On the last day of his fast under the ambitious Sadbhavna Mission at Ambaji in Banaskantha district, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi calculated his mission’s success in numbers while listing out the influence of his day-long fasts across the state.
However, in doing so, Modi took into account figures which can be claimed to have made an impact on the lower income groups and poor, particularly those who are likely to be his next target group for votes. A mere look at Modi’s statistics is self revealing enough.
Claiming that representatives of 75% of total families in Gujarat have visited the fasts, Modi said that around one lakh people came to the venues across the state by organising foot-march.
Around 4.5 million poor children have been fed under ‘Tithi Bhojan’ scheme, while more than 6 lakh kilogram of food grain was received as donation from the middle class which was distributed amongst the poor. The list also cited Rs4 crore as donation received during his fasts for the Kanya Kelavani, and around 17,000 morning rallies were organised across the state where 20 lakh people took part.
Using the venue as his platforms for delivering salvos at his opponents, Modi criticised, challenged and mocked at the Congress-led UPA government at the various venues. He clearly tried to send out a message across not only the party rank and file but also to voters that he doesn’t consider Congress a challenge in his state anymore.
However, looking at his stereotypical speeches across venues, Modi didn’t have anything new to offer except using the ‘fasts’ platform to leverage the saffron party for next Assembly election in the state.
With garib kalyan melas and now sadbhavana fasts, the CM however, was seen trying to change the image of the BJP in the state, hitherto considered to be urban middle-class bastion. The day-long fasts can be considered as an effort to placate the economically weaker sections of the society, which goes to polling booths more than the urban middle class.Incidentally, the Congress party still has its roots in rural and urban lower income groups, which the chief minister tried to make inroads, and possibly succeeded as well.After bringing in international automobile brands and pushing industrialisation in the state, the CM has already gained fame and popularity as being the industry-friendly chief minister. Now, when the corporate sector, which is key to fundraising and the middle class are happy, what more can Modi be aiming at now? Well, this doesn’t seem enough for the bigger political role he is preparing himself to play at the national level (candidature for the PM’s post).
Again, if the issue of attracting Muslim vote-bank is kept aside, there is much to observe in the CM’s sadbhavana fasts, which smacked of his wanting to prove a point in Human Development Index (HDI) too. Modi sought to project, through the day-long fasts, that his state is equally developed on HDI parameters. The state, however, fared poorly in health or education. So, what the CM and his team of ministers are trying to do is to pass on the state government’s responsibility to the society.
A recent example was seen at Sidsar, where the CM sent out an emotional appeal to the gathering of Kadva Patel community to feed the expecting and lactating mothers of other poor classes and communities in their villages.
In same function, he had also appealed to sponsor the malnourished or undernourished poor children in the villages. Both these activities are supposed to be taken care of by the state government. It is the state government’s responsibility to ensure no child or expecting mother is malnourished or undernourished.
The lower income groups in rural areas are facing the problems of racism, communal divide and lack of access to the government’s benefits. So the CM, through his fasts, has compelled his party and the administration to identify the poor for the distribution of the 6 lakh kg of food grain collected from the middle class.
Interestingly, the party workers had to do this for other than the election purposes and the poor would have received the money, food, besides one-day picnic to the fasting place with free transportation, without giving promise of voting. At least 4.5 million poor children could have enjoyed the feast of the food served in full dish with Roti, Sabji, Dal-Bhat and a sweet.
That’s why CM should continue his Sadbhavana fast forever…
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