'A Turning Point For National Politics'

Today is a historic day for Indian democracy. I sincerely thank the people ofGujarat for reposing their faith, yet again, in the BJP. I also heartilycongratulate the state unit of the party, and, in particular, Gujarat’sdynamic and highly popular Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi for scoring aresounding victory.

State assembly elections are quite frequent in our country, but rarely doesthe people’s verdict in a particular state become a ‘Turning Point’ fornational politics. The BJP’s spectacular victory in Gujarat today is indeed aturning point because it signals the BJP’s comeback as the frontrunner in thenext parliamentary elections.

In my very first press conference after the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections, inwhich the BJP-led NDA suffered an unexpected defeat, I had said that my partywould bounce back. I am confident that the BJP’s victory in Gujarat, and ourcertain victory in Himachal Pradesh (where the results will be known on 28thDecember), will indeed prove that the BJP is bouncing back.

In 2002, our critics attributed the BJP’s victory in the state to Godhra-relatedincidents. It was, of course, not true. By winning a renewed mandate in 2007, myparty has conclusively shown that the people of Gujarat have voted for goodgovernance, development and a leadership that delivers.

I want to emphasise here that there was not a single communal riot in Gujaratin the last five years; not a single hour of curfew in the last five years; andnot a single incident of terrorism in the last five years. People belonging toall castes and religions in Gujarat have been the beneficiaries of Shri Modi’ssingle-minded focus on good governance, development, security and fight againstcorruption.

The Congress campaign in this election was characterized by unprecedentedvilification of the BJP. In particular, it was a negative and personalizedcampaign against Shri Modi.

In this sense, the 2007 Gujarat election reminds me of the 1971 generalelection in which the entire opposition came together on an anti-Indira Gandhiplatform (without, of course, the vilification element). Smt. Indira Gandhi madeskillful use of this negative campaign to her own advantage by saying, “TheOpposition says, ‘Indira Hatao’. I say ‘Garibi Hatao’.” This time theCongress and all the other self-styled secular parties were saying, “ModiHatao”. There is, however, a crucial difference between 1971 and 2007. Smt.Gandhi did very little to implement her ‘Garibi Hatao’ slogan. In contrast,Shri Modi has won not on the basis of promises made but on the basis of promisesfulfilled.

The BJP’s victory in Gujarat has highlighted six important lessons for thepolity as a whole:

1: Shri Modi has disproved the conventional ‘wisdom’ that good governancedoes not make good politics. Many practitioners and observers of politicsbelieve that the voters are not swayed by the probity and integrity ofleadership, clean and transparent administration, and a sincere attempt to breakaway from old ways of thinking and acting in government. Shri Modi has provedthat the people enthusiastically support a leader who delivers with thisrefreshingly new approach to politics. Thus, it was not the anti-incumbencyfactor that was at play in Gujarat; it was the pro-incumbency wave.

2: Shri Modi has disproved that elections cannot be won on a developmentplank. Even critics of the BJP have had to admit that Gujarat made impressivestrides in the past five years in both economic and social development, evenemerging as No. 1 on many counts.

If massive investments in infrastructure development, mega-industrialprojects, urban and rural development, trebling of agricultural income (from Rs.9,000 crore to Rs. 34,000 crore) in five years, and focus on E-Governance(Gujarat is one of the best E-governed states in the country) told one part ofthe Gujarat story, the other part was told by the trend-setting Jyotigram Yojana(which brought 24x7 three-phase power to all the 18,000 villages in the state),Sujalam Suphalam scheme (drinking water provided to 5,000 villages and makingthe water-scarce state tanker-free), Chiranjeevi Yojana (which brought infantand maternal mortality rates down), Beti Bachao Andolan (which improvedGujarat’s sex ratio from 802: 1000 to 870:1000 in just six years), VanabandhuKalyan Yojana (which benefited 6,000 tribal villages) and Sagarkhedu Yojana (awelfare scheme for fishermen in 3,000 villages along what is the longestcoastline in the country).

3: The BJP in Gujarat has disproved that elections can be won only byappealing to people’s caste and community sentiments. We have demonstratedthat divisive and cynical formulas of yesteryears such as KHAM, M-Y, etc can bedefeated on the basis of a positive and socially unifying agenda.

4: Fourthly, unlike in CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal, the BJP in Gujarat hasproved that a renewed mandate can be won without terrorizing and obstructingvoters sympathetic to opposition parties, without ‘scientific rigging’ andwithout all the other electoral malpractices. In this context, I congratulatethe Election Commission for their good job.

5: The BJP’s victory in Gujarat has shown that the people in the state havedisapproved of political defections and also inner-party dissent amounting toindiscipline and defection.

6: Sixthly, and this is most important, the BJP’s victory is a victoryagainst politics of vilification, negativism and arrogance. I cannot think ofany other leader in Indian politics in the past sixty years who was asviciously, consistently and persistently maligned as Shri Modi has been since2002. The ‘maut ke saudagar’ slur is only the most recent addition to theammunition of lies used by our opponents to slander the BJP and Shri Modi, bothnationally and internationally. The people of Gujarat have given a fitting replyto the practitioners of this kind of toxic politics. I appeal to the leadershipof the Congress and other parties to abjure, at least from now onwards, thisbrand of politics. I hope they will introspect and learn the right lessons fromtheir defeat in Gujarat.