New Delhi, Feb. 5: The BJP's "three S's" seemed to score self-goals for their party today, the last day of the Delhi poll campaign, the comments demoralising workers further.
The first off the block with the gaffes was BJP president Amit Shah, who dismissed Narendra Modi's high-decibel pitch for repatriating black money stashed away in foreign banks as a jumla - the Urdu word for a sentence uttered in a speech, in a manner of speaking -meant to give heft to an election speech.
Shah's statements were made in an interview with ABP News. He was asked: "What happened to the promise of bringing back black money and depositing Rs 15 lakh in every (citizen's) bank account?"
Shah's answer was this: "This was a jumla, black money can never be deposited in anyone's account. The Prime Minister's statement had an implication for the poor. The one on depositing Rs 15 lakh was a kahawat (metaphor). Chunavi bhashan mein vazan dalne ke liye kahi gayee baat hai (It was meant to lend heft to an election speech). Everybody understands the import (of Modi's statements), our opponents don't."
Shah's admission was a huge embarrassment to the BJP, which had built a big part of its political capital in the run-up to last year's Lok Sabha polls by peddling illusions of a massive inflow of illegal wealth from abroad, especially Switzerland. The sub-text was to revive memories of the Bofors saga centred on allegations that the beneficiaries of kickbacks in the multi-crore gun deal, primarily Rajiv Gandhi, had pickled away their money in Swiss bank lockers.
The Modi government later refused to give out the names of the alleged black money account-holders, saying such a revelation would contravene the covenants India had signed with the various countries where the big banks were located.
Later, Prime Minister Modi, in his monthly radio address last November, asserted that while recovering black money remained an "article of faith" for him, an accurate estimate was not possible.
The government's attitude - which even BJP sympathisers thought amounted to a "flip-flop" -became a talking point in the Delhi elections. The middle and upper classes, who the BJP counts among its core supporters, reportedly asked local campaigners discomfiting questions.
After Shah left many red-faced today, Shatrughan Sinha waded in, saying Modi should take the blame if the BJP lost the Delhi polls and not just the credit if it was won .
When ABP News asked if the verdict could be interpreted as a referendum on the Modi government, the actor and Bihar MP said: "A negative campaign is never desirable. This talk of fraudulent funds is nonsense. A victory or a defeat will be Modi's. On February 10, we will know who people have blessed....Modi is the captain."
In one stroke, Sinha - seen by some as a political gadfly - critiqued the BJP's last-leg campaign at a time it targeted the Aam Aadmi Party's "dubious" funding by "ghost" companies. Sinha's comments sparked talk on a subject nobody at this stage was willing to listen to: Modi could not escape culpability for a defeat because he led the Delhi battle from the front, even though Kiran Bedi was projected as chief minister.
The third self-goal today was netted by Subramanian Swamy, the perpetual individualist now in the BJP, when hetweeted his take on the Delhi battle. "Middle class voters still unenthusiastic...Concern growing," Swamy posted. He later added "the Delhi election will be decided by the middle class voter turnout."
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