During Lok Sabha we did not have the capacity, capability and apparatus to counter Bharat Jodo force of anarchists: Devendra Fadnavis
We appealed to organisations under RSS umbrella and they helped us counter it, the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister said.
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Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis during the interview. (Express Photo By Ganesh Shirsekar)Attributing the Lok Sabha defeat in Maharashtra to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said his party “failed miserably to set the counter narrative” to “a force formed by people having anarchist and ultra leftist mentalities”.
Over the last five months, Fadnavis said the BJP sought out organisations within the ideological umbrella of the RSS to help counter the narrative. “We appealed to the organisations working under our ideological umbrella that if you don’t have to come into politics, you don’t come, but nationalist forces will have to respond to anarchist forces and you will have to talk against anarchy. Today, they have helped us and because of their help, they have countered Bharat Jodo’s narrative of the anarchist forces,” Fadnavis told The Indian Express in an interview.
During the Lok Sabha polls, Fadnavis said, “We were also overconfident… When we realised that they were creating a narrative against us, we had no capacity, capability and apparatus to counter that narrative. We could not do anything about it. But now we are totally ready and I must tell you that now we have that capacity, we have nullified that narrative.”
He said that the work started immediately after the Lok Sabha elections. The RSS, he said, doesn’t directly do anything itself. “There are more than 30 organisations (which follow their ideology) working in various social spheres. They are very powerful but never enter politics,” he said.
Defending the slogans “Batenge toh katenge” and “Ek hain toh safe hain”, Fadnavis said it is a counter to the Opposition’s narrative as he pointed towards “Vote Jihad” (extreme polarisation of Muslim votes) stating that there were at least 11 seats in Lok Sabha where there was extreme polarisation of Muslim votes.
“Fatwa were issued by Maulavis saying that Allah se beimani hai agar vote nahi doge (You will be betraying Allah if you don’t vote). Congress started division of castes too. On the one hand they wanted Muslim polarisation and on the other hand divide the Hindus among the castes for their benefit. So, batenge toh katenge is not negative. Whenever there was a division of society, the country was divided and society also suffered losses. So I think batenge toh katenge or ek hain toh safe hain are positive and there is nothing wrong with it,” he said.
Stating that 95 per cent of his speeches are on development issues, Fadnavis said he has to react to other narratives too and 5 per cent of his speeches are on breaking that narrative. “We are contesting. We are only saying that we should be united with these slogans,” he said.
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