Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a sarcastic remark when he was in Thrissur last January. "Everyone knows the office that formed the nucleus of gold smuggling in Kerala," he said. No one was left in doubt who his target was.
On Tuesday, while attending the culmination of Kerala Padayatra led by BJP state president K Surendran, Modi was at Thiruvananthapuram's Central Stadium, which was right behind Secretariat, the "office" he had referred to in Thrissur.
Given the location, the BJP supporters who had gathered at the stadium on Tuesday half expected the PM to recall the alleged mischief in the Chief Minister's office. To their dismay, he did not.
Instead, Modi hurled an even bigger charge, something a working-class party like the CPM would consider as the ultimate insult. The PM said that the Communists, like the Congress, were also concerned only about the well-being of just one family. This was the first time that the PM had referred to, even if obliquely, the kickback scandal involving Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) and the Chief Minister's daughter Veena Vijayan.
Whenever he is in Kerala, it is usual for the PM to equate the Congress and the CPM. He calls them both corrupt and inefficient. He castigates them both for not creating jobs and industries. Now, the allegations against Veena seem to have enriched the list of comparisons in the PM's care.
About the Congress, the PM said that they have placed the interests of one family above the billion other Indian families. "They have sacrificed the country for one family," he said. This has been Modi's constant refrain against the Congress. The other day in Gujarat's Rajkot, inaugurating five new AIIMS, which included one in Congress bastion Rae Bareilly, Modi had said that while the Congress 'royal family' did politics in Rae Bareilly he gave it an AIIMS.
In Kerala, he threw CPM also in the mix. "The communists, too, have now adopted the Congress model," the PM said. He left the sentence at that, loaded but without pulling the trigger.
Rather than speak more, the PM swerved away to discredit the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc. "In Kerala, the Congress and the Communists are at each other's throats. The Congress calls the Chief Minister corrupt and fascist. The Communists in turn speak of the corruption during the Congress rule. But outside, in other states, they are BFF," Modi said and expanded his acronym: 'Best Friends Forever." "In Trivandrum, they speak one language and in Delhi, they speak another," he said. The PM urged Kerala voters to give both fronts a "befitting response" for what he termed their "forked-tongue hypocrisy".
Modi's presidential-style talk, where promises were made not in the name of his party but in his own name, was on display at the Stadium. He said 'ithu Modi-yude guarantee" (This is Modi's guarantee) five times in Malayalam during his speech.
Guarantee one: India will be the third largest economy in the world during his third term. Guarantee two: The corrupt will have to think a 100 times before doing anything wrong. Guarantee three: Over 25 crore people will be taken out of poverty during the third term. Guarantee four: Kerala's higher education sector will be reformed so that students from poor and middle-income families can also gain access. Guarantee five: Sunrise industries from semiconductor to green hydrogen will be opened up.
Modi spoke about his third term as though it was inevitable. "Now various discussions are going on in the country about Modi's third term," the PM said as though it was a reality not waiting to happen but has already emerged.
Still, at times, he gets back to campaign mode. He said Kerala had given BJP two-digit votes in 2019. "Now we are asking you to bless us with two-digit seats," Modi said.
The PM, however, did not announce the list of BJP candidates in Kerala as expected. This will be done only after the BJP Parliamentary Board convenes on February 29.
