By
Abdul Hafiz Lakhani
Ahmedabad:
Gujarat chief minister and Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi wants to
reach out to Muslims to secure at least 25 percent Muslim votes. He says he did
the same in Gujarat.
In
a conversation with this Correspondent renowned civil rights and
anti-communalism activist Prof. J. S. Bandukwala says that Narendra Modi seems
to have accepted Subramanium Swamy as his political guru and as Chairrman of
BJP National Election Campaign Committee has started implementing the idea
proposed by Swamy that BJP must unite all Hindus and divide Muslims.
"Our
community is largely illiterate and poor. A few educated and business oriented
Muslims will reach out to Modi and the BJP, to secure adavantages of power and
wealth. This has happened in Gujarat too. Every society has its Mir Jafars. But
to say that Muslims in Gujarat have voted 25 percent for him is totally bogus.
No Assembly constituency in Gujarat has more than 50 percent Muslim voters,
except Jamalpur Khadia. But multiple Muslim candidates lead to the victory of
BJP candidate. That does not mean that Muslims are voting for the BJP. Modi
needs to assure his core constituency of big corporates and middle class that
his becoming a PM will not produce any negative reaction from Muslims. Hence
these PR exercises, in which Modi is a past master," said Prof. Bandukwala.
Senior
Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil refuted Modi's claims and said that not only
Muslims, even secular Hindus do not vote for BJP in the leadership of Modi in
Gujarat.
"In
1990, Congress had got 33 seats with 30 percent vote share, but it got double
the seats and vote share of 40 percent in 2012 after Modi came to power. Mahatma
Gandhi bought pride to Gujarat by showing path of Truth, Chief Minister of that
state who has earned name of Feku because of his constant lies should not bring
disgrace to Gujarat. In the state of the Chief Minister who is giving all kind
of advice on security, none is safe neither servants of Ram nor the followers
of Rahim," said Gohil.
Shaktisinh
Gohil has challenged Gujarat Chief Minister for a open debate on his claim that
20 to 25 percent Muslims in Gujarat had voted for him. In his open letter to
the Chief Minister, he has given facts and figures of several booths to drive
home the point that CM’s claim was a blatant lie. Not only Muslims, even
secular Hindus do not vote for BJP in the leadership of Modi in Gujarat, he
said.
In
1990, when there was no trace of Modi in active politics of Gujarat, Congress
had got 33 out of 182 Assembly seats with 30 percent vote share. In 1995
Congress got 32 percent votes. After the entry of Modi in Gujarat politics,
Congress got 38 percent votes with 51 seats in 2002. In the last elections in
2012, Congress got 61 seats and its vote share was 40.50 per cent. In addition
to this NCP got two seats. Thus, it is clear that as compared to 1990, Congress
got almost double seats in 2012. The main reason for this, he said, is voting
of secular voters against the Chief Minister and the ego of the Chief Minister.
Giving
details of Muslim dominated constituencies, Gohil said, it is obvious that Modi
has not got votes of seculars. Quoting from the record of the Election
Commission, he said, in Vejalpur Assembly segment in booth Vejalpur 134, BJP
got only 14 out of 882 votes cast while in Vejalpur 135 it got 18 out of total
1132 votes polled. In Vejalpur 138 it got only 9 out of 914. In Makarba 14, it
got 14 of the 1075 votes.
Giving
example of another such constituency, Jamalpur-Khadia, he said that in Raikhad-2
, BJP got only 9 out of 460, in Raikhad-3 it got 18 of 846 votes, in Jamalpur
-1 it got 39/843, in Jamalpur-2 24/1097and in Behrampura-38 BJP got 15/1279.
Giving
example of Surat city, he said that in booth 22 of Surat east BJP got only 6 of
the 645 votes polled, in booth 63 it got only 3 of the 606 votes. BJP got
21/709 in the booth 65 of this constituency. In booth 138 the ruling party got
just 14/590 votes.
In
view of this, Gohil said, it is obvious that the constituencies which have
lesser Hindu votes, Modi has got negligible share of Hindu votes. Wherever
there are secular votes, BJP has got a very poor response, he said. Despite
this Modi is spreading blatant lies of Muslims support. He challenged Modi to
come for open debate with his figures of 20-25 percent Muslim support. I will
expose the lies of Modi, he said.
In
his open letter to Modi, he said that Gujarat where Gandhi was born and who
showed the path of truth to the world that Gujarat’s chief minister tells lies.
People find out his lies and consequently words like feku for Modi become a
trend on Twitter. This brings shame and disgrace to Gujarat. Gohil request Modi
not to indulge in lies and not to bring disgrace to Gujarat.
In
a open letter to the Chief Minister Gohil said that before giving advice on
security the CM should first see state of affairs in his own state. In 1982
hundreds of karsevakas from Gujarat had gone to Ayodhaya but not a single
person was affected. Governments in the past have been always worried about the
security of all irrespective of their religion. But after garnering votes in
the name of Ram the CM has failed to provide security even to Ram bhakts. After
burning alive followers of Ram the CM burned followers of Rahim just to strengthen
his vote bank. Modi has not provided security to either hindus or Muslims.Not
only that he has killed innocent people branding them as terrorist through fake
encounters just for his vote bank.
Gohil
said that if claims of the state’s development in Modi regime were true then
percentage of Congress seats and votes as in earlier BJP rule should have
declined but the fact is that like fake encounter, fake figures the claims of
development of the state are also fake. Consequently Congress has fared better and
not only its seat but percentage of votes has also increased.
The
CM who is spending crores of rupees from the state exchequer for marketing his
so called development model does not speak about development during poll time.
Instead he creates rift between Hindus and Muslims fuelling an atmosphere of
fear and then garners votes by spreading blatant lies.
During
every election that has come after Modi has become CM he talks only about Afzal
Guru, Miya Mushraf and celebrations in Pakistan if Congress wins, hindus not
safe if Congress won and in the last election he won votes by claiming that the
Central government would give away Sir Creek to Pakistan. This shows that the CM cannot get votes in
the name of development and his model of
development is also fake.