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Journalism of Courage
As the BJP national council adopted a resolution titled ‘Viksit Bharat – Modi ki Guarantee’ and hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having “effectively implemented the concept of Ram Rajya in the last 10 years”, party president J P Nadda, Defence Minister and senior leader Rajnath Singh said Saturday that Modi would return to power for a third straight term with a roadmap for expanding the government’s welfare and development programmes that have “been reaching every home”.
Earlier in the day, setting clear targets for the BJP in the countdown to the elections, Modi said that party workers should see a target of 370 Lok Sabha seats as their tribute to Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, and not just as a number.
Mookerjee had campaigned against Article 370, demanding complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India. In August 2019, the Modi government ensured the abrogation of Article 370, ending the special status of J&K.
Addressing BJP office-bearers at the start of the two-day meeting of the party national council in New Delhi, Modi said each party worker should focus on his or her polling booth now, take the welfare measures and development work of the BJP government to the voters, and try to ensure that he or she gets 370 more votes than the last time for the party in his or her booth.
Briefing the press on the Prime Minister’s address to the office-bearers, BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said Modi announced the “names” of Lok Sabha candidates of the party: “The lotus”. The message: party office-bearers and workers should look at just the party symbol, nothing else.
Later, addressing party delegates, BJP president Nadda said the party was the only one that had maintained the same ideological stand from 1951 to the present day.
He said the party saw victory the last time and will see victory in the future too.
Despite being very busy, Modi still gives priority to the party and constantly thinks how he can take the party to greater heights, Nadda said.
He praised party workers for making the party powerful at the grassroots.
He said that Jana Sangh and BJP saw the Emergency, struggles, electoral defeats, etc, but the last 10 years were a period of “success” and “happiness”.
“In 2009, the BJP got 18 per cent votes, and this increased to 31 per cent votes in 2014 and 37 per cent votes in 2019 under Modi ji,” Nadda said.
“We are today the world’s largest political party. There was a time when we would have governments in about five states. The NDA has governments in 17 states and BJP has governments in 12 states. Since 2019, we won 16 of the 26 Assembly elections,” he said.
He also pointed to the rise of the party in West Bengal, and said “the next innings will be ours”.
He referred to other instances of the BJP’s successes, particularly in the North-East. He said the vote share of the BJP even in Telangana had doubled from 7 per cent to 14 per cent in the recent Assembly elections, and that the party would leave no stone unturned to become a major force in the state.
Nadda listed details of various welfare schemes of the Modi government. He said women’s reservation was held up for political reasons for three decades but was passed in three days under the leadership of Modi – this had the delegates chanting “Modi, Modi”.
Nadda recalled that the BJP and Jana Sangh used to have a slogan that it would not accept two flags, two Constitutions and two PMs in one country; that Modi also hoisted the Tricolour in Srinagar with Murli Manohar Joshi, and that the Modi government finally revoked Article 370.
On the issue of Ayodhya, Nadda said the party had said “Mandir wahin banaayenge”, and Modi finally consecrated the idol in the temple on January 22. Mocking the Opposition for saying for years that the BJP had given no date for the Ram temple at Ayodhya, Nadda said that the date did come but such was the “karma” of Opposition leaders that they did not attend it. He then joined the delegates in chanting Jai Shri Ram.
He commended L K Advani for his contribution as a BJP leader and former minister, and acknowledged the contribution of Chaudhary Charan Singh, Karpoori Thakur, P V Narasimha Rao and M S Swaminathan, the other recipients of the Bharat Ratna this year.
Nadda said that under Modi, India had become the fifth largest economy of the world. The PM, he said, would return to power for a third term, and India would rise to be the third largest economy of the world (in GDP terms).
