Back to basics: BJP will focus on ‘garibi hatao’

The Narendra Modi government may have criticised Indira Gandhi’s election-winning slogan of “Garibi Hatao”, but on the eve of completing two years in office, the focus of the government and the BJP is on “empowering the poor”.

On Wednesday, the BJP launched a propaganda blitzkrieg to highlight the Modi government’s achievements with the mantra “Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai — Aage Bad Raha Hai”.

“Abolish poverty” or “Garibi Hatao” was the theme of Indira Gandhi’s 1971 campaign, in which she tried to woo the rural and urban poor. With polls approaching in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, the Modi government is targeting the same segment, with a little more élan.

The pamphlets and PowerPoint presentation drew attention to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s steps to “empower the poor”. His statement that “Our government is for the poor... we are opening the doors of progress and opportunities for the poor... we’ll make them the driving force in the journey of transforming India” was the main focus.

Top BJP leaders, including general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, finance minister Arun Jaitley, urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, railway minister Suresh Prabhu, defence minister Manohar Parrikar and BJP president Amit Shah, were at the function to kick off the “Vikas Parv” campaign, that will continue for the next 21 days. Minister of state for commerce Nirmala Sitharaman hosted the PowerPoint presentation.

“It’s an approachable government”, she said, adding that it was also “transparent”. As the slides on “A New Governance Paradigm” played on the screen, the minister added:

“There’s not even a whisper of corruption in two years.”

The next target was farmers. The slide spelt it out: “Prosperous farmers for a prosperous India.”

The BJP is also zooming in on the youth and women. Ms Sitharaman highlighted the government’s steps to secure and empower women and how it was “unleashing an era of youth-led development”. Under UPA, she noted, the country s youth were despondent, now, she said, they have “hope”.

Announcing coming events, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said that from Thursday onwards MPs and other leaders would spread out across the nation, hold press conferences, spend nights in their constituencies and carry out an unprecedented mass-contact exercise. After the presentation, BJP bosses interacted with the media. The leaders were upbeat after the historic Assam victory and indicated that the party was getting battle ready for Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.