Surajkund, Haryana:
It took Narendra Modi about two minutes today to shred the BJP's new-found resolve to tone down its shrill attack on the Congress-led UPA and play the role of a constructive opposition. The party saved its star performer for the last at its national executive meeting. He took the stage and tore into the UPA making scathing attacks on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over issues like "coalgate" and foreign direct investment in retail.
Keeping the PM in his cross hairs, Mr Modi quipped, "The country wants to know why in eight years you have become Singham twice - once when there was the nuclear treaty with America, and the second time on the FDI issue..."
(Watch)Hours before that, party patriarch LK Advani had exhorted the same audience to play the role of a "credible alternative" rather than a mere opposition party. The senior leader has nudged the party into shifting gears with a "positive campaign" since two years of a shrill rant over corruption and a few wasted Parliament sessions have led the party nowhere. Taking that cue, party president Nitin Gadkari, had said yesterday, "Let's not be known as the party of opposition. Let us be known as a party of good governance." BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he said, were doing well "despite the global slowdown and despite a central government which ignores opposition-ruled states. Let every worker spread the word about that."
Narendra Modi's speech today totally disregarded that line as he attacked the UPA government for pushing policies that, he alleged, "benefit other countries." He also the used the BJP platform with an eye on the Assembly elections in his state in two months and at the same time to submit himself as a candidate worthy of leading the party in the next general elections.
"Even in the PM's house, the milk comes from Gujarat," he said pointing to the development in dairy farming in the state, adding "In Gujarat, even cattle are operated for cataract; such facilities are not there for human beings in some other states."
Earlier, Mr Advani said those general elections were likely to happen sooner than 2014 and the BJP should be prepared. "Be clean, so you can attack opponents on corruption; be united, don't speak in multiple voices," the senior leader said. Mr Advani told his partymen that in an "anti-Congress sentiment and public anger", he saw an opportunity that the BJP must seize. But to attack opponents on issue like corruption, he said, the party could not spare its own when they were at fault.
"We should be equally tough on corruption in our own governments, as tough as we are on our opponents," Mr Advani said. The message would not be lost in faraway Karnataka, where the BJP rules and where party strongman BS Yeddyurappa has rebelled for not being reinstated as Chief Minister. Mr Yeddyurappa, who has been implicated in multiple corruption cases, stayed away from the Surajkund meet and in Bangalore held a parallel press conference today where he praised the Congress for backing its people.
Mr Advani asked party workers to be prepared to provide a "credible alternative" to the UPA government, which he said was likely to fall before 2014. That preparation also meant that party leaders must be united and must not talk in multiple voices, he said.
(Watch: Advani addresses BJP meet)So sure was he, he said, that the Congress-led UPA government would implode, with difficult allies pulling it down, that he wanted the BJP to even start think of finalising its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, due only in 2014. "Ten days back if someone would have asked me whether the government will fall, I would say, government is in ICU, on ventilator and the ventilator was not likely to be removed before 2014. But now, some of the allies are feeling that sooner the government falls it's better. Today, it seems almost certain.., it may happen that the government will fall in a year's time," he said.
Mr Advani has drawn that conclusion from events of the last two weeks. Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress walked out of the UPA last week to protest against new reforms like a diesel price hike, a cap of subsidised LPG and allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail. All of this week, an NCP crisis in Mumbai has kept the UPA on tenterhooks. Then , at a meeting of its coordination committee of allies yesterday, the DMK, now the Congress' largest ally in government, was openly critical of the recent reform measures. The NCP, which is headed by Sharad Pawar, sought that a cap of six subsidized cooking gas cylinders for a family, be reconsidered. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav, who rescued the UPA government by reaffirming his party's external support to the government last week - he said it was to keep out the BJP - has made it clear that he cannot support the decision on FDI I retail.
Mr Advani's influence is also apparent in the party now deciding to go all guns blazing on the issue of foreign direct investment in retail. It had so far gone slow on the senior leader's suggestion that the government be attacked on the issue and a special session of Parliament be demanded to discuss it. On Thursday, the pro-reform right wing party took a left turn and spelt out its intent to make it an anti-aam aadmi issue. At the heart of that is the danger of the Congress staging a political come-back if its "reforms are back" agenda clicks.
The BJP leaders see an opportunity to bring about a united opposition on the issue of FDI in retail in the Winter Session of Parliament to build a sense of the house against the government move.
The party wants to push the government to withdraw FDI in retail which is being termed as Manmohan Singh's return on the reform road and end of a policy paralysis of the Centre. The party hopes that a coming together of parties who are with the Congress and those who are ideologically opposed to it will end its long isolation, indicated best when Mamata Banerjee walked out of the UPA but the Samajwadi Party grudgingly refused to dump the Congress as it would benefit the BJP.
The BJP is pressing for the withdrawal of the FDI move as once implemented it would be difficult for the saffron party to scrap it or support it, if the NDA does get to form government in 2014, say sources.
The party today also amended its constitution allowing Nitin Gadkari to get a second term as BJP President. It is expected to pass a political resolution against the UPA government's policies and the corruption scandals it is mired in, to wrap things up.