Getting provoked by rivals' remarks is a BJP Syndrome | N.D.Sharma

Published on 12-12-2007 In National

Viewed 1268 times

Getting provoked by rivals' remarks is a BJP Syndrome

Robert T. Mawhinney, of Saint John in Canada, who designed the first prototype of a dumper, as he was in need of a vehicle for carrying bulk material, and got it patented in 1920, could not have fancied that his invention would one day be used as a powerful political weapon in a distant country to unhinge a chief minister.

That was exactly what the dumper did to Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Never known for using harsh language against his adversaries, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister started blurting out expressions such as "vo paagal ho gaye hain; main unaki chhati par moong daloonga" (they, the Congressmen, have become insane; I'll make them writhe in agony).

His friends say that Chauhan was provoked by the repeated references to dumper by Congressmen. That raises an interesting question. Why only the BJP people get provoked into doing something they say they did not want to? Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi also says that he was provoked by Sonia Gandhi into delivering the communally offensive speech.

This susceptibility to getting provoked among the BJP activists is not a recent phenomenon. In 1971, the party workers (it was then called the Bharatiya Jana Sangh) were taking out a mashal jaloos (torchlight procession) in support of party candidate Kanwarlal Gupta in Sadar Lok Sabha constituency of Delhi. Some kids were playing near the route in Paharganj area. As they saw the lights, some of them shouted "Indira Gandhi aee hai, naee roshni laee hai" (the Congress slogan during the 1971 elections). The Jana Sangh men were so provoked by the name of Indira Gandhi that they poured the burning mashals onto the kids. Half a dozen of them, aged three to seven years, had to be hospitalised with severe burn injuries.

This provocation seizes the BJP men generally during election campaigns. Shivraj Singh Chauhan was also campaigning in Khargone when he was provoked by the dumper references. (The by-election for the Khargone Lok Sabha seat, due on December 12, has been caused by the disqualification of BJP member Krishna Murari Moghe for holding simultaneously an office of profit).

Dumper became an object of love for Congressmen after they discovered that a few dumpers registered in the name of Chauhan's wife Sadhana Singh were leased out to the JP Associates which has a cement factory in Rewa district. Their love for dumper turned into reverence when the Lokayukta police registered an FIR, on the orders of a special court, and started investigation if the dumpers were "gifted" by the JP Associates to Sadhana Singh as quid pro quo for "illegal' favours done to the company by the chief minister.

Needless to say, not only the Congress MLAs, but other Opposition MLAs also, could not find a vehicle more comfortable than a dumper to carry them to the Assembly when its winter session started. The police enforced prohibitory orders and installed barricades around the Assembly building for the duration of the session.

However, seeing so many Opposition MLAs, including a former chief minister and several former ministers, sitting or standing on the dumper, the police officers meekly permitted the vehicle to pass through the barricades.

No sooner had the MLAs entered the Assembly building than a police inspector caught hold of the driver of the dumper, beat him up mercilessly and booked him for various offences such as being without proper papers, taking the heavy vehicle in a prohibited area and carrying passengers in a dumper in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, among others. That, though, was a minor aberration; surely, not worth a bother for the honourable Opposition MLAs.

After all, the police were only doing their duty which is to protect those in power from any attack, whether physical or symbolic, and beat up the innocent people mercilessly, if necessary. They performed their duty more admirably in Khargone when the Congressmen went in a dumper to campaign for the party candidate. The police promptly seized the dumper, detained its driver for some "special treatment" while asking the campaigners to find out a vehicle not embarrassing to those in power in the State.

But Chauhan has become so allergic to the sight of a dumper, even its replica, that he loses his calm when he sees one. The Opposition had hit upon this weakness of the chief minister early enough. After travelling in a dumper for the first day, they found that this was not enough as the dumper could not be taken inside the House and would have to be left outside (the beating of the driver for their sake was not a serious matter for them).

So the next day, all the Opposition members had in their hands toy sized dumpers when they entered the House. That turned out to be like a red rag to chief minister Chauhan and his colleagues in the treasury benches. The Assembly session, which was to last a fortnight, was over in three days.

Chauhan has had an impeccable reputation for discharging his social obligations. But his failure to attend the last rites of veteran RSS leader Uttamchand Israni surprised his friends and foes alike. Israni, who had died in Bhopal at the age of 83, was the most prominent RSS leader in the region and had a hand in the growth of the BJP also. Chauhan, it was rumoured, wanted to evade the RSS leaders, who had come to attend Israni's funeral, lest they should ask him uncomfortable questions about the dumper. The RSS has, even otherwise, expressed its unhappiness with the government being enveloped in so many scandals.

As the dumper started fading out of the newspaper columns, a website www.dumper.in made a sudden appearance which became an instant hit. It contains mostly the published material about the dumper controversy, but also has a large number of photographs of Chauhan in different moods and with various people, his association with some of whom has not made the chief minister particularly popular in the Sangh Parivar.

0 Comments

Blog

Print