Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Nitish-Modi sharing dais: A conflicting signal

Personally I have nothing against Mr. Narendra Modi, I find him to be a great administrator, who has done well for the development of Gujarat. All the corporate honchos, have hailed him as the perfect individual for PM posts, which has been endorsed by even select BJP members.
However, on the other side, his perception, is also that of a hardline hindutva personality, who has been held allegedly responsible for the godhra riots, by a large part of population.
Nitish Kumar, had not allowed Modi to canvas in Bihar, and this was openly admitted by Mr. Advani. To win over minority support, Nitish, did give a stern signal, that no hardline religious insinuations or campaign would be tolerated in Bihar. BJP, owing to the influence Nitish wields readily obliged. Bihar was one place, where the star campaigner Mr. Modi did not visit.
I am sure this did appease a large part of the minority populace, who are inherently inimical to Modi.
But, just after the end of the voting in the state of Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar, visited ludhiana, and shared dais with Modi, which made big news and was the headlines of all the news channels.
As there was much speculation on Nitish's visit to that place.
This did give laloo and Paswan a rare chance to take snide at Nitish, saying that the latter has shown his true colors, once the voting was over.
I feel Nitish's presence as an alliance partner and sharing the dais is not really a big deal, keeping in view the alliance, however, it could give a conflicting signal to a large part of minority voters in Bihar, as the timing was just too close for comfort.

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