Meerut was an unlikely venue in which to send a message of unity about people from the Northeast, talk about internal strife in Seemandhra and Telangana, rubbish communally polarising politics and push for development as a main electoral agenda, but Narendra Modi did exactly that, and he did it well.
The biggest take of Sunday's rally in Meerut was the manner in which Modi took up the grievances of the northeastern people and reminded the rest of the India that they needed to be treated with dignity and respect not just because they were as Indian as anyone else, but also because they faced real time hostility along the border from an aggressive China.
It was certainly encouraging that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate chose to speak on issues that should shake up the collective conscious of the nation and urgently addressed.
"Delhi needs to be seen as a global city but in the last few days, the kind of language and actions that are being seen, our head is bowed in shame… People from Arunachal Pradesh fight with the people in China. When people from Arunachal Pradesh meet each other, they say ' Jai Hind'... but women from Manipur have been manhandled, a boy from Arunachal Pradesh was killed."
Modi in Meerut: PTI
Targeting the Centre for not doing enough for Northeast people, Modi said there should be hostel facilities for Northeast youth across the country. "In The people coming from North East for education or jobs should be provided hostels. They are our own children... our blood... their security is our responsibility."
By talking of the post-midnight harassment of some African nationals including women in South Delhi's Khirki extension by AAP leader and law minister Somnath Bharti, Modi also politically targeted its new rival on the block. But he was also attempting to convey a message to African nations that he was conscious of the rights and dignity of its citizens, and implied that they would find it comfortable to deal with him, as and when the time came.
Modi was conscious of the fact that he was speaking in Meerut but he also knew his speech was being nationally televised. He therefore picked up his issues carefully. Meerut city and its surrounding areas of Western Uttar Pradesh have been long referred to as the `wild west' considering that they have been susceptible to communal riots.
Muzaffarnagar, the area currently affected by the riots is only kilometres away from this city. He thus chose to talk of "Danga Mukt Pradesh" (riot-free state) just as he claimed that Gujarat had become peaceful since 2002 riots, notwithstanding the fact that it was those very same riots that continue to politically haunt him.
The BJP is the new rising force in this region and various social groups including the dominant Jats are attracted to it. It was thus very important that Modi played peace maker. He repeatedly referred to Chaudhary Charan Singh and tried to hijack his legacy and appropriate a substantive section of his social constituency. Chaudhary Charan Singh's son Ajit Singh has been a turncoat for the BJP -- he fought the previous parliamentary elections in alliance with the BJP and is now the civil aviation minister in the UPA government.
Post the Muzaffarnagar riots, Ajit Singh could face a total rout in the coming Lok Sabha election. Modi is eying heavy gains in this region. So he has tried to instill a sense of pride among the people by talking about the role that Meerut and its people played in the 1857 revolt and how it has so far been denied its credit by the Nehru-Gandhi centric Congress and a callous Samajwadi Party.
But what made the hundreds of thousands of his gathered audience cheer wildly for him was when he brought up Sonia Gandhi's `Zeher Ko Kheti' barb against him and responded to that with his characteristic ferocity. His prolonged interactive session with the audience on the subject and mixing up the zeher issue with Rahul Gandhi's emotional narration at last year's Jaipur AICC convention of how Sonia came into his room early morning, crying and telling him `power was poison' on his elevation as party vice president, was that of a masterly orator who knew how to establish a rapport with the crowd and keep them hooked to the issue of his choice.
On Saturday, Sonia Gandhi had charged the BJP of indulging in 'zeher ki kheti' by spreading communalism in the country.
"Soniaji had told her son (Rahul) that power is poison... but who has been in power for the longest time in India? Who has thus gulped poison most… who is storing large amounts of poison in their stomach…who is thus spitting poison?", Modi thundered. He also hit out at the Gandhis saying they had no direct answers and were now skilled in evading pointed questions.
"When confronted about farmer suicides in the country, she talks about fields of poison." The BJP in contrast, he claimed, was a party of inclusiveness and progress. "BJP believes in peace, unity, brotherhood and Sadbhavana. Believe in us and we promise you that we will give you a riot-free state... since the BJP came to power in Gujarat there have been no riots."
From there he moved to another issue that hurts Congress – the tense situation in Seemandhra and Telangana region over the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The BJP has been supportive of Telangana but does not want to be on the extreme side of popular opinion in Seemandhra. The Congress which had hoped to salvage the electoral situation by swinging public mood in Telangana region in its favour, may just have mistaken its strategy of delivering it only the last minute.
"Congress is a divisive party that wants to divide and rule this country... they believe in vote bank politics and want communities to fight with each other... When the other states (Jharkhand-Bihar) were bifurcated, people were happy because Vajpayeeji sowed seeds of happiness... but in Telangana there is violence as Congress has spread poison", Modi said.
Ironically, Modi made all these angered counter arguments to position himself as champion of conflict management and a development messiah. He should thank Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for giving him an opportunity to paint the Congress as divisive, and champion himself as the messiah of development in the 2014 polls.
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