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May 18, 2009

Jai Ho

Rahul Ji with Shaktisinh Gohil

The verdict is out. Positive politics have won over politics of negativism, politics of hatred and plainly speaking, petty politics.

The country has decided and reposed faith in us. The Congress, is the right choice. I salute all Indians for the Sensible Choice they have made.

A lot of people kept on asking me about Gujarat. The BJP was all over. predicting. We were flooded with Narendra Modi bragging(that’s usual, isn’t it) about how Gujarat will ensure victory for NDA to big and small time Modi clones claiming unprecedented number of seats for the party. The Gujarat BJP president Purshottam Rupala made it clear that his party will get minimum 20 seats in Gujarat, and even named the six seats they would not get. Till yesterday morning even when counting was going on, Modi’s managers in different sectors of society were doing an overkill, talking of BJP and NDA victory.

But Modi’s black magic boomeranged. The BJP and NDA has been nearly wiped out from all over India. In Gujarat too, the Modi math was skewed up (like most of his other things?) No wonder, the BJP’s star campaigner was no where to be found.

Well, just like most of you, I too saw shri Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu graciously accepting defeat. Even Advaniji who gave such a strong fight(in India and Gujarat both for in Gujarat too, the senior BJP leader faced a remarkable fight with Congress’ Suresh Patel) called up Manmohan Singh ji and Sonia ji to congratulate them. All the BJP leaders accepted collective responsibility of the defeat. But Modi ji was no where present.

Modi can be and is a good sales man. Like those those door to door efficient sales guys who can do good marketing. Modi was the foremost to market himself in the Loksabha elections. We were told of how many miles he flew, how many meetings he attended, how he is the star campaigner. Modesty and Modi don’t go along well together but still we do remember how he went and held Nitish Kumar’s hand in Ludhiana and tried to give a picture of unity.

The same Modi who boasted and bragged non stop hid himself in his house and refused to meet anyone or react on the BJP defeat. Well, collective responsibility is an alien concept to this narcissist.

I remember, as a Congressman I was hurt when he made snide remarks. He mocks at people. He laughed and ridiculed Manmohanji’s paghdi, called Congress a budhiya, Priyanka Gandhi a gudiya and Rahulji a fish in an aquarium. Well, Modi must realize that the same small aquarium fish has gobbled up the so called big Crocodile that he made himself to be.

The true significance of the Congress victory lies in UP which Rahul ji has turned around so awesomely for us. But there are important lessons from Gujarat as well. Modi magic has not worked here as per the black magician’s desire.

I do not want to stoop low to comment and pass snide remarks but I hope Mr Modi realizes that it is very easy to harp on negativities. Just by screaming, screeching or repeating lies frequently or mimicking seniors, one does not become a leader. Modi runs sanskar dham on the outskirts of Ahmedabad where he runs his parallel Hindutva laboratory. Now that he does not have to fly around star campaigning, maybe he can spend some meaningful time at his sanskar dham and try to imbibe some sanskar himself! or is his sanskardham also a place where there is asanskari activities going on in typical Modisque manner?!

I am little surprised at the delay but I am glad that politicians of different colours and hues have now started coming forward to offer their comments on Modi. Chandan Mitra told the nation last night of how Modi was to be blamed for NDA failure. Today, Sharad Yadav has emphasized that putting up Modi’s name in the prime ministerial slot hurt the NDA. By the way, do you know who put Modi’s name in this slot? Modi, himself!!!!

Coming back to Congress’ amazing victory,the Youth especially has swung in our favour. The Congress will try to ensure that we don’t let the youth down. We will follow and take guidance from Rahulji to turn around Gujarat like he turned around UP.

As the Leader of the Opposition in Gujarat, I promise to give more and more chance to the youth in different aspects.

We Indians are Global Citizens. Gujaratis especially are known for their entrepreneurship and global pursuits. We cannot afford to be short sighted, acrimonious and intolerant.

The Congress stands for true secularism, positive politics and empowerment especially of youth, women and the under privileged.

If India wants to surge ahead and be a super power, we will have to be progressive in our approach and attitude. We cannot take on the world with our blinkers on. We have to look forward. The people of India have voted the Congress because we are a forward looking party. We stand for secularism and equal opportunities.

I thank the people of India for reposing faith in us. I thank people of Gujarat for being so much in sync with the world and not getting carried away by Modi’s hollow rhetoric. Thank you. I salute you for your sensible choice. The Congress will not let you down.

This is my first blog so please bear with this length!