The BJP’s attempts to make Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the favourite punching bag could be counter-productive. This is because the saffron party is on the defensive on the corruption issue in Karnataka and lacks a leader with a clean image to fight the battle against corruption.
The Congress is not worried about the BJP’s plan to target its top leaders mainly because the saffron party has been lacking a clean image and conviction on this issue.
The BJP had earlier launched a personalised campaign against Dr Singh in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections saying that he is a “weak Prime Minister”. It not only lost the electoral battle, but even failed to retain its numbers in the House.
The strategy of “personal attack” has never been appreciated by Indian people, said a senior leader and a member of Parliament. Ram Manohar Lohia had made personal attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan made Indira Gandhi the target of his attack, V.P. Singh followed the same tactics against Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao involved Congress leaders in “hawala” and the personal attacks between Sitaram Kesri and H.D. Deve Gowda finally led to the fall of the UF government, the leader pointed out.
The Congress can use what the former chief of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Balraj Madhok, former BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya, former chief ministers Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti spoke about the BJP leaders and their “chaal, charitra and chehara”.
The Congress on Monday went on the offensive against the BJP over its frontal attack on Mrs Gandhi and Dr Singh, accusing the latter of personalising politics and degrading the quality of public life.
In a tough message to the BJP, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said, “Does the BJP want an investigation into allegations levelled against its leaders from time to time by the very persons who were at some point of time close to them... Nobody knows who will stand where if fingers are raised at the top leadership of any party by linking distant relations.”
He also advised the BJP to “mend its language and the style of politics”, saying this will do a great deal of good to the country as “larger parties also have larger responsibilities in a democracy”.
“After remaining in government (the Centre) for six years, this trait of the BJP is not good. They are not being able to have patience for UPA 2 to complete its four years in office,” he said.
At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tewari went hammer and tongs against the Opposition party, dubbing its political resolution adopted at Guwahati a “bundle of lies” fit to be dumped into a “political dustbin”.
“The BJP’s resolution is a bundle of lies. It smacks of frustration and the only right place for it is political dustbin,” he said.
He further said, “It’s high time the BJP learns that the way to do politics is not calumny campaign and innuendoes.”