Prakash Javadekar addresses BJP members at a preparatory meeting for the Karnataka polls. Express
In August last year, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar was appointed the BJP’s election-in-charge for Karnataka. A veteran of BJP organisational activities in Maharashtra, he has been tasked with setting a disunited BJP house in order. With the Karnataka elections a couple of months away, Javadekar discusses the BJP effort and prospects in this interview.
In your view, what advantages does the BJP enjoy over the ruling Congress?
There are many advantages. Firstly, the people of this state are very angry against the incumbent government because of its failures. Bengaluru has become a city of garbage. The city has become the most unsafe city for women. It was a beautiful city but it is now a pot hole city. It was known as an IT city and now it is a crime city. It was a city of lakes and now it is city of lakes on fire. Also, what we are seeing nowadays, the goonda raj where an MLA’s son shows arrogance of power, and this is what will destroy Congress. Land encroachments, loot, plunder of the state has affected people. There is callous neglect of the security situation. Honest officers are harassed and neglected… There have been over 3,000 farmer suicides. I can go on and on. People are infuriated and they will drive the Congress out. As far as the BJP is concerned, people will prefer Modi’s leadership and Amit Shah’s organisational efforts. It is a fight between two cultures. A tea vendor’s son can become the PM only in the BJP because it is based on dedication, determination and hard work. It is idealism that brings people to the fore in the BJP. People love the BJP and Modiji. So the last bastion of the Congress will also fall. People want the good governance that Modi has given the rest of the country.
The Congress seems to be quite sure that it will be voted back to power on the strength of its performance, especially its pro-poor policies…
They are only issuing hollow advertisements; they have not delivered anything. I can give you examples. Maize prices collapsed in Davangere district in the open market. They are Rs 1100 per quintal but the state government is not purchasing a single gram of maize. When B S Yeddyurappa [BJP state president] was CM he purchased maize at Rs 1,550 when the prices fell to Rs 1200 nine years ago. Everywhere there is farm and rural distress. What they have done with loan waiver is a lollipop — it is not a real loan waiver like in Maharashtra and UP… In Karnataka it is just gimmicks. There is rampant corruption and collapse of administration.
The election, it seems, will be fought around the personalities of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and PM Modi.
Siddaramaiah is living a daydream. He will not be successful in getting another term… In every district there are instances of mismanagement by the Congress. Land is the only important subject for Congress people. They encroach and grab… We don’t do this kind of politics and this is going to be the difference.
In the Gujarat elections, rural voters voted largely against the BJP and urban voters carried the party through in the end. In Karnataka, the voting population is largely rural-based and there are few urban conglomerates. The Congress policies have been focused on rural areas. Does this worry you?
There is a key difference between the Karnataka and Gujarat elections. In Gujarat we were contesting to return to power for the sixth time. We had already been in power for 25 years. In the Gujarat elections, the Congress also indulged in evoking caste feelings which were not there earlier. It is not just urban-rural. In Karnataka, rural distress is quite bad. You cannot compare the two states. We will come out with a vision document to say what we are going to do in five years, 10 years and that will drive us to victory. In Karnataka, where caste is at the heart of all politics, what is the kind of caste equation the BJP is looking at? We don’t do caste-based politics or religion-based politics. We take all sections into our fold.
But here in Karnataka, the Congress is using caste to play a divide-and-rule card. It is going to boomerang on them. Instead of dividing the community [Lingayats, core of the BJP support base] it has actually consolidated the community behind us. More importantly, the SDPI and PFI – who have been banned in Jharkhand – are having a free run in Karnataka. Actually, the Congress is hobnobbing with terrorist organisations. There is complete failure in law and order as a result. We are confident in Prime Minister Modi’s leadership and we are going into the polls with the slogan; Karnataka ka vikas jodi – Yeddyurappa and Modi”. People love both of them and we will get a complete mandate, not a hung assembly like many people are predicting.
PM Narendra Modi in Shravanabelagola in Karnataka (BJP Twitter)
The BJP faced severe infighting during its 2008-13 tenure, and old fissures could erupt during the selection of candidates. How are you handling this?
Yes, it is a very unfortunate part of the affairs of the BJP in 2013 that we got divided. If we had not ended up a divided house, we would have won again in 2013. But now that is history, we are all working together. There is no KJP or BSR [breakaway factions that emerged in 2013]. Even when I took charge here, there was bickering, but now we are taking everyone into confidence… Our core committee meets every 15 days… There will always be problems of people aspiring to be candidate but it will happen at very few places. We are working hard to arrive at consensus at each constituency. I see no problem when we declare tickets.
Some doubts remain about the acceptability of the leadership of Yeddyurappa, whom the BJP has projected as chief minister candidate.
There is no doubt about his leadership.
There is a lot of talk of the booth-level strategy that party president Amit Shah has used. The Congress seems to have adopted the same strategy this time and well ahead of the polls. How do you see this playing out?
Booth-level strategy is very important, the Congress also accepts this now. However, the Congress cannot emulate the BJP on this front. We have workers at the level of page pramuktas – people in charge of every 50 voters in a polling booth. We reach out to every voter, not by giving pamphlets but by talking to people in every house and talking to each voter, confiding in him, knowing his feelings, taking him to the booth – all these steps have to be followed and that is the BJP’s strong point. Our national president Amit Shah is addressing only organisational meetings and a few other programmes. It is a very carefully calibrated effort. We always work like this.
In Karnataka, the general understanding is that the BJP is organisationally strong only in a few pockets, the coastal region for example. How does booth-level strategy work where the organisation is weak?
This time we are going to do well all over the state – even in south Karnataka [where the BJP is weak]. The JDS and the Congress [strong in the south] represent the same culture – money and caste. We are different. The 21st century India wants India under Modiji and a different kind of politics.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BJP leader Yeddyurappa
Traditionally, politics in Karnataka has hinged on caste aspirations. Do you see the BJP’s nationalistic politics overriding these aspirations?
The poor of this country are aspirational. See, a place like Chikamagalur [a BJP stronghold sensitive to communal politics], it was a stronghold of the Congress at one time. We will win all the seats there. This is because the Congress is nowhere in that region. The plank of the poor which they stood on has shifted to the BJP and Modiji.
There are reservations among BJP leaders against the centralised nature of the BJP’s leadership under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Does this not prevent the emergence of strong future leaders?
Ours is the most democratically structured party, unlike in the Congress where Mani Shankar Aiyar said ‘After Aurangzeb, it will be his son’. We elect our leaders from the mandal level. It is not a centralised party. Yes, we have leadership that we are proud of, but we have leadership at every stage. The Congress is now thinking of supporting regional leaders. We already have regional leaders of good standing.
Many BJP leaders have made statements that could possibly harm the prospects of the party. Union minister Anantkumar Hegde’s statements on various issues have not been criticised.
As far as Anantkumar Hegde is concerned, he is an intelligent minister. But yes, articulation needs more vani sayam (smoothness and clarity). Articulation needs to be done in a way that it does not result in a controversy. I think he has learnt his lessons after one or two statements. There will be no problems going forward.
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