Patna,(BiharTimes): So far Bihar is concerned BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had to do a lot of tight-rope walking while addressing 36 tea-vendors of 16 cities and towns. In all on Wednesday he, via videoconferencing, addressed hundreds of tea-vendors of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat.

Interestingly, in Bihar a sizeable number of tea-vendors he addressed were Yadavs, while there was hardly any Muslim.

The BJP’s strategy is to woo the Yadavs away from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, but in the process they do not want to use harsh words against Lalu Prasad. Of late several BJP leaders have been heard saying Lalu Prasad is better than Nitish Kumar. So the selection of so many Yadav tea-vendors was a part of the well-calculated policy of the saffron brigade.

In the last few days several local level Yadav leaders have joined the BJP. No doubt some of them are notorious for their misdeeds yet the BJP is ignoring this aspect for larger political gain. It is keeping this in mind that Narendra Modi met Sadhu Yadav and there is no objection from within the party when once dreaded Ranvir Yadav announced that he is willing to contest on the saffron party ticket from Khagaria.
Even on Wednesday the prize attraction of videoconferencing in Patna was the tea-stall of Gopal Prasad Yadav in Naya Tola on Bari Path. Gopal, no doubt, is a known personality as he had been three-time state swimming champion––in 1988, 1989 and 1990. In fact the name of his shop is “National Tairak Tea Stall”.

He was very excited while talking to Modi and said: “Sir, I am a tea vendor...It gives a good feeling that a tea vendor will become the country’s prime minister.”

Gopal appears to be politically not so astute as he went on to equate Narendra Modi with former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Perhaps the tea-vendor was not aware of Modi’s antipathy for Gandhi-Nehru family and Congress.

But Modi too showed lack of political maturity when, while answering a question, he ended up saying that Bihar is “not poor”, but the “kushashan” (misgovernance) prevailing here for the last 20 years has not only generated a “strange political situation” but has also “destroyed” it.

Obviously, by 20 years he referred to Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi and Nitish Kumar regimes. But how come he say so about the Nitish era when his own party was a partner for seven and a half of the last eight years?

Political observers are of the view that by dissociating itself from the seven and a half years in power Modi had not done any good. Till now the Bihar BJP’s stand was that it was all right in the first seven and a half years and things deteriorated only in the last seven months. Now its own prime ministerial candidate is painting the entire eight years period in the blackest of colours.

By only talking of misgovernance in the last 20 years Modi had made yet another political blunder. In a way he ended up praising the first 45 years of Congress rule in Bihar. How can he do that?

The truth, however, is that at least in these two decades there was political stability in Bihar and the state got more opportunity to develop than before 1990. The bargaining position of Bihar increased. Even for the sake of competition Lalu, Nitish and Ram Vilas Paswan brought projects worth thousands of crores to the state when they became Union ministers.

In contrast between 1961 and 1990 the state saw two dozen chief ministers of different parties coming and going. The state witnessed some meaningful development only during the tenure of the first chief minister Sri Krishna Sinha, between 1947 and 1961.

Ever since then till 1990 there had been instability in the state and the Congress chief ministers used to dance to the tune of the high command and do nothing. During the chief ministership of Bhagwat Jha Azad the scene turned so bad that once the two factions of Congressmen clashed on the floor of the state Assembly.

Whether NaMo’s videoconferencing would yield result or not can not be said with certainty now, but it is a fact that BJP stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani or ideologue like Govindacharya never committed such tactical and factual mistakes.