Gujarati lessons

Between then and the BJP victory on Sunday, the Godhra outrage and the murder and mayhem that took place after it constitute the watershed. The cold-blooded manner in which Modi set about exploiting Godhra to reap the harvest of votes is recent memory.

But Modi must share credit with the VHP and the Congress: the VHP for backing him to the hilt in every possible way; and the Congress for making his job easy, of course unwittingly.

Extraordinary situations demand extraordinary responses. When violence raged in the state in March and April and rampaging mobs killed hundreds of innocent people, the Congress leadership proved to be gutless.

Even their own former MP Ehsan Jafri’s desperate calls for help failed to move them. They contented themselves with issuing statements criticising Modi, VHP and the Sangh Parivar.

By the time Sonia Gandhi realised that Amarsinh Chaudhary was no match to Modi and replaced him with Shankersinh Vaghela in July, the Congress had lost too much ground.

Why else would it, otherwise, have adopted its me-too brand of Hindutva? Then came the terrorist attack on the Swaminarayan temple at Akshardham in September, which Modi used to reinforce the fear of the Hindus about safety and security.

The Congress made valiant efforts to shift the focus of voters’ attention to problems like water and power shortages, the sinking of co-operative banks and the economic hardship caused by the riots. In a polarised Gujarat, with passions running high, it was a tough job, made all the more difficult by the Congress’s own record of misgovernance.

For more than two years now, the Congress has in its control municipal corporations of Rajkot and Ahmedabad, and as many as 25 of the 26 district panchayats. In Rajkot, it had won after 27 years and in Ahmedabad after 13 years. But there is not one municipality, not one district panchayat which the Congress can show as a model of good governance.

In fact, these local bodies have remained as unresponsive to people’s problems as they were under the BJP. Petty politicking dictates their decisions rather than the issue of improving the lives of citizens.

A remark often heard in Saurashtra, where the Congress hoped for a big victory, was: ‘‘The BJP government has done nothing for us, but what has the Congress done?’’

So Modi has won. What next? For one, Modi’s victory cannot hide the facts that, in the seven years of the BJP rule, the state’s economic growth has been stunted, investment is falling, the government’s fiscal deficit and borrowings have been mounting, and it needs overdrafts to run its affairs. If Modi possesses the necessary talent to mend this situation, there has been little evidence so far.

Then there are the tremendous social strains. The state’s biggest minority is running scared after the BJP’s victory. In his election speeches, Modi made it a point to promise that he will bring the guilty of Godhra to book. But does anyone ever remember him ever talking of justice and a fair deal for the hundreds of others who lost their families and homes in the post-Godhra violence? Modi promised safety and security from terrorism and ‘‘Miyan Musharraf’ to ‘‘five crore Gujaratis’’, but did he ever promise safety and security from mobs? Can Gujarat really be safe and secure under a chief minister with such a mindset?

Modi’s victory has a message for the country, too. He is the new BJP hero. We had the Prime Minister, who had thought it necessary to remind him of ‘‘rajdharma’’ only eight months ago, coming down to Gujarat to campaign as his advocate.

We also had the Deputy Prime Minister patting Modi on the back for the good work(?) he has done. Many in the party believe that Modi has shown the BJP the formula to regain the popularity it lost after the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

Some wise men have publicly stated that the post-Godhra mayhem was a sign of Hindu awakening, that this ‘‘successful experiment’’ in the ‘‘laboratory of Hindutva’’ will be replicated elsewhere. Tomorrow, no one can say they were not forewarned.

The writer is Resident Editor of The Indian Express Ahmedabad edition