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Vanishing point

Vanishing point

Author: Dr Shashiranjan Yadav
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 22, 2002

Of the total number of Congress candidates for the December Gujarat Assembly elections, as many as 65-that is, 36 per cent-were not from the original ranks of the Congress. A few months before the Assembly elections, Shankersinh Vaghela was appointed the State Congress President. Vaghela was expelled from the BJP. Both these instances explain that the Congress has snapped itself from its roots.

Gujarat's development got on a fast track ever since the BJP first came to power with a two-thirds majority. When the people compared to this the work done during the 45-year Congress rule, they found that many significant and necessary developmental works were implemented under BJP rule. During the four decades of Congress rule, water tables in the State went down by 1,000 feet and villages started experiencing severe water shortage. During the four years of BJP regime, as many as 20,000 check dams were constructed to recharge groundwater. Besides, the Narmada river waters washed the Sabarmati riverbed in Ahmedabad and satiated the thirst of the interiors of the Saurashtra region.

For the first time in the country, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi worked out a scheme of inter-basin transfer of water, by taking one river's waters to another and by mooting a water grid. This way, he fully equipped Gujarat to take on the drought.

Whether the Congress agrees or not, it is a fact the people of Gujarat had seen through its anti-Narmada attitude. For six years, from 1994 to 2000, the Congress Government of Madhya Pradesh supported anti-Narmada forces, who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and thus stalled the project. The Narmada dam has been known as the life-line of Gujarat.

Even after the Supreme Court judgement on the case, the MP Government is not cooperating and the Gujarat Congress remains quiet. In comparison, the BJP Government in Gujarat has laid a 700-km long Narmada canal and pipeline network in 500 days to supply water to 1.25 crore people in 1,500 villages, 34 towns and three Municipal Corporations.

Besides, the quality of the road network improved, bridges were widened and new ones constructed. As many as 60,000 youth were given employment as Vidya Sahayaks in three years. Similarly, the information technology initiatives and policies of the Gujarat Government created job opportunities.

When the BJP and the Sangh Parivar were busy doing relief work for the earthquake-affected people, when the whole State was under a pall of gloom, the Congress was not seen anywhere at all. Worse, the party's anti-Gujarat face was unmasked when, instead of helping in relief works, it joined hands with anti-Gujarat people accusing the Gujaratis of stealing blankets, Bisleri bottles and biscuits.

Gujarat's people were surprised and angered by the Congress silence on the Godhra massacre. Playing the politics of appeasement and votebanks, it also never expressed concern over the condition of Kashmiri Pandits. But it never spared any opportunity to tarnish the name of Gujarat. Congress leaders went to the US and criticised and marred the image of Gujarat's Government and people.

The Congress antecedents of the perpetrators of Godhra are known. The people witnessed attempts to save these criminals-including the despatch of mutton and biryani to them! This is nothing new. In the Eighties, the party criminalised the politics of Gujarat. In the Madhavsinh Solanki Government in 1985 especially, many with criminal backgrounds found ministerial berths.

The trend of political murders on the streets of Gujarat, which started then, stopped only after the BJP came to power. In the same decade, the Congress attempted to divide the people along caste lines. The party which divided the people with its electoral formula of Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim (KHAM) has today lost the support of all the communities except Muslims. This is why it has been reduced to a Muslim League.

Its anti-Sardar Patel face also gradually came into the public eye. The nation would have been happier if the Kashmir problem was solved with Sardar Patel in the forefront. Seeds of terrorism and separatism were sowed in Kashmir. The Congress, which has encouraged terrorism in many parts of the country for narrow political gains, has definitely lost touch with its roots in Gujarat. There is no other alternative party to the BJP, or else the Congress would have been at the third or fourth place.

Dr Shashiranjan Yadav, BJP media in-charge, Gujarat
 


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