When ‘time’ reverses, even the ‘most brilliant’ minds perish

Keshav Upadhye/ Facebook

It is said that as one's end draws near, the discriminating intellect that should be able to make proper choices frequently goes awry and causes the individual to make incorrect choices, which only serves the individual to face its consequences. Today, when we look at the current political scenario (on a lighter note) we might feel the urge to rephrase this saying to read ‘When time reverses, mind dooms.'

The bugle for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 has already sounded. The BJP-led NDA under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi has already prepared to surpass its historic goal of 400 seats. Interestingly, there are no competitors. The ‘Ghamandia' alliance led by the Congress is in terrible shape. The alliance is in total disarray, there is no coordination among its members, and no unified meetings being called.

However, the opposition in the country - the INDIA alliance is relatively better than the opposition in Maharashtra - the Maha Vikas Aghadi. They have nothing to complain about given the speed at which the state's incumbent Mahayuti government is functioning. Furthermore, there is no reason to criticise the Narendra Modi government at the Centre considering the rapid development projects being underway.

On one side, there are concerted efforts to realize Narendra Modi's goal of ‘Viksit Bharat', while on the other, there are just allegations, derogatory remarks, taunts and ceaseless rants against the Modi administration. Additionally, the opposition that lacks a ‘development agenda' only resorts to criticising the union ministers, chief minister Eknath Shinde and both his deputies - Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. Hence, it will not be an exaggeration to say that ‘their minds have been doomed' since ‘times have reversed'.

Sharad Pawar - you too?

The country is on a growth trajectory owing to the double-engine government at the Centre and the state. Since the opposition's Ghamandia Alliance has nothing to criticise, it is using cheap verbal criticism such as body shaming, offensive language, referencing historical instances and drawing parallels with different animals and birds. Leaders including Uddhav Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and their supporters, and Congress leaders including Nana Patole and Vijay Wadettiwar are at the forefront of such criticism. These people are happy spreading false narratives with Supriya Sule and Rohit Pawar of the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, leading the way.

Veteran leader Sharad Pawar was formerly known for his thoughtful and mature responses, but now it appears that he has lost his mind too. He is fervently disseminating untrue stories about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is up to every party to forecast the number of seats it will win; PM Modi has also put out a prediction of ‘400 paar' and Pawar is on a quest to ridicule this forecast.

The recent narrative claims that Modi needs more than 400 seats so that he can amend the Constitution. It remains to be seen if Modi will be able to meet this goal, but it is also unclear if Sharad Pawar's party, which had previously won only four seats will be able to secure at least one this time. Instead of worrying about their party, which is on the verge of going into the doldrums, Pawar and his members are busy spreading false narratives and rumours.

Look who's cribbing?

Frustrated with the incompetent and dishonest leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, nearly 50 MLAs led by Eknath Shinde broke away from the Shiv Sena and established a government in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party. This infuriated Uddhav Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and their followers to such an extent that since then they began speaking about Chief Minister Eknath Shinde his supporting MLAs in a demeaning manner.

After being called out at first as ‘Gaddar' (traitors) and ‘Khoke Sarkar', Uddhav Thackeray and his party members began name-calling Shinde and his team as ‘naag', frog, raven, pigs, bull, donkey, etc. Shinde, his colleagues and even their families were dragged into the criticism in the most atrocious manner. Devendra Fadnavis too was deplorably spoken about.

After realising that nobody actually got affected by their criticisms, the opposition went to the extent of comparing Narendra Modi and Amit Shah with Aurangzeb and Kans Mama. They went as far as to disparage the families of Modi and Shah that the duo was called a ‘gang of robbers' and ‘maut ka saudagar'. It now appears to be a competition among the opposition over who can criticise the meanest. In short, the leaders of the Ghamandia Alliance are behaving like ‘Ghajini' as they are left with nothing better.

Meeting held at Shivtirth is like sounding ‘denial bells!'

At the Shivtirtha in Mumbai, all the opposition party leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Balasaheb Ambedkar and the chief ministers of two other states had assembled during the conclusion of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's NYAY Yatra.

However, none of them used this gathering as a platform to discuss their ideas of development or gave a vision for the nation. All they did was to target and abuse the Modi government. They are so overwhelmed with PM Narendra Modi that not a single leader spoke about their future plans in the event that if at all their Ghamandia Alliance is elected to power in the upcoming elections. I am sure everyone must have observed it as well. All they did was bask in the opulence of Mumbai and returned resuming their vicious and insulting behaviour.

Appeasement is their only motto

This anti-NDA alliance's primary goal is to win over Muslim voters. They think they may succeed by following the ‘Karnataka pattern'. They seem to have a deeply ingrained idea that Modi can be easily defeated if Muslim voters are united and they are working in that direction.

They are unaware of how difficult it is to incite people against Modi and his government under the current scenario. Regardless of the candidate, people across the spectrum, including the poor and the farmers are determined to elect the ‘lotus' back to power, giving these traitors no choice. And having realised this reality, their sole agenda is negative campaigning against the Modi government.

While there are numerous planned developmental initiatives on one hand, there is absolute despair, conflicts and propagation of false narratives on the other. While the NDA will campaign based on the success it has achieved by carrying out development projects over the last 10 years, the opposition has a single-point agenda of highlighting the shortcomings of the Modi government.

I am sure that the 97 crore voters of our country, want to continue enjoying the advantages of the various initiatives introduced across sectors by the BJP-led NDA government. The citizens want to see improved security, a booming economy along with the country's leap in all sectors. It will be interesting to see with the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 soon approaching.

Keshav Upadhye is the chief spokesperson for BJP Maharashtra.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the individual and don't represent those of the paper.