant Hegde, Jyoti Mirdha, Lallu Singh and Arun Govil – all BJP candidates for the Lok Sabha elections – publicly claimed that BJP had to win at least 400 seats to enable it to “change” the Indian Constitution.
The downfall of the BJP began with the announcements by these four candidates. First it was Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav who raised the alarm about Modi’s evil intentions to do away with the policy of reservations enshrined in the Constitution and then it was the other leaders of INDIA who drilled the message deep into the psyche of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities and other economically and socially marginalized groups — that the Constitution had to be protected at all cost and that the BJP had to be voted out! It had to be now or never! It had to be an all out fight for survival of the Indian masses. This message, coming after the repeated demand publicly raised by Rahul Gandhi during his electioneering campaign, that there had to be a caste census all over the country in order to deliver the due economic and social justice to all sections, especially the down trodden and the marginalized, in India.
It is the Modi brand which is hailed by the BJP as its vote-catcher. That it is the same Modi brand, with its penchant for inventing acronyms, synonyms and catchy slogans, that has initiated the downfall of BJP, will be realized by all BJP leaders, but admitted in public by none.
The BJP’s disastrous defeat in the Lok Sabha elections was highlighted by its humiliating defeat in Ayodhya and later in Badrinath. The defeat in Badrinath in Uttarakhand was a part of BJP’s catastrophic fall in assembly bye- elections in 13 constituencies in 7 states where INDIA won in 10 Constituencies.
The blame game has begun in the BJP. The fight for supremacy between the UP Chief Minister Adityanath on one side and Modi-Shah duo in Delhi on the other is now out in the open. The ill-advised move of the UP chief minister to force all shopkeepers, stalls and dhaba owners, road-side services like fruit-vendors, tyre repair services, etc, on the “kavadi” route to exhibit names of owners, had triggered worldwide protests for its open anti-minority and anti-dalit sentiment and agenda. That the reckless order of Yogi Adityanath was meant to reestablish his image as a “Hindutva strongman” and to strengthen his fight against the Modi-Shah duo in Delhi, cannot absolve him from being blamed as anti-minority and anti-dalit.
To make matters worse for the BJP, the highly objectionable observation of “Goli maaro” Anurag Thakur in Lok Sabha ostensibly against Rahul Gandhi that the “demand for caste census should not be raised by those whose caste is not known,” not only exposes the political bankruptcy of the BJP, but also their inability to ensure a dignified debate in Parliament.
The mainstream as well as social media viewership of Rahul Gandhi has increased manifold, leaving Narendra Modi far behind. That has sent tremors down the spine of BJP. The writing on the wall is big and clear. The day is not far away when Rahul Gandhi will be sworn in as the prime minister of India.
WE, THE PEOPLE should ensure that this happens, by warning INDIA leaders time and again to stick together and not to allow their personal ambitions to reign over country’s interest.