Congress's Strategy Against Modi and A Possible Effective Counter Strategy - (Contd.)

The game is hotting up. The battle lines are already drawn or are being drawn. Modi has set the cat among the pigeons, and is daring to take the fight to the opponent's territory. In our view, these are good developments. Also, now is the time for strategizing for the immediate future while remaining consistent with the long term goals. 

After the puppy and burqa remarks, friends and well-wishers of Modi and BJP are suggesting that Modi is unnecessarily stirring the hornet's nest by raising the pitch on exposing Secularism in stead of focusing on Development and Freedom from Corruption. Modi will do well to recall the quote (attributed to the French General Claude Louis Hector De Villars, Voltaire, Proverb): God save me from my friends. I can protect myself from my enemies. Anyone who has known people who have friends like Sudheendra Kulkarni and Brajesh Mishra would know the import of this quote very deeply.

In all this hullabaloo and din, there is another grave danger. The minions of Congress will repeatedly challenge with a view to draw Modi and BJP out, the media will portray a picture that Modi and BJP will be winning, but that will be with a devious design to make Modi over-confident and unguarded. This is where Modi and BJP would do well to learn from P V Narasimha Rao. He spoke very little, but he made his enemies cry tears of blood.

The very fact that the Media and the Congress are desperate to draw Modi into a fight betrays their shaken confidence and lurking fear. Fan the fires that shake their confidence and enhance their fears. Note that however much the Jhas and the Ketkars shout, Modi's enemies know that they can not make people doubt that Modi will indeed deliver Development and Freedom from Corruption. Thus they want to try the deceptive insinuation, and that is, by portraying Modi as Dangerous.

Those who live by and thrive in corruption will surely find Modi dangerous. They will be with Congress and the crypto-Congress (the Third-rate front). Modi's enemies will try to increase the number of people who should find Modi dangerous. Recall DogVijay's statement where he warned that riots might be engineered. This is despite the fact that the bloodiest riots have taken place under non-BJP governments. BJP will do well to emphasize that Modi is indeed very dangerous, especially those whose interests are entrenched in corruption and appeasement politics.

Also, Modi and BJP will do well to remember the following: Anti-Hindus will most likely vote against you, therefore the need is to consolidate the Anti-anti-Hindus and the Neutrals. The strategy of Modi's enemies is to scare the neutrals. Therefore Modi should aim at gaining the support of the neutrals, but without losing on his Anti-anti-Hindus support base.

For example, Modi must remember that he could be having a large hidden-following among Congress vote-bank, and that is Muslim-women. There must be significant number of Muslim women who want to free themselves from the tyranny of Islam, and the shackles of creeping Sharia. If Modi can tap into this resource, he can gain fifty percent of Muslim votes easily. Recall that in the Shah Bano case Congress appeased Muslim-Men at the expense of Muslim-Women.

This is where Subramanian Swamy can play a pivotal role. He can convincingly put forth the message that Secularism which is  under putative threat from the bogeyman of Hindu-Communalism, is in reality a ploy to mask the clear and present threat of Islam. The thing is, except rabid anti-Hindus, all reasonable people would naturally find Islam with its Creeping Sharia a much bigger and perceptible danger than the presently non-existent but actually benign and desirable Hindu-Communalism. Similarly, as Congress portrays anyone not opposed to Modi as communal, BJP will do well to portray all those who oppose Modi as favoring Congress and therefore as being pro-corruption and pro-appeasement.

The key is to speak and to remain silent on your own terms and to use your own terms of reference. Language is the key. Speak your own tongue.