New Delhi: Narendra Modi seemed to have decided to make this speech a special one.
It was after all his first speech to the BJP national council after being anointed as the BJP Prime Ministerial Candidate. Over 3,000 party leaders assembled from across the country had waited since yesterday to hear him and true to expectation he completely enthused them with a mix of political punch and an outlining of his vision for governing the nation beyond 2014, if he were to be elected Prime Minister.
He had done his homework well. He had cleaelt listened to the tapes of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi's speeches at the AICC convention and come prepared to rebut every single point that they had made, not just in relation to the charges that they made against the BJP, but also on various other issues. He particularly trashed the Congress argument that they were following "a Congress convention" in not naming Rahul the party's prime ministerial candidate.
Modi at the BJP national council: PTI
He tore the top Congress leaders arguments to pieces, pointing out that traditionally the party had showed scant respect for democratic process.
"Why was the parliamentary party endorsement to make Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel India's first Prime Minister not honoured? what were the circumstances and forces which handed over the reigns of the country chose Jawaharlal Nehru?" he asked, adding that in the immediate aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, Rajiv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister without holding any parliamentary party meeting, and that again in 2004, the party never chose Manmohan Singh to be Prime Minister, asking Sonia Gandhi to occupy the position instead.
"And then you are giving us lessons of parliamentary party tradition. The actual reasons are different and are related with human emotions. When defeat is so imminent why would a mother (Sonia) sacrifice her son (Rahul) on the altar of politics. Save my son is her present motto", he said.
At the AICC convention the Congress was trying to save their party from an existential crisis, while we are here brain storming to save the nation.
He also used Rahul's method of comparing the Congress and BJP, to rebut him and went much beyond that to come out with an emotive pitch : The low caste tea vendor's son versus Gandhi family royalty. He played his OBC (Backward Caste) credentials to the hilt.
Modi is acutely aware that the post mandal empowerment of the OBC has changed social and political dynamics of the country and went at length to send this message home to those concerned. A caste netutral Chaiwala social constituency, aaj desh me chaiwala seena chauda kar ke ghoom raha hai, plus a numerically preponderant OBC, with a mix of middle class and aspirational youth support could sail him home in the coming elections.
Besides heightening the rhetorical political pitch, Modi spoke more in terms of unveiling his prime ministerial vision and how he would like to "build the nation" by listing out his priorities, tackling inflation, unemployment, new economy, agriculture produce enhancement, setting up a Bullet trains railway and so on.
But most importantly through his ideas of governance he sought to build up, or at least lure in a new political alignment with leading parties in various states where the BJP was not in power or was not a major political force – the backward states like West Bengal, (Trinamool Congress) Odisha (Biju Janata Dal), Jharkhand (he also listed Bihar in this category to counter Nitish) would be paid special attention -- and potentially developed states like Tamil Nadu (AIADMK), Andhra Pradesh (TDP and YSR Cong) where he knew that the federal structure was under assault by Congress' big brother attitude.
Feel for the backward states and care for federal structures may be a good idea to send early issue based feelers to the potential allies, post poll perhaps.
Then to counter arrogant charge against him, Modi for once pitched himself not as ruler but as public servant, "Shashak nahi Sewak.. you have given them (Congress) 60 years to rule, give me 60 months to set the things right."
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