By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh which is trying to put up a united face at its planned massive “Karyakarta Mahakumbh” (Workers’ Summit Rally) on September 25 here to be addressed by Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, veteran leader LK Advani, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and others has apparently ran into rough weather with the surfacing of a video clip wherein former Chief Minister Uma Bharti is seen castigating Modi. The BJP is claiming to have a mammoth gathering of seven lakh party activists at the rally.
The video clip made in 2007, which is circulating on the social media, shows fire-brand Uma Bharti addressing a Press conference where she is seen lambasting Modi vehemently. She is seen describing Modi as “Vinash Purush” (one who promotes destruction) and not a “Vikas Purush” (one who promotes development) as it is generally propagated. The said footage was made when Ms Uma was not in the BJP. The video footage, which is of 3.24 minutes duration, also shows Ms Uma attacking Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley.
Ms Uma has been shown in the video saying that Gujarat is a state where fear is in the air and Hindus are fearful and Modi is responsible for the state of affairs there. She said in the video that Hindus are being falsely implicated and Jaitley, who is Modi’s friend, must tell whether he will plead for these innocent people. She in the video also alleged that saints are being murdered in Gujarat and women’s throats are being slit.
She has been shown criticising Modi by alleging that the claims of GDP growth in Gujarat were fake and the state is reeling under debt ever since he has come to power. She had said there is neither Ram nor Roti (food) in Gujarat. She had been shown saying that Modi is a balloon into which media has pumped air.
The bitter tone and tenor of Uma’s assault on Modi in the footage could invite problems for the party in the present political scenario. The video footage coming out in the open prior to Modi’s state visit might create friction between Modi and Ms Uma.
However, the BJP’s state leadership has put under the carpet this unhealthy development and ignored it while trying to put up a bold face to bring warring groups in the party on one platform in order to project a united face in the wake of ensuing Vidhan Sabha elections which are due by November end this year.
The state BJP chief Narendra Singh Tomar talking to a section of media said all the top BJP leaders of the country including Uma Bharti will be present on the dais. Party patriarch L K Advani and his estranged protégé Modi will share the dais. This will be the first time that Modi and Advani will share stage after their bitter battle over the prime ministerial candidature. So will the two squabbling saffron satraps of the Hindi heartland, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and party vice-president Uma Bharti, who has been forced to shift base to Uttar Pradesh since her return to the party fold in June 2011. All four leaders will sit alongside and address party workers. Apart from this party president Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar will also be there on the dais, he added.
The “Karyakarta Mahakumbh” which was planned as the culmination event to focus on Chouhan's 50-day “Jan Ashirwad Yatra” in the face of impending state legislative assembly elections in November will now also project Modi as PM before the nation and reassure the cadre that all's well with the BJP High Command. For this reason 50,000 Muslims are being mobilised to join the rally. After much hue and cry raised by the state Congress BJP’s earlier plan to seat the Muslim participants separately in a special tent with men sporting skull caps and women clad in traditional “Burquas” has been abandoned. Now, Muslims will inter-mingle with other BJP workers and sit wherever seat is available.
Meanwhile, BJP is in a fix to finalise the sequence of its speakers addressing the “Karyakarta Mahakumbh”. The party leaders, who are finalising the programme schedule, are unable to set the sequence of its leaders to speak at the workers rally. Modi’s address is one of the key features of the rally. The organisers of the programme fear that if Modi speaks before Chief Minister Chouhan then people might not wait for the latter. Another that is being considered is that if Modi speaks at the end then he would hog the limelight of the programme. Similarly, if Modi speaks before Advani it might offend the latter. All this is creating confusion among the party leaders and the sequence of speakers is still not final. The issue of sequence of addressing has been left too Chouhan, sources said.