[Bregs]
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Sep 16, 2013, 12.00 AM IST
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Naming Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the next national elections is a risk for the BJP, because his 2002 associations may prove a greater liability than his development record can transcend. But balanced against this peril is the possibility that Modi would energise and expand BJP's base, and then this groundswell of support would spread among enough Indians to make a success of Mission 272+, the moniker that appeared on his website within hours of Friday's elevation. While Modi has been playing down his Hindu hardliner image and playing up his record of economic success for some time now, the job at hand is to convince the nation that he can do for it what he has done for Gujarat, minus the riots. This will not be easy.
In terms of building a pan-India connect, Modi isn't short of negative material given the UPA's many corruption scandals and governance failures. But if he were to stop at this, he would only be continuing BJP's central shortcoming so far to challenge the Centre by little else than parliamentary disruptions. So he must also lay out a positive agenda. He must spearhead a BJP plan for reviving the economy.
Gujarat's record lends him great credibility on this front. The state's power sector was crippled when Modi first became CM, but now runs into a surplus, offering close to 24x7 electricity even to farmers. Freebies have been in short supply but rural roads and irrigation have improved dramatically. So Modi should campaign across India with the promise of galvanising power generation and agricultural growth. And he should boldly go where the political class fears to tread: push economic reforms instead of embracing the stagflationary status quo. Deliver these fixes, and you deliver prosperity to India.
Now named for the nation's top job by a national party, Modi is an OBC and was a tea vendor. This is a dream run that deserves selling, saying to all our youth that hard work and merit can put everything within their reach irrespective of caste, class and community. What he must set aside is communal targeting, which runs dangerously amok in India as has most recently been shown by the Muzaffarnagar riots. Modi mustn't burn any more bridges, only build them.
Source: Modi campaign should be premised on growth, so every tea vendor can be upwardly mobile - The Times of India
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Naming Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the next national elections is a risk for the BJP, because his 2002 associations may prove a greater liability than his development record can transcend. But balanced against this peril is the possibility that Modi would energise and expand BJP's base, and then this groundswell of support would spread among enough Indians to make a success of Mission 272+, the moniker that appeared on his website within hours of Friday's elevation. While Modi has been playing down his Hindu hardliner image and playing up his record of economic success for some time now, the job at hand is to convince the nation that he can do for it what he has done for Gujarat, minus the riots. This will not be easy.
In terms of building a pan-India connect, Modi isn't short of negative material given the UPA's many corruption scandals and governance failures. But if he were to stop at this, he would only be continuing BJP's central shortcoming so far to challenge the Centre by little else than parliamentary disruptions. So he must also lay out a positive agenda. He must spearhead a BJP plan for reviving the economy.
Gujarat's record lends him great credibility on this front. The state's power sector was crippled when Modi first became CM, but now runs into a surplus, offering close to 24x7 electricity even to farmers. Freebies have been in short supply but rural roads and irrigation have improved dramatically. So Modi should campaign across India with the promise of galvanising power generation and agricultural growth. And he should boldly go where the political class fears to tread: push economic reforms instead of embracing the stagflationary status quo. Deliver these fixes, and you deliver prosperity to India.
Now named for the nation's top job by a national party, Modi is an OBC and was a tea vendor. This is a dream run that deserves selling, saying to all our youth that hard work and merit can put everything within their reach irrespective of caste, class and community. What he must set aside is communal targeting, which runs dangerously amok in India as has most recently been shown by the Muzaffarnagar riots. Modi mustn't burn any more bridges, only build them.
Source: Modi campaign should be premised on growth, so every tea vendor can be upwardly mobile - The Times of India