Who’re Cong spin docs trying to fool ?

SONIA Gandhi’s unabashed admirers are thrilled to bits with her hysterical invective — merchant of death — and are touting it as the body blow that could fell Narendra Modi. From Delhi’s balcony seats, they have termed her speech a defining statement in the Gujarat campaign.


Really? Congress leaders, who understand the electoral game slightly better that Delhi’s arm chair brigade seem to have a somewhat different opinion. Ms Gandhi made the speech at a time when Narendra Modi was testing waters about the electoral ace up his sleeve. Ignoring suggestions from his colleagues, Mr Modi had even concluded that he could confidently go ahead and seek a fresh mandate on the basis of his developmental track record alone.

Did the unsuspecting Sonia —- or her spin doctors, spech writers et al— walk into Modi’s trap? It would appear so and even Congressmen are kicking themselves in the shin that her intemperate remarks have brought the necesary distraction to enable Modi evade answering questions about the muchridiculed “laundry list” of development issues. Incidentally, the Congress’ campaign against Modi in the past five years was centred around his alleged bias towards big business and the well-off. Given this, those who don’t believe in ideological group-think see the speech of Ms Gandhi as a sign of her party’s desperation in the face of Mr Modi’s continued popularity, despite rebellion in the BJP’s ranks and the lack of ethusiasm in the RSS.

There is hushed acknowledgment in Congress circles now that Sonia’s attack on Modi will ultimately help the BJP. Her party was already on a slippery slope. By making the Gujarat riots — the violence that took the lives of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus — the central theme of the political narrative, Sonia Gandhi instead of lending a hand, has given it a push.


Her charges being what they are, there are now demands that the Congress also start answering a few questions on the Centre’s record on tackling terrorism. The cold government statistics are thus: Islamic terrorists have killed 5,617 Indians in the last three years, but only one died in Gujarat. Thursday’s Dec 13th 2007 death toll is 8 — five in a train blast in the north east and murder of three policemen by Naxalites in Chattisgarh.


If the response of the Modi campaign is anything to go by, he has been successful in ramming in his party’s point that the government controlled by Sonia Gandhi at the Centre suffers from an utter lack of credibility when it comes to leading, supporting and respecting anti-terror initiatives. Barring the familar “never again” declarations after terror attacks, there has been little sign of the government stepping in to contain the menaces lurking at our doorsteps.


The anti-BJP brigade’s rhetorical hitman and the commentariat who draw their wisdom from 24X7 channels have been hectoring the voters to make Modi answerable to the Gujarat riots. This is a question that can easily be put to the presiding deities of Delhi. The Centre, which has investigating agencies at its command, is yet to file a single case against Modi, who is the target of the anti-BJP side’s vilification and scorn.

The mob that that screams its lungs out on behalf of the murderous Afzal Guru’s human rights is now licking its fingers in anticipation of Modi’s defeat. The Congress cannot afford to opt for this narrative. It’s easy to mock at the “laundry list of development issues”, but as Nitish Kumar and Mayawati have shown, these are saleable commodities that got them landslides. In any case, “merchants of death” formulation’s chutzpah will speak for itself on December 23.