‘Modi will be one of our star campaigners’

BJP national president Rajnath Singh believes the UPA Government has failed on all fronts, be it security, economy or society.

BJP national president Rajnath Singh believes the UPA Government has failed on all fronts, be it security, economy or society. He suggests that terrorism and internal security issues will be at the top of BJP’s election agenda in the forthcoming general elections. Expressing surprise that terror was not on the agenda of the National Integration Council last, the former Uttar Pradesh chief Minister says: “There is not only a lack of stern will power to tackle the menace of terrorism, but I suspect that they (the UPA Government) do not have the right bent of mind for tackling terror.”

Rajnath speaks to D P Bhattacharya on Modi, the election campaign, Bajrang Dal and new NDA allies. Excerpts:

•Will Narendra Modi move to Delhi?

Narendra Modi is the Chief Minister of a state. Naturally, a CM has a national role as well. He will have a very important role to play in the forthcoming elections. As far as his moving to Delhi is concerned, it also depends on what he wants.

•How is the party planning to take Modi’s help for campaigning?

He will be one of our star campaigners and will travel extensively in the five states.

•With so much thrust on development, how do you think the ‘Gujarat Model’ will work in other states?

In terms of development, Gujarat has definitely created a successful model of its own and I give the credit for it to Narendrabhai. In other states, they have their unique characteristics and the developmental works are done keeping local needs in mind. We’ll continue to do the same.

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•You lauded Modi for bringing the Nano project to Gujarat. More than development, is the project becoming a symbol of political one-upmanship?

It is the West Bengal Government which made a political issue of it. In Gujarat, this was brought in for the state’s development.

•While Modi has taken a very tough stand on terrorism, we saw the biggest serial blasts in the last one year happening in Gujarat. Also, there have been frequent cases of fake currency rackets surfacing here. Is this not a failure?

You cannot call these failures. Look at the way it has been tackled here. Modi has done a great job. Such an incident can take place anywhere. But what matters is how the administration handles it.

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•So much is being said about the Bajrang Dal and other right wing groups, and some political parties have even demanded a ban on them. But in Gujarat, we have seen them completely sidelined and almost silenced once the pitch of development picked up. Does this mean that these outfits become redundant as the focus shifts to development?

They have not been engaged in anything destructive here. The issue is being politicised.

•Recently, we saw Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal joining the NDA. Are there more parties coming to the NDA fold?

NDA is in an expansion mode. We are also talking to some other parties and soon others will be joining the alliance.

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So, do we construe that the BJP is not looking at a singular majority in Parliament anymore and has accepted the reality of coalition politics?

Yes, sort of. But the BJP will in any case emerge as the single largest party in the next general election.