OpinionThe FinePrint Why poll strategist PK may not be losing sleep over Gujarat yet
tablish connections that may not strike ordinary mortals. Think of a Gujarat-Assam link – the largest producer of milk and tea in India? “Gujarat ka doodh aur Assam ka chai milaa ke, sabse badhiya chai banaane waale desh ke Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi ji hain (One who makes the best tea by blending Gujarat’s milk with Assam’s tea is the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji) ….That’s how he is making Nav Bharat,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at an election meeting at Anjar in Gujarat’s Kutch district Friday.The audience applauded with “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. In another election rally the next day, Sarma called the alleged killing of Shraddha Walker by her live-in partner, Aftab Amin Poonawalla, in Delhi an instance of ‘love jihad’. “If India doesn’t have a strong leader like Modi, ‘an Aaftab will be born in every city’,” said the Assam CM.
In two days, he captured the whole gamut – from Assam tea and Gujarat milk to Bharat Mata, ‘love jihad’, and the chaiwala – as a strong leader. Forget the rights and wrongs here. Just enjoy the art of politics.
Now think of a link between Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh. PM Modi was in the Northeastern state on Saturday, 2,000 miles away from poll-bound Gujarat, to inaugurate projects. All his visits don’t have to be political or election-related, no matter how cynical his detractors and admirers might be. “The sun rises first in Arunachal and sets last in Gujarat,” Modi had said earlier. Lord Krishna was from Gujarat’s Dwarka who married Rukmini from Arunachal, Modi would say.
He didn’t have to repeat these messages during his visit, though. Even residents of Madhavur village in Gujarat’s Porbandar district wouldn’t miss it. They organise the famous Madhavpur Fair every year to celebrate the marriage of Krishna and Rukmini. It draws a large crowd, with chief ministers from the Northeast attending it.With an estimated 13,000 to 15,000 voters, Madhavpur is the biggest village in the Kutiyana constituency, which was won by the late ‘godmother’ Santokben Jadeja’s son, Kandhal Jadeja, in the last two elections. He quit the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) this year and is now contesting on a Samajwadi Party ticket. It would sound preposterous to suggest that PM Modi went to Arunachal to send a message to Madhavpur residents. He wouldn’t probably be bothered about Jadeja, the former NCP legislator who voted for BJP candidates in the Rajya Sabha and presidential elections. But his message, intended or not, does hit home – in Gujarat.
Linguistic politics
From Arunachal Pradesh, PM Modi flew down to Varanasi to inaugurate the Kashi Tamil Sangamam, a month-long programme to celebrate and rediscover the links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi. Modi was effusive in his praise for the Tamil language, calling upon 130 crore Indians to preserve its legacy. Days before his visit, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in Chennai recommending Tamil as the medium of instruction in medical and technical education. They were obviously seeking to address apprehensions about the BJP’s linguistic politics in the Dravidian land where the party is seeking to expand its footprints. But Shah and Modi’s gestures would also be very reassuring to the Tamils in Gujarat – Around 1.5 lakh in Ahmedabad, especially in ‘mini-Tamil Nadu’ in Maninagar, Modi’s former Assembly constituency.
Be it his pictures with world leaders at the G20 summit in Bali or his tough talk at the 3rd ‘No Money for Terror’ ministerial conference in New Delhi, Prime Minister Modi’s messages were unmistakable – in Gujarat and the rest of the country.
