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The Narendra Modi government has chosen Amethi, the Gandhi family's pocket borough in Uttar Pradesh, as its battlefield to outmanoeuvre Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. To blunt Rahul's incessant attacks that the Modi government is anti-farmer, the Centre has been disbursing its farm largesse on Amethi in recent months.
Senior ministers believe Rahul will soon run out of steam but it's the content of his criticism that they think needs to be effectively countered, lest the Modi government suffers a repeat of 'India Shining' that cost the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government the 2004 elections. And, what better way to do this than expose to the world how Rahul has failed to walk the talk when it comes to his own Lok Sabha constituency, while the Modi government has done much for the farmers of a seat that has sent to Parliament a Gandhi family member or confidant nearly continuously since 1980.
Of late, the Centre has opened a Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), sanctioned a mobile soil testing laboratory for the district and also asked the railways to begin offloading fertiliser rakes in the town itself, instead of neighbouring Rae Bareli, ahead of the coming kharif sowing season. "Until now, farmers in Amethi depended on fertiliser supplies from neighbouring districts, because of which there was perennial shortage of fertilizer in the district. We have addressed that," a senior minister in the Modi government said.
"We (the Modi government) have done more for farmers of Amethi than Rahul Gandhi could do in the last 10 years," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Shrikant Sharma said. Rahul is a third-time MP from Amethi, winning his first election in 2004.
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The minister claimed the Centre has more plans for Amethi but the non-cooperative attitude of the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh is a hurdle. But the Modi government is determined to persist with its plan to outflank Rahul on his home turf. It believes any tangible development in Amethi, particularly of its farmers, would weaken Rahul's claims that the Modi government was anti-farmer. "We want to tell the people that if Rahul Gandhi is so concerned about farmers, he should first improve the lot of farmers of Amethi," the minister said.
The BJP has followed a policy of staggered engagement with Rahul. It largely ignored Rahul's initial attacks. Senior ministers still continue to do so but later unleashed Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on him.
Irani, who gave Rahul a tough fight in Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has nursed the constituency purposefully over the past 12 months. She was there earlier this month while a reinvigorated Rahul had upped the ante against the Modi government in Delhi, and will again spend several days there to mark the first year of the Modi government by enrolling 20,000 people in the recently launched insurance and pension schemes.
On Thursday, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and BJP's youth wing head, Anurag Thakur, also waded into Rahul. A day later, party spokesperson M J Akbar described him as "the nawab of negativity". Senior minister Nitin Gadkari said he wouldn't like to comment on Rahul as the Congress leader was akin to his little grandson, and had much growing up to do. The PM and senior ministers like Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh have mostly avoided commenting on the Congress vice-president.
The Modi government and BJP strategy remains of wait and watch as one believes Rahul will, sooner than later, exhaust himself. But it is Rahul's line of attack - that of the Modi government being pro-corporate and anti-poor - that the party is really worried about. On Friday, at a press conference to mark one year of the Modi government, Finance Minister Jaitley said: "Good governance has to be blended with clever politics; we are conscious of that. It is for this reason that our party has been extremely active in forging alliances wherever necessary, expanding social bases, expanding membership and we are conscious of even our past experiences and have learnt on that basis." The finance minister's reference to "past experiences" was a reference to the "India Shining" reversal.
To mark the first anniversary of the Modi government, as 'jan kalyan parva' or festival for people's welfare is an effort to negate the criticism of it being pro-corporate and anti-farmer. The party will showcase its recently launched pension and insurance schemes. A 24x7 television channel exclusively for farmers,will also be launched on Tuesday.
OFFERS GALORE
Modi govt largess for Amethi farmers
- A new Krishi Vigyan Kendra
- A mobile soil testing laboratory
- Landing facility for fertilisers in Amethi
- Regular visits by senior ministers
- Campaign to highlight the woes of Amethi growers
