Vijay Kumar Singh was a 55-year-old BJP leader who died during the party’s protest march in Patna on Thursday. The BJP has blamed this on the alleged brutality of the police. Singh, who was the BJP’s Jehanabad district general secretary, like many, took to the streets of Patna to protest against the alleged scam in recruitment in Bihar, where the JDU-RJD is in power.
But there seems to be a pattern – whether it is Bihar in the east, Karnataka in the south, or Madhya Pradesh in the north – the BJP has gone on the offensive or is preparing to go on the offensive. Interestingly, just a few days back, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had come to Bhopal for a few hours, where he asked the state’s top leadership, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, to ‘fight aggressively’.
anarchy in bihar
The Bihar BJP on Thursday launched a massive agitation following the Nitish Kumar cabinet’s decision to scrap the domicile clause for applicants. This effectively opens up Jobs for applicants across India. As per the tone of the protest, Thursday’s agitation was sharper, more aggressive and vibrant as the BJP targeted Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
While thousands of BJP workers had gathered, it was one of the rare occasions when the entire state leadership was leading the way. BJP MPs, MLAs and MLCs including former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi along with workers faced water cannon and ‘lathis’ by Bihar Police. State BJP president Samrat Chowdhary told reporters that opposition parties are staging protests to hold the government accountable, especially Tejashwi Yadav, who had promised “10 lakh jobs”.
The BJP organized what the saffron party called the “Vidhan Sabha March”. Meanwhile, the MLAs who decided to stay inside the House raised provocative slogans like ‘Raddi CM Gaddi Chhod’ (incompetent Chief Minister should give up his post).
There was complete lawlessness on the streets, where the police used ‘lathis’ liberally. Many people including Modi were detained. There were several instances where BJP supporters countered the lathi charge of the police with a stick that had the BJP flag on it.
While Singh’s death has virtually put the Nitish Kumar government on the backfoot, the BJP has harnessed public sentiment and played an aggressive opposition, worrying Kumar’s JDU and Yadav’s RJD in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Can
Karnataka counterattack
This May, the BJP lost Karnataka to the Congress in what many consider a major psychological defeat ahead of state assembly elections and next year’s Lok Sabha elections. But the BJP rallied surprisingly quickly and did what is expected of a strong opposition – took to the streets and saw the government on its feet. The BJP kept the pressure on the Siddaramaiah government raising one issue at a time.
In early June, the BJP increased the aggression of its protests in Bengaluru and other districts of Karnataka against the proposed power tariff hike in the state. The BJP alleged that the Congress government had imposed several conditions on the five pre-poll guarantees, making it difficult for residents to avail the benefits. Calling the Congress government a ‘Hitler government’, the BJP accused it of ‘betraying’ the people.
Not only did BJP hit the streets on this issue, but Mysuru MP and BJP leader Pratap Simha had told people not to pay electricity bills from June 1 if their consumption is less than 200 units. He announced that he would hold protests in the Mysuru-Kodagu region demanding the implementation of the free electricity scheme.
If that was one early bouncer that the Congress-led Karnataka government managed to dodge, there was another. A Jain monk, the head of a monastery at Hirekodi in Belagavi district, was recently hacked to pieces and his body parts were dumped in a defunct borewell. BJP grabbed this issue. BJP MLAs had recently staged a sit-in demonstration near the Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha against this brutal murder. Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai himself led the protest, making it a ‘law and order’ issue. Realizing that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were on the backfoot on an issue involving a religious monk, the BJP launched a campaign in Karnataka demanding a CBI probe.
Less than two months after the BJP’s defeat in the state, he is once again in an aggressive avatar on the streets of Karnataka.
midnight alert in madhya pradesh
Facing unfavorable polls in Madhya Pradesh, Amit Shah decided to visit the state on Tuesday at 24 hours’ notice. News18 has learned that till Monday, even top leaders of the poll-bound state – including the chief minister – were not aware of Shah’s plans. Shah reached Bhopal at around 8.30 am on Tuesday and held a closed room meeting for two and a half hours.
While he addressed many issues such as the leadership of the organization or the face of the chief ministerial post, he had one grievance which he was not shy about sharing. Shah was not happy that the BJP was not very “aggressive” in its campaign.
While BJP is in the opposition in the last two states, it is the ruling party in MP. Despite this, his message was clear – get aggressive. It is in this context that he asked to start preparations for ‘Vijay Sankalp Abhiyan’, a comprehensive initiative of the BJP, which is carried out with full force before elections. Shah has asked the Madhya Pradesh unit to keep the outline of the program ready and he will return to the state on the 30th of this month to take it forward. Shah also directed to counter more strongly any allegation made by the Congress ahead of the elections.
At a macro level, it is clear that the BJP has resorted to retaliatory action through a mere tweet or a weak press conference. In the last two months, across India, it has chosen aggression over cowardice and streets over auditoriums.