In election season, public statements by politicians set the narrative. Rahul Gandhi’s latest statements — first criticising projects going to Gujarat from Maharashtra, then raking up criticism of Hindutva icon Veer Savarkar— and now featuring Medha Patkar in the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ do not bode well for the Congress’s chances in the Gujarat polls.
“The anti-Gujarat agenda of the opposition is being comprehensively rejected,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Friday, announcing the beginning of his poll campaign in the state on Saturday with a rally in Valsad. BJP leaders are relishing the prospect of the Prime Minister and other party leaders during the Gujarat campaign tearing into Gandhi’s statements and pitching the election again on the issue of ‘Gujarati Asmita’ (pride). Gandhi will campaign in Gujarat on November 22 on a break from his yatra, but his back now may well be to the wall.
Attacking Savarkar
Though Rahul Gandhi has earlier critiqued Veer Savarkar, he chose the Bharat Jodo Yatra stint in Maharashtra to rake it up again. This would look inexplicable in timing to political observers. Not only has this elicited an uncomfortable response from the Congress ally in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena, and may strain ties as Sanjay Raut has indicated, but also may send out an unfavourable message in Gujarat for the Congress, given the BJP projects Savarkar as India’s Hindutva icon. “Savarkar’s ridicule by Gandhi is a poll issue now,” a top BJP leader told News18.
In 2017, it was the ‘soft Hindutva’ that had brought dividends for the Congress with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘temple run’ grabbing eyeballs and the party increasing its tally to 77 seats. An analysis later showed that Rahul Gandhi visited over two dozen temples and the Congress won 18 seats where these temples fell, an increase of 8 such seats from the 2012 elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has borrowed a trick from the Congress campaign of 2017 by announcing it will enable free pilgrimage to Ayodhya’s Ram temple from Gujarat if the party wins the Gujarat polls.
‘Anti-Gujarat’ Narrative
Rahul Gandhi while in Maharashtra has raked up projects like Foxconn-Vedanta and Tata Airbus moving to Gujarat saying they had “disappeared” from Maharashtra, making BJP leaders hit back asking why Gandhi “hates Gujarat and Gujaratis so much”. Now, on Friday, pictures emerged of Medha Patkar accompanying Gandhi on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, which provoked further attacks from BJP leaders given Patkar has been at the forefront of stalling the Sardar Sarovar project in Gujarat. The project has proved to be a success for villages in Gujarat, with many earlier critics course-correcting their stand.
In fact, PM Narendra Modi in September said “Urban Naxals” had stalled the work of the Sardar Sarovar project and said “anti-development elements” ran a campaign that it would harm the environment. Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel in fact directly named Medha Patkar as an “Urban Naxal” and said she opposed the project to deprive the state of water and development. The featuring of Patkar in the Bharat Jodo Yatra now fits into the BJP’s pitch of “anti-Gujarat forces” against the state’s development. AAP earlier was quick to distance itself when the BJP questioned if Patkar will be the party’s CM candidate in Gujarat.
Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry’s recent comment that his party will show “the aukaat (place) of Narendra Modi” had also set the tone for the BJP to launch its campaign on the plank of personal disparaging attacks by Congress on ‘son of the soil’ Modi. Rahul Gandhi’s recent moves have only given more ammunition to Modi & Co in the high-stakes Gujarat battle.
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