By Sushil Kutty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the BJP victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were because of ‘team spirit’ in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Is that so, who is the Prime Minister fooling? Team spirit is the last thing in the saffron party. Team spirit goes for a toss when everything that moves in the BJP is on the dictates of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the only one in the BJP who can say “no”.
Modi also drove in the point that people give relevance to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Forget ordinary folks, even BJP bigwigs missed the existence of “team spirit” in the party. Somebody put it this way: “The BJP is the preferred choice of governance because its “record of retaining power is better than that of the Congress”.
Where’s the “team spirit” that Prime Minister Modi is pointing out? Those of us who are of poor deciphering stock wouldn’t agree to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s understanding of “unity” in the BJP. There is no team spirit in the ruling party. Otherwise, Modi wouldn’t have given the impression of being an authoritarian and a potential dictator.
Look at the demeanour of BJP stalwarts in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They are as if they lack a spine. Borrowing from Emergency era Lal Krishna Advani, BJP leaders choose to crawl when asked to bend. The BJP of Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee died a long time ago. The honest truth is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the rare spirit to kill “team spirit” without even trying.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi mistook this ability for “panauti”, ill-omen in English. The BJP is a bunch of politicians who crawl to Modi’s diktats, who crawl when told to bend. Prime Minister Modi was holding forth at the BJP parliamentary party meeting when he confused sycophancy to “team spirit”.
The fact that Modi could get away with saying that the BJP victories in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan were not because of any single leader, but because of “team spirit” is proof BJP leaders have no spine. Day in and day out we have been made collectively deaf with the media shouting “Modi was the name and face” of the elections, and then for Modi to speak of “team spirit”.
Are the media a bunch of nincompoops without the faculty to read/see/hear what’s right in front of them? Fact is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is master puppeteer – Pied Piper in disguise with the rest of BJP dancing to his tune. Not just the spineless set of BJP stalwarts, but a large section of the “naukarshahi” and compromised civil society. Modi’s “team spirit” is one of convenience to all and sundry in the collective. Did we forget crony capitalists, those too hold up the flag of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reading of “team spirit”, which fetched the BJP the party’s big win in the 5-state polls.
BJP MPs breaking out in cries of “baar-baar Modi, har baar Modi, aglibaar Modi” underlined a different kind of “team spirit” among BJP MPs, with each one of them trying to outdo the other in paying obeisance to the living demigod in their midst. Other words of Modi’s reading of “team spirit” are homage, worship, submission. Perhaps “deference”, but not respect and veneration, definitely not “adoration.
Whatever happened to team spirit in Telangana and Mizoram? Modi has only now asked for BJP leaders to focus on teamwork in future elections. There was reason for Modi not asking for team work in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and in Rajasthan. Then, it was for personal glory. Today, Modi is asking BJP workers not to honour his name with adjectives: “I’m a small worker. People think that I am part of their family. Do not add adjectives before or after my name like ‘shree’, ‘adarniya’ and ‘ji’. People think of me as Modi.”
It is as if India is full of stupid people. That the electorate does not have the intellect to differentiate. And there is always a Modi minister to pick up cudgels for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Like Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who says the Congress fought assembly elections 40 times but could win only seven times. Under Modi, the BJP won 22 out of 39 times.
Joshi did not talk of team spirit. Instead, he argued that the BJP under Modi is the “most preferred” party. People should not forget that Prime Minister Narendra Modi forgets team work and team spirit when on the move during elections. All election-related big pronouncements are made only by Modi and credit is never given to “team spirit”.
Is the BJP a party of zombies? That is a disturbing thought. The four biggest “castes” for instance. It is a Modi construct. Not Amit Shah’s or JP Nadda’s. Only Modi can come up with such gems. It is only Modi who asks MPs to participate in programmes like ‘viksit bharat sankalp yatra’, Modi alone. Team spirit simply evaporates. The only time BJP displayed “team spirit” in recent times was today when BJP MPs expelled Mahua Moitra from the Lok Sabha in a show of solidarity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (IPA Service)
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