politics national
Ram Kishan Grewal
OROP grief: Rahul Gandhi attends the cremation ceremony of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal at his village Bamla in Haryana
some of the Congress icons such as Sardar Patel or Subhas
Chandra Bose, men thrown into the dustbins of history by the
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. But BJP still needed a stronger base to
connect with the masses. Enter nationalism.
The exploits of the Indian Army, the outpouring of vociferous,
popular anger over never-ending state-sponsored terrorism from
Pakistan and China’s backing of the rogue nation presented BJP
the perfect opportunity of presenting a nationalistic platform.
It had none of the trappings of majoritarian agenda that
accompanies Hindutva yet stresses on unity across diversity. In
short, nationalism presented BJP the ideological foundation that
it had long sought for a pan-Indian appeal.
Led by the prime minister, the BJP wasted no time in pitching
for nationalism as an ideological plank. It built upon the notion
that patriotism isn’t still a dirty word among the masses as the
entrenched Lutyens’ elites would have us believe. This platform
had the double benefit of nullifying the attacks of its political
rivals who didn’t know how to respond.
The predicament of Arvind Kejriwal, who questioned the
surgical strikes and got badly burnt and Rahul Gandhi, who was
hauled over coals for his ‘khoon ki dalali’ comment and had to
issue almost-apologies, best described the high BJP found itself
in post surgical strikes and the rising tide of nationalism.
But as they say, nothing is permanent in politics. It took one
suicide from an ex-armyman for the entire nationalism plank to
come crashing down. Modi, who had recently celebrated Diwali
with jawans while proclaiming that he has kept his promise over
OROP, would now firmly be in the defensive. Having done more
than any other prime minister in implementing OROP, he would
be hard-pressed to explain satisfactorily the death of a Subedar
whose suicide note makes it clear that disgruntlement over the
pension led him to take the extreme step.
And having lionised the army and raising questions against
making any criticism of their actions, the BJP has robbed itself of
any maneuvering space.
Little wonder that the Derek O’Briens, Arvind Kejriwals and
Rahul Gandhis made a beeline for Bhiwani. The ferocity and
desperation of AAP and Congress’s protests on Wednesday point
to the frustration they have been suffering so far, having been
unable to come up with an answer for BJP’s nationalist plank
based on praise of soldiers and war heroes. The parties now
believe they have been able to bust BJP’s game plan.
Grandmother Indira Gandhi had repealed OROP and his own
government did precious little to implement it but try telling that
to Rahul Gandhi whose righteous indignation over OROP was
matched only by the duplicity of Kejriwal. New OROP champion
Kejriwal is the same man who recently questioned the veracity
of Army’s statement that it had conducted surgical strikes across
Line of Control.
The positions might be blatantly hypocritical but in the
perception game of politics, there would be very few takers for
the very plausible government explanation that faulty calculation
at the bank’s end may have led to the ex-armyman taking
his life.
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November 16-30, 2016 The Dayafter
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