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With Mulayam Singh Yadav's jibe on Narendra Modi as "a killer of humanity" and Modi, in turn, attacking the idea of secularism on the ground that it is used as a veil for misgovernance and lack of development, Uttar Pradesh seemed set for a secularism versus good governance debate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The subtext of the debate was best governance practices in Uttar Pradesh versus Gujarat.
Modi spoke at a huge rally in Lucknow while Mulayam Singh Yadav at Allahabad. Arvind Kejriwal also addressed meetings at Unnao and Kanpur.
While Yadav criticised both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress (though his party is supporting the government led by the latter in Delhi), Modi saved his most trenchant criticism for Samajwadi Party and the Congress. The BJP's prime ministerial candidate was a little less critical of the Bahujan Samaj Party, possibly gauging the possibility of a post-election alliance. He limited himself to saying obliquely that he would serve as a 'chaukidar' (gatekeeper) over the treasury in Delhi and allow neither anyone on a bicycle, nor on an elephant, to loot it. The bicycle is the SP's election symbol while the elephant is the BSP's.
Yadav criticised Modi for his claims of development in Gujarat. "There is nothing in Gujarat. Experts have said that the most dirty and polluted rivers are in Gujarat," Yadav said, adding that minorities were not safe in that state. In part praise and part threat to the Muslims, he also said: "Minorities are always faithful".
In response Modi ridiculed claims that Gujarat was backward. "In UP, not even 40 per cent of the people have access to electricity. In Gujarat, 99 per cent of the population get power, 24x7, 365 days a year" Modi said, adding the per capita income of those in Gujarat was double that of the people in UP. "150 riots in Uttar Pradesh in the past one year and none in Gujarat in the past ten years...how dare you compare yourself to us," Modi said.
Modi said the easiest way to hide governance sins was to invoke secularism. "Under the guise of secularism, the leaders are misleading the nation. They are deviating from the main issues. They say forget jobs, forget water, forget price rise. Just talk of secularism, it is under threat: Who will give you water, who will give you power? Isn't that the job of the government ?" he asked.
Modi is usually chary of describing himself in terms of caste. However, at today's rally, he used his caste as an aspirational symbol. "The BJP has appointed me - a person hailing from a poor background, from a backward caste who used to eke out a living selling tea - as its PM candidate" he said.
"The BJP is an optimist party. The coming decade belongs to the oppressed, the backward, the marginalised, the Dalits".
Interestingly, Kalyan Singh, a former UP chief minister and an erstwhile powerful OBC leader, on Sunday formally re-joined the BJP. He was introduced at the rally by the very man who had been instrumental in driving him out of the party: Rajnath Singh, who had that Kalyan Singh had compromised with his prinsiples. Rajnath Singh, during Singh's ouster, held the education portfolio and later succeeded him as the chief minister.
