24/04/2014

 

Is BJP indulging in overkill?


Patna,(BiharTimes): The “go to Pakistan” and “casteism in Bihar DNA” remarks of former BJP minister and BJP’s Nawada candidate, Giriraj Singh, and former party chief Nitin Gadkari respectively are being viewed in the backdrop of the recent developments in the state.
As seven Lok Sabha seats of north-east Bihar are going to poll on April 24 the BJP has much at stake in them. Though five of them have fairly large Muslim population the region is the bastion of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Five of these seven MPs in the last Lok Sabha were of the saffron party, while the other two Supaul and Kishanganj were won by Janata Dal (United) and Congress respectively.
The BJP won Araria, Katihar, Purnea and Bhagalpur seats while Digvijay Singh, a former Janata Dal (United) leader, won as an Independent. He fought as an Independent as the Janata Dal (United) denied him the ticket. But he died in June 2010. His wife Putul Kumari won the by-election in November 2010 as an Independent, but this time Janata Dal (United) supported her. But on the eve of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll she crossed over to the BJP.
If the BJP wants to do well in Bihar it is essential for it to at least retain all the five seats it already has.
After the withdrawal of Janata Dal (United) candidate, Akhtar-ul-Iman from the Kishanganj in favour of the sitting Congress MP, Maulana Asrar-ul-Haque the BJP lost its hope of winning back this seat, which was represented by its leader, Shahnawaz Husain, between 1999 and 2004.
The BJP strategists thought that Akhtar-ul-Iman’s withdrawal has sent a signal to the Muslims to close their ranks and vote for either the Congress or RJD candidates. So why not polarize the already polarized atmosphere. The hardliners like Giriraj Singh were quick to swing into action.
It is not that the BJP leaders have not been giving extreme or controversial statements. It was Narendra Modi, who while addressing an election meeting in Nawada, Giriraj’s constituency, on April 2, raised the issue of Pink Revolution—that is export of meat.
It was he, who on March 26, said in Jammu that “three AKs––AK-47, AK Antony and AK-49 (Arvind Kejriwal, who was CM for 49 days)––had emerged as Pakistan commanders on the Indian side.”
If Modi can speak so, what wrong has Giriraj spoken for the Election Commission to take action? But then it is easy to target Giriraj than NaMo.
But Giriraj had in four days––between April 18 and 21––achieved the BJP’s purpose.
However, political observers perhaps doubt whether the BJP really achieved its goal by once again raising the issue of Pakistan, meat export and casteism.
“It seems that the BJP leaders have gone overboard. Many Hindus simply hate such utterances and are going away from the BJP. The tragedy is that the party is not understanding it,” said a Patna-based journalist associated with a prominent English daily.

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