“ALL OUR POTENTIAL CM FACES ARE BETTER THAN AKHILESH AND MAYAWATI”

At the end of a gruelling day addressing election meetings in the Terai and Awadh regions, AMIT SHAH took time out to speak to Deputy Editor UDAY MAHURKAR aboard a chartered flight from Lucknow to Delhi. Excerpts from an interview in which the BJP nationa

Q. Of late, you have been saying that the BJP will win a two-thirds majority. What if Uttar Pradesh turns out to be another Bihar for the BJP?

A. The situation in UP is very different from Bihar. In UP, we are seeking a vote against 15 years of SP and BSP misrule, with the promise of turning things around with a clear-cut roadmap if we come to power. In Bihar, we had been in government only for a few months at the Centre. In UP, the SP and BSP have played the politics of caste and community. So, there is anger among people. In contrast, Narendra Modi’s name has emerged as a symbol of good and decisive governance. People have unflinching faith in his promise to change the destiny of the nation.

Moreover, the NDA government has launched a series of genuine pro-poor programmes. It has given 5.9 million LPG connections under the Ujjwala Yojana in UP in less than a year covering over 25 million BPL families. Plus, the prime minister has been decisive on national security issues. India’s prestige has reached a new high in the international community. The youth are inspired by Modiji. Q. But Akhilesh too has emerged as a symbol of development...

A. Akhilesh’s development talk is cosmetic and mere eyewash. It was only after we won the 2014 Lok Sabha poll in UP handsomely on the basis of Modi’s development promises that Akhilesh awakened to the reality of development.

But the situation on the ground in UP exposes his development talk. There is no power in villages, farmers are not getting support prices, health services and education are in dire straits, roads across UP are a mess. To top it all, central government schemes that come under the concurrent list and need matching grants from state governments have been poorly implemented because of financial indiscipline and corruption in UP. The Centre’s crop insurance scheme couldn’t be implemented in UP because the SP government couldn’t decide on the insurance agency on time. Q. But isn’t the lack of a CM face affecting you? A. I don’t think so. Actually, all our potential CM faces are better than Akhilesh and Mayawati. Q. Which are those faces? A. They are in the public domain and I need not elaborate. Q. Who are you fighting in UP—the SP or BSP? A. The fight differs from region to region; what is certain is that we are the main contenders in every seat. Q. The SP-Congress alliance seems confident of winning...

A. By giving over 100 seats to the Congress, which has no base in UP, Akhilesh has already conceded defeat. The coming together of the SP and Congress is a coalition of two plundering families. One looted India, the other has looted UP. Q. You seem to be underplaying the role of demonetisation. Is it because you fear it might hit you adversely?

A. Not at all. The people of UP are with demonetisation. I am saying this on the basis of personal feedback from the remotest corners of the state. The common man saw it as a courageous move on the PM’s part to tackle black money. Q. Issues like the ‘exodus of Hindus’ from Kairana and your promise to shut down slaughterhouses directly affect the Muslims. Is the BJP playing ‘soft Hindutva’?

A. The indiscriminate slaughter of cattle in UP’s mechanised slaughterhouses has robbed farmers of their lifeline in years of drought. UP is the land of Ganga-Jamuna and a state fit for a white revolution. How can the slaughter of thousands of cattle be justified? This is not a communal issue but one of farmer empowerment. Similarly, one has to see the picture on the ground before questioning Kairana. Q. You have been citing Bundelkhand as an example to underline the difference between the quality of governance of your party and that of others...

A. Bundelkhand falls in two states—UP and Madhya Pradesh. Both Bundelkhands got a revival package from the Centre in 2009. The BJP government in MP used the package imaginatively to improve the lives of Bundelkhandis by giving them 24 hour power supply and creating good irrigation and agricultural potential. In UP, the Mayawati government and later the SP government failed to capitalise on the opportunity. Today, UP’s Bundelkhand is a dark alley, underdeveloped in every way, while MP’s Bundelkhand is progressing. Q. By announcing a loan waiver for small and marginal farmers, how different are you from your rivals if you too are distributing freebies for the sake of votes?

A. The BJP has proved time and again that it is a party with a difference. The Modi government didn’t make the slightest use of the 2017 budget to influence voters in the state elections, thus proving wrong the Opposition, which had sought a postponement of the budget on those grounds. In UP, small and marginal farmers are in dire straits following two years of drought during which the inept SP government couldn’t give them succour, not even the benefit of the assistance released by the Centre. Today, even if the government buys their produce and gives them money against the sugarcane crop within two weeks, they can’t come out of the hole they are in. So we wanted to give them a one-time benefit of a loan waiver. We have planned 40 dairies in UP as part of our vision to create a sustainable model. We might even bring the Gir cows from Gujarat to UP as part of this vision.