Today
was basically a field days for spokespersons. They tried to cover as much
length and breadth of this country as possible and they tried to speak as
louder as they could so as to become audible (and visible) to media and social
media eyes and ears and so on. What was put in action some days ago saw its top
pitch today and will have its various notes in the days to come.
The
biggest of them (in stature), held big sized rallies like the one held by
Narendra Modi in Saharanpur.
Then
there were extensions - from the ruling party - and from the opposition -
selling and counter-selling achievements and allegations.
And
then there were propped up or spontaneous splinter entities - on airwaves -
blessing or bashing the two years of the Narendra Modi government.
Now,
statistics tells what you want it to tell.
So,
Narendra Modi, his spokespersons, other leaders of his party and his supporters
have plenty to tell - from social empowerment - to introducing structural
changes in infrastructure - to industrial turnaround - to internal and external
security - to foreign policy.
Likewise,
Narendra Modi and BJP's political rivals, including Modi's detractors, have as
much in their kitty as they want to scatter - and they want to scatter it all.
So,
if NDA and BJP's ministers, MPs and other leaders are busy holding meetings and
rallies in different parts of countries, hard-selling their claimed achievements
in these two years - the two years, that according to them, have changed India
- political rivals and opposition, including Congress, Left Front, JDU, AAP and
others are busy hard-selling their counterpoints - presenting point by point
rebuttal of government's claims.
But
the fact is - statistics doesn't really tell the stories that pull votes in
times of elections - if figures are without facts - or even if figures are with
flimsy facts. We all saw how NDA's 'India Shining' campaign crumbled in 2004. We
saw how miserably the Manmohan Singh led UPA government failed in convincing
people in 2014 Lok Sabha polls that it indeed had delivered on governance.
Like
Modi has directed his ministers and party members to take their achievements to
people, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, too, had tried. The
difference is - Modi is on the job right from the first year of his government
while Manmohan Singh's government tried it as a desperate campaign measure in
the face of a sky-high anti-incumbency after nine years in the office.
Obviously,
those statistical tales didn't help Manmohan Singh and Congress then and the
party was reduced to its lowest tally of 44 in the Lok Sabha. Narendra Modi
must be having that in mind.
The
biggest currency that Narendra Modi has, after two years in government, is - he
still has no competition at his level. He is still the most popular politician,
one of the most popular prime ministers and the gap between him and others who
could pose as his rival to the prime minister's office in 2019 is comfortably
wide. In fact, he is sitting at the top pretty comfortably.
After
two years of Narendra Modi in 7RCR, the official residence of India's prime
minister, India, still, has no political alternative to him.
But
then, three years is a long time in India's political landscape. Anything can
happen. Let's see which way the political tide turns (and soars) starting with the
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early next year.