It is Modi Versus Sonia in Haryana

NEW DELHI: Haryana, usually quite unimportant when states like Maharashtra are in the fray, is attracting eyeballs largely because of hosting what appears to be a direct Prime Minister Narendra Modi versus Congress president Sonia Gandhi battle being fought on the famous war fields of this state.

Both leaders raced across the state hammering at each other in a direct confrontation. This was unexpected from Sonia Gandhi who is more indirect in her political references than she has been now, leading the Prime Minister to make what sounded like a policy statement against her son-in-law Robert Vadra when he urged the Election Commission to take action against the Haryana government’s approval of a land deal between Vadra and the land estate giant DLF.

Sonia Gandhi: They are creating such an atmosphere as if nothing has happened in the country since independence and they will change everyone’s fortunes overnight.”

Modi: Did Congress ever give an answer for their work for 60 years? And then did they ask us. At least talk about your sins for 60 years.

Sonia Gandhi: Has inflation come down? Is the poor man getting food at cheaper rates? Have the unemployed got obs? What happened to their promise of getting back the black money from abroad within 100 days of coming to power?

Modi: BJP is fighting to give development to Haryana. We are fighting for good governance. I urge Congress to see the rail budget. Who decided to give Hisar two railway lines? It was out government, Hisar will also get a national highway.

Sonia Gandhi: At the time of the elections, I urge you to take a decision after listening to your brain and not your heart. People may try to whip up sentiments, make false promises to you, beware of them.

Modi: Is this democracy for serving only one family? Dont you want to be free from this parivaarishahi? My government runs on the support of the people of India. I don’t need support from jails. I don’t need support of the mafia.

Congress scion Rahul Gandhi has been taken off the campaign trail with the party now depending almost entirely on Sonia Gandhi to deliver in Maharashtra and more specifically Haryana. She has been campaigning on her own, with little to no effort being made to organise a more systematic and broadbased campaign in the state that could bring in central leaders to campaign for the party in what is clearly a bitterly fought and intense election.

It might or might not be a Gujarat hangover, but it certainly is strategy with Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting his sights on the Congress party as his direct adversary. The Nehru-Gandhi family has been a visible target during his high voltage run up to the Lok Sabha polls, with the PM seeming fairly disinterested in the regional parties as and when compared to the Congress that continues to bear the brunt of his attack.

PM Modi, cleverer than most of his party colleagues, knows that the levels of Congress influence in the country have to fall for the BJP to rise in the same and more hardline space. He is not particularly bothered about the regional parties at this stage, confident of his ability to win them over or fight them on their home turf as and when the need arises. An indicator of this can be found in Maharashtra where the BJP under his protegee Amit Shah has taken the conscious decision of finding its own space in the state, through the complete decimation of the Congress and a direct muzzling out of the Shiv Sena if possible.

At a time when the BJP is speaking through all available voices, government, party, RSS, front organisations, the Congress seems to have shrunk not just in numbers but in its continuing over reliance on Sonia Gandhi to hold the party together and lead it at all levels. There has been no effort to democratise the party with the Congress Working Committee that glossed over its rout in the Lok Sabha elections not followed by the expected AICC session. Elections to these organisations are no longer being discussed, and criticism voiced by some Congress leaders like Milind Deora, have all been glossed over. Talk of reviving the Youth Congress and even the Sewa Dal after the Lok Sabha defeat has remained just that, talk.

PM Modi’s open attack on Vadra has put everyone on notice. He said in his campaign speech at Hissar, “even after the Model Code of Conduct being in place, the land deal was finalized for Robert Vadra. The Election Commission should take serious note of the Haryana government okaying the land deal involving Robert Vadra."

"They (Hooda government) know that after the elections, the son-in-law (Vadra) will not get any clearances for illegal deals. So, in between the election process, they have dared to take such a decision."I think Hooda was pressurised from the top (Congress leadership) to take such a decision," the Prime Minister said bringing in Sonia Gandhi and her family directly into the picture.

The BJP knows as well as the Congress party that without the Nehru-Gandhi family in place, the party would disintegrate from within sooner than later. He has, thus been attacking Sonia Gandhi over and above others for a while now, with the Congress party barely able to think or speak for itself any more. The Congress president had and has responded to the accusations being hurled at her by PM Modi, but there has been no concerted brief to the party to go out into the field and challenge the BJP campaign against her and the party itself.

The Congress remains on a very weak wicket in both the states, although some worthies within the party are optimistic that the multi-cornered contest almost certain in Maharashtra now would work to their advantage and prevent the party from complete ruin. However, the party has not been able to launch a strong and concerted anti -BJP campaign in the states, with the party playing second or even third fiddle to the others in the fray. However, there is no doubt that the attack on Vadra was intended by the PM to get as close to home insofar as Sonia Gandhi was concerned, and thereby make it clear under national media spotlights that the law of the arm could get Vadra for the controversial land deal. The Haryana government has of course denied any such wrongdoing but a change in government could raise issues that would turn the campaign of jibes into actual action.