BJP president Amit Shah has covered almost 296 Lok Sabha constituencies in a long-drawn-out campaign since January. He spoke on the party’s prospects, campaign issues and arithmetic. Excerpts:
Five rounds of elections are done now. How would you evaluate your party’s performance so far?
We will, in comparison to 2014, increase our seats, improve our margins of victory and also expand in terms of the areas that we represent.
What is the basis of your confidence, because in Uttar Pradesh, where you won the most seats last time, you are facing a tough challenge?
Well, you people [journalists] possibly only mix around with the classes, but we meet mostly the masses. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to convert the chaotic situation under which he took over in 2014 into one of confidence.
For example, 50 crore poor of the country had lost belief in the multi-party, parliamentary system when faced with rampant casteism, and things like that. Now, in the last five years, 22 crore poor have been shown that they too have a stake in democracy, in the vikas yatra (journey of development) of this country.
Secondly, since 1990, when terrorism first peaked in this country, somewhere people always had a question mark at the back of their mind about the security scenario. In the last five years, the biggest achievement of the Narendra Modi government has been separation of foreign policy and defence-security policy and in this, security policy has been prioritised. The air strikes and modernisation of the defence forces have increased the trust among the people.
Thirdly, we took charge after the ₹12 lakh crore scam-tainted government, and have given a transparent, corruption-free government. The economy was off the rails; former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had left the country at the 11th position among world economies, something that Atalji [former Prime Ninister Atal Bihari Vajpayee] had already done. Now, however, we have become sixth in that list and will be breaking into the top five soon.
Price rise is more or less under control, and I consider it a positive, pro-government issue for us that it is not the kind of issue in this election as it used to be in previous ones.
The biggest point is that the country’s respect has grown in the world. The Indian Prime Minister’s opinion is valued in various fora like Davos, Climate Change [Conference] or Solar Alliance. Prime Minister Modi’s transparent, hardworking, decisive and at the same time sensitive leadership has made the difference.
You think all this will prevail over the very real challenge of arithmetic of support bases and some very strong alliances by the Opposition?
There have been several occasions that such arithmetic has failed. In the last Vidhan Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, arithmetic again was in the favour of the Opposition and at that time I used to say and I repeat it now, that arithmetic will lose and larger politics and preparations on the ground will win out in the end.
In this election, don’t you think the level of public discourse has sunk to new lows?
I believe that the media too should play a constructive role in this situation. In a speech of 40 minutes, if someone says something objectionable, either swayed by emotions or just to make mischief, what is the need to make it a front page headline or show it on loop. Even then, of course, everyone should maintain some sayyam (restraint). When you are addressing a crowd of thousands, it’s not possible to go entirely by script and you do react to the feedback from the crowd, and that is when the possibilities of making mistakes like this heighten.
The Congress has taken strong objection to Mr. Modi’s remarks on former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Do you think he should have been commented on like this?
Why shouldn’t Prime Minister Modi say it, just because late Rajiv Gandhi is from the Gandhi family? I don’t understand this objection. What has Modiji said? Isn’t it true that the main culprit behind the Bhopal gas tragedy was allowed to escape, wasn’t he under the lens for the Bofors scam? And what has the opposition said for Modiji? If you are so concerned about the stature and dignity of a former Prime Minister, what about the stature and dignity of the current Prime Minister? Why the double standards? Priyanka Vadra is calling Modiji Duryodhan, someone else is referring to him as a terrorist, another called him Hitler; you are not mindful of the respect due to a Prime Minister of India then?
The candidature of Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal has been controversial as have been her remarks on the late Hemant Karkare. As party president, why did you take this step?
A theory of so-called “Hindu terror” was made. Two courts of this country have termed that as a fake theory. The case against Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is not of making a bomb, but of conspiracy, that she conducted a meeting as part of the conspiracy. The contention that such a meeting was held was scrapped by the courts in the Samjhauta Express and Mecca Masjid blast [cases]. The court found that such a meeting did not take place and no such conspiracy took place. There is a case still on but the basis on which chargesheet has been filed — the meeting for conspiracy — has been scrapped by other courts. There is no other role assigned to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur. Now I want to state that the ones who put this charge of Hindu terror did it purely for consolidation of their vote bank and the Congress is the main culprit. Not just this, they denigrated Hindu culture across the world by terming it a culture capable of these kinds of acts of terror, that we have this kind of home-grown terror, just to consolidate their vote bank. Also, to indict these people [Pragya Thakur, et al.], the actual culprits have gone scot-free, people against whom CBI was investigating, U.S. intelligence had drawn a connection between Lashkar-e-Taiba and these incidents. Who is responsible for this? Congress party. Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s candidature from the BJP, is a satyagraha against the fake Hindu terror theory.
What about the remarks she made on Hemant Karkare?
She has expressed her regrets on that. Any person, specifically a woman and a Sadhvi, if you torture her physically and mentally, may express these kind of things, but even then I feel she should not have said it.
West Bengal is seeing violence in almost all rounds of polling? What does that indicate?
Whatever the levels of violence, Mamatadi [West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] better know that the people on the ground are not voting for her and the BJP will get at least 23 seats in the State.
What do you have to say about the Opposition’s demand for 50% VVPAT matching and the clean chits to Mr. Modi by the Election Commission on violations of the model code of conduct?
How many clean chits has Rahul Gandhi been given? We don’t believe in going to the Supreme Court for every little thing. I have rarely heard a speech more designed to polarise than the one given by Navjyot Singh Siddhu in Kishanganj, and no steps were taken against him. What is the Congress talking about? In fact our plea is that under pressure of such accusations from the Opposition, the EC is actually helping the Congress. In the case of the matching of EVMs to VVPATs, it seems the Opposition has already acknowledged that they are losing.
Every time they used to blame EVMs after they lost, this time they have accepted in advance that they are losing. If EVMs are faulty then how did Mamata Banerjee, Kejriwal win? How did Congress win in the three Assembly elections held last year? This is just to justify their eventual loss.