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