A free-flowing discussion on nation building and decision makers’ vision threw up a multitude of ideas on the opening day of the three-day event Manch 2023, organised by ITV Network, here on Wednesday.
Union ministers and top political minds shared the stage at the event as the tempo for the general elections next year starts to build, amid competing strategy of the BJP to score a hat-trick using “Modi guarantee” in 2024 and the rival l.N.D.I. A bloc vowing to stop the advance of the saffron brigade.
Member of national executive of RSS Ram Madhav predicted an even bigger mandate for the BJP in 2024 and said the “mature voters of the country have shown in the Assembly elections that they do not want to change a performing government for the sake of change.”
Biplab Kumar Deb, BJP in-charge in Haryana and former Tripura CM, said the outcome of the recent Assembly elections has already made it clear that the 1.40 crore voters of the country have made up their mind to re-elect the Narendra Modi government.
BJP MP Ravi Kishan said “Ab ki baar 400 par” (over 400 seats expected for BJP in 2024) as he invited applause from the audience as he spoke in the Bhojpuri dialect. His party colleague and actor Manoj Tiwari also enthralled audience with his poetic renditions dedicated to Modi’s achievement.
Tejasvi Surya, BJP MP from Bangalore, said the BJP cadre is working so hard that in the next 10 years the party will form government in southern states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
Raghav Chadha, AAP Rajya Sabha MP, raised the issue of alleged attempt to rig the process for appointment of election commissioners and called for ensuring independence of the poll panel.
“If the process of appointment of election commissioners is not rectified then India, which is known as mother of democracy, would be called as ‘mockery of democracy’,” he said, referring to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of
Office) Bill, 2023, which the Opposition claims is aimed at keeping the poll panel under check.
On the political front, Chadha hit out at the BJP and its allies for building the “rewari” (electoral sops) narrative against the AAP. “Arvind Kejriwal is the father of guarantees, which others call “rewari”, and the parties that were criticising us are themselves offering guarantees to voters.”
D.K. Shivkumar, deputy chief minister of Karnataka, talked about the mandate against the Congress in the Hindi heartland and raised the issue of EVM issues for not reflecting the true wish of the voters.
“We will also need to build the cadre on the ground for building the party,” he said, pointing to the lessons learnt from the elections.
On the outlook for 2024, Shivkumar said that the outcome of the northern states will not have much of a bearing on the Lok Sabha election’s outcome.
However, psephologists Sanjay Kumar and Pawan Verma said that there seemed to be no alternative to the NDA in 2024.
“The Opposition lacks a pan-India narrative to impact voters at the national level,” said Verma, adding that the Congress as an organisation has crumbled due to neglect of the party set-up at the ground level.
Yashwant Deshmukh, psephologist, said he did not believe that there is scope for TINA factor – “there is no alternative” in democracy. “It is just that people need to be convinced that the alternative before them is better and reliable,” he said.
Congress leaders Acharya Pramod Krishnan and Imran Pratapgarhi put forth their party’s views on the 2024 fight and said it cannot be said that the party was trounced badly in the Assembly elections.
“We as a party fought the Assembly elections in Hindi heartland very well,” said Pratapgarhi, accusing BJP leaders like Amit Shah of vilifying the Muslim community.
Party leader Sanjay Nirupam said the loss in Hindi belt showed that the Congress still enjoyed 40% vote share. He said the Modi government had failed to offer jobs at the level it had promised to.
Minister of Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju linked the BJP’s success to clean governance and said, “Not a single minister of the Modi government has been caught in corruption related case in the last nine years.”
The afternoon also got a touch of glamour and entertainment with filmstars-turned-politicians Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha interacting with audience at the Manch and musical group of Ameen Sabri and Brothers presenting Sufi songs.
General V.K. Singh, MoS civil aviation, and Meenakshi Lekhi, MoS external affairs and culture, talked about the unshakable faith that voters have in Modi’s guarantee. Gen Singh also recalled PM’s motivation that helped in successful completion of the operation for rescuing trapped workers from Silkyara tunnel.