A combative Congress on Wednesday rose to dismiss adverse opinion polls and the Narendra Modi juggernaut as a case of manufactured consent on the lines of India Shining in 2004 and Advani-as-PM in the 2009 general elections.
On a day the BJP launched its national campaign with Narendra Modi calling the Congress out, the ruling party put its best foot forward.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, flanked by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, calmly recalled the BJP’s frenzied campaign in the previous two general elections and the results that returned the Congress to power.
The nation is poised once again to reject the “divisive and exclusive” ideology personified by Modi, they said while releasing the party’s election manifesto.
Rahul’s biggest assertion was with regard to the battleground State of Uttar Pradesh, where he said the opinion polls are “100 per cent wrong”.
“The BJP’s balloon will burst in UP just as the India Shining campaign evaporated when the results were declared in 2004.
“I have a certain understanding about Uttar Pradesh and I can tell you that the results there will be surprising. It was being predicted last time (in 2009) that the Congress will get five seats in UP but we got much more. I am confident that we will repeat our 2009 performance in UP,” said Rahul, who is contesting from Amethi in UP for a third term.
When asked whether he agrees with the PM's recent statement that Modi will be a “disaster” as Prime Minister, he said: “The Prime Minister is a very wise man. I agree with him on most issues.
“What I will add here is that the issue is not about an individual or personal likes and dislikes. The Congress is fighting an ideology which is exclusive and divisive.”
Sonia said her experience with the opinion polls is that they are invariably unreliable. “I am afraid I do not have much faith in opinion polls,” she said in answer to a question about the polls predicting a rout for the Congress. “In 2004, they said that the Congress story is finished. But the story of the Congress continued. Similarly, in 2009, we were told we were going to lose. But not only did we win, we got a larger number of seats. So, I am quite confident that we will do well this year as well. Our people are ready to fight and we will win,” she said.
On the Varanasi seat, for which the Congress is yet to declare a candidate, Sonia said: “Most certainly we are going to challenge the Varanasi seat. Why should we not? But we have not yet decided on the candidate.”
Imminent dangerAlthough not naming Modi, the Congress President stressed on the imminent danger his election presents.
“The 2014 poll is not only about programmes, policies, planning and economic development but also to preserve the Constitutional structure of the country envisaged by our freedom fighters.
“We will fight in these elections, not for uniformity but for unity. We will struggle for an India which is secular and inclusive and does not pit one against the other.
“We will struggle for an India in which religion, region and language are not important and in which all are considered Indians,” she said.
The usually taciturn Manmohan too was quick to remind the BJP that dubbing him a “weak PM”, an epithet constantly used by LK Advani in 2009, found no resonance with the voters in 2009.
I did my job: PM“I have been called a weak PM and I went on to finish the job assigned to me.
“Now they tell me that I have presided over the most corrupt Government whereas the fact is that not only have individuals been acted against but institutional responses have been put in place to safeguard against corruption,” he said, adding that he has proved the BJP wrong in the past 10 years.
The PM said the Congress could provide a new vision of an inclusive society to the country.
Criticising the ‘Gujarat model of development’, he said growth by itself is not sufficient to ensure inclusiveness if it does not address concerns with regard to health and education. Comparing the growth rates of the previous NDA regime and 10 years of UPA rule, he said his Government’s record is vastly superior. “We have provided more growth than the NDA regime,” he said.