Woo minorities, specifically Muslims, across the nation in Modi-style. Modi repeat that his only mantra for the nation is development.
“Our Muslim brothers go for Haj every year. Each state in the country has a quota and Gujarat has a quota of 4,000 pilgrims while Bihar has a quota of 7,500 Muslims pilgrims. However, while Bihar gets applications from just 6,000 Muslims, Gujarat gets 40,000 applications. This is just because the Muslim community in Gujarat is prosperous unlike Bihar where they are poor and backward.”
PM candidate Narendra Modi and his secular credentials and bubbling tensions because of last year’s Muzaffarnagar riots in UP have led the BJP to upgrade once ambitious plans of reaching out to the Muslim community.
Muslims, the BJP leader is believed to have said should be put in the picture how Congress had only paid lip service to their cause and not done anything concrete and that their poverty was due to this neglect.
Here BJP especially Modi was trying its hard to woo Muslims and now what is likely to spell more trouble for BJP leader as the party’s in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Amit Shah, is working towards a Hindu consolidation, according to a BJP leaders who were familiar with the unfolding strategy.
As said by Amit Shah that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls was not only about voting out the government that protects and gives compensation to those who killed Jats, it was an election for honor and to take vengeance for the slur heaped on them. He further said that it was an election to teach a lesson to those who had committed injustice.
He is presently focusing is on western UP, where he plan is to spread the Hindutva agenda and encourage Hindus to vote counter to the alleged “protectors of minorities” or parties such as the ruling Samajwadi Party and the Congress.
The 21 seats of western UP, where nearly 30% of the electorate is Muslim go to the polls on April 10 and April 17. With not much time left, Shah seems to have stepped up the speech-maker.
In his controversial April 3 speech to Jat leaders near Muzaffarnagar, which witnessed riots last August, Shah pressurised them to “take revenge for honour” and vote out “Maulana Mulayam’s government” that protects and gives compensations to “killers of Jats”.
“A man can live without food or sleep. He can live when he’s thirsty and hungry. But when he’s insulted, he can’t live. We must seek revenge for the insult heaped on us,” he is alleged to have said.
Shah is improbable to lower his tenor. “What is wrong in what he has said? He is not inciting voters to kill anyone like Congress candidate from Saharanpur Imran Masood, who wanted to chop Modi into pieces. Shah is only asking people to take revenge through ballot,” a senior BJP leader said.
“Masood, too, was doing the same (consolidate votes). He wanted to get the 40% Muslims in Saharanpur on his side.”
In general, Shah likes to stay below the radar. According to Party workers, Shah is against Modi’s approach towards the Muslim community as the outreach did not seem to be working. “Modiji’s model of ‘development without appeasement’ that worked well in Gujarat, did not work as an election plank in other parts of the country. Muslims just did not buy it,” said a BJP leader.
In actual fact, Shah is believed to have stonewalled Modi’s attempts to induct Muslim leaders into the BJP, saying there was no point in wooing them till the party could attract Muslims in large numbers.
“Shah was of the view that such symbolism will not work for BJP. The party had to stick to its core strength and build on it,” the leader said.
A state BJP leader said, “As party’s PM candidate, Modi is expected to maintain some decorum. Although, he too is treading close to the line by talking about ‘pink revolution’ and cow slaughter. But it is Shah who is doing the job on ground.”
“Shah’s loyalty to Modi cannot be doubted. He is not only Modi’s fire-eater but also his firebreather,” said a BJP leader.