Interview
MODI'S
VISION AND PERFORMANCE HAS CAUGHT IMAGINATION OF THE YOUTH: MURLIDHAR RAO
BJP National General Secretary
Murlidhar Rao was born in a farmer's family in Andhra. A product of the Osmania
University Hyderabad from where he did his M.Phil (Political Psychology), he
was also elected General Secretary of University Students Union there. He joined BJP only in 2009 where had a meteroric rise.
Initially attached to the National President Shri Rajnath Singh, in 2010 he was
made a national secretary in-charge of Tamilnadu and Kerala. In 2013 he was
elevated as national general secretary. He got his initiation into the RSS at a
very young age and later joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Led
by late Shri Dattopant Thengadi he was
one of those instrumental in the formation of Swadeshi Jagran Manch and became
its All-India Organising Secretary. He did a lot in taking up the causes of
kisan panchayats, beedi workers, farmers, fishermen, beedi mazdoors and weavers
in different States of the country. Amba
Charan Vashishth interviewed Shri Rao at his residence in Delhi last week.
Excerpts:
Now
that BJP has finally made its choice for Prime Minister in Shri Narender Modi,
how do you visualize the latest political scenario in the country?
Doubts, if any, in the mind of anyone outside
BJP about the mass appeal of Shri Narendra Modi throughout the nation are fast
evaporating, particularly after unprecedented success of his visits to
different parts of the country. His anointment as BJP’s PM candidate has geared
up the cadres, rejuvenated our sympathisers and also converted undecided voters
into our supporters.
The country as a whole wants this most,
corrupt, inefficient and shameless UPA government to go. BJP under the leadership
of Shri Narendra Modi will prove to be the game changer. People clearly seem to
have made that choice open. This is because the people have seen the
performance based track record of Gujarat under Shri Narendra Modi’s
leadership.
You
come from Andhra Pradesh. Do you think it will have an impact in your State
too?
Certainly.
The response of AP is also in tune with that of the rest of the country.
Congress has messed up in AP. The people feel let down on every front. This
impression emerged from the success of the Hyderabad youth rally of Shri Narendra Modi. The people of Andhra are clear
about the opportunistic and flip-flop policy of Congress on Telangana. They
have messed up the issue for political gains risking lives of thousands and putting
two sides into a conflict. Local leadership of the Congress is a divided house
fighting each other. BJP is surely going to gain in the state because of
negative sentiment against Congress and a positive feeling for performance of various
BJP ruled states and more particularly Gujarat under Shri Narendra Modi’s
leadership.
About
four years back Home Minister P. Chidambaram announced UPA's decision to carve
out a new State of Telangana, but later resiled. This time it was the AICC
which took a decision on Telengana. But for the last over two months nothing
seems to have moved in the UPA. What is your assessment of the situation?
Congress
has bungled on the issue of Telangana. It is the result of their insincerity
and dishonesty to the cause. Congress has not done proper homework and
preparation before announcing the bifurcation decision. They are trying to
appease people without actually delivering on their promises. With every
passing day it is becoming clear that Congress is cheating the people of both the
regions of Telangana and Seemandhra. They will have to pay a heavy price for
the same.
You
represent the youth in the Party. Will Shri Modi's anointment have an impact on
the young voters?
India
is a young nation or the nation of the Youth. The young generation has become
very conscious of their rights and is assertively articulating their
aspirations. With the level of exposure and information available, the youth
are capable of making comparisons . Shri Narendra Modi has caught the
imagination of the youth with his vision and proven performance not only in
Gujarat but all over the country by ably and openly talking about his idea of
Future India. He has focused on transforming governance to achieve the set national
goals – particularly those related to development - in time bound manner. The youth of the country are now impatient
for change and increasingly finding themselves nearer to BJP under Shri
Narendra Modi’s leadership than ever before.
BJP's
opponents had been making a fun of the NDA's hope to form a government at the
Centre in 2014 in view of the fact that BJP has almost zero representation in
200 odd Parliamentary seats in the South, West Bengal and North-Eastern States.
What would you say?
As I
said earlier also, the people across the country are fed up with the corrupt
and inefficient UPA rule. The states you are mentioning are no different. In
this situation I see substantial gains for BJP in these areas also. More
important is the fact that public opinion against Congress is building up day
by day in every part of the country and BJP-led NDA is emerging as the only
alternative. Therefore political formations involving the non-Congress parties
and BJP are very much visible.
As
part of its efforts to check the fiscal deficit, UPA government has put a ban
on fresh appointments and announced other measures. How do you feel about
these?
UPA has
not been able to deal with the problems faced by the economy in an innovative
way. They are unable to think of any idea to take the country out of the
situation they have pushed it into. To reduce deficits, steps like cutting down
avoidable imports like telecom and power equipments, edible oils etc. and
pushing domestic manufacturing so as to escalate exports etc. should have been
initiated on an immediate basis. The government prefers to bring foreign
investment instead of all such measures. But just by removing the caps on
foreign investment, foreign players are going to trust more a non-performing
government and invest in a significant way.
Can
you explain the reasons for a poor showing of BJP at the hustings in the South?
In
Karnataka during the recent assembly elections we could not do the needed
political consolidation based on the good governance of our government. But we
are now back to expanding our base and this time we will surely convert the
growing enthusiasm and support for BJP into winning seats. The people of
Karnataka will soon realize the need of bringing back BJP to power in the
state. In Tamil Nadu, the response to Shri L K Advani ji’s yatra to raise the issue of black money was
huge. Also the recent killings of BJP leaders by Jihadi forces have also generated
sympathy towards BJP and people are rallying around the idea of a non-Congress
government at the centre. The Narendra Modi factor will also benefit BJP
significantly. Surveys also demonstrate that there is an enormous response in
favour of BJP. In Andhra Pradesh, people are fed up with the state Congress government
and will respond very strongly against the flip-flop, opportunistic policy of UPA government on Telangana.
Realignment of political forces seems imminent.
You
have been a leading light of the Swadeshi movement for pretty long. How far do
you think the NDA's economic policies will be singed with the thinking of your
movement?
BJP is an
ideology based party committed to self-reliance. By and large, it has believed and tried to
follow the Swadeshi Model of economics. Even during NDA regime we saw it in
Doha when Murasoli Maran took a strong stand. I am pretty confident that in future
also the ideals of self-reliance will dominate economic thinking of BJP &
NDA.
Can
you enlighten what steps BJP is going to take to make those sections and areas
of the people to vote for you in the next election which had not done earlier?
We are
taking a lot of steps to remain in constant touch with all sections of the people
and align ourselves with their hopes and aspirations. We have very actively
conducted our campaigns to represent the genuine aspirations and needs of the
people like women, youth, SC, ST, weavers, fishermen and minorities. We will be
focusing through various campaigns on the first time voters. We are working
hard to make the different sections of people to understand that BJP is the
only party to espouse their feelings and address their concerns.
Would
you like to comment on what happened in Muzaffarnagar in UP recently?
Muzzafarnagar
riots are yet another example of use of divisive politics for narrow political
ends. It is a complete failure of the Samajvadi Party government of Akhilesh
Yadav. Congress led UPA at the Centre following the agenda of vote bank
politics has not given importance to addressing the riots and instead targeted
BJP leaders for narrow political gains. Even during the recent incidents on our
border inflicted by Pakistan, Congress preferred to target BJP which is their
political adversary instead of the national adversary.
Many
important Congress leaders were challenging BJP to name its prime ministerial
candidate in the past. But now that BJP has done, Congress is still not coming
out with the name of its own prime ministerial candidate. How do you look at
the situation?
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