Historical political cartoons

Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared the Supreme Court’s dismissal of a plea challenging a Special Investigation Team (SIT) report giving a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Gujarat riots case, as “historic” and one that also “exposed the conspiracies” by “certain parties, journalists and NGOs” to malign the Prime Minister.

He said this while moving the political resolution at the BJP’s national executive meet being held in Hyderabad over the weekend. The resolution was seconded by Karnataka and Assam Chief Ministers B.S. Bommai and Himanta Biswa Sarma.

It was Mr. Sarma who briefed the media on the resolution and said that Mr. Shah spoke about how “Prime Minister Modi had the poison in the manner of God Shiva and came out of the test shining like gold.”

Mr. Shah, said Mr. Sharma, compared Mr. Modi’s “respect for the Constitution in presenting himself before the SIT without a fuss” to the recent protests by Congress as the Enforcement Directorate questioned Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi.

‘Era of the BJP’

”He also said that dynastic politics, castesim and politics of appeasement were the greatest sins that were holding back the country and that it was BJP that was doing politics of performance and development, as demonstrated by the voting back of BJP governments at the recently held Assmbly polls in Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur,” said Mr. Sarma. In fact, this was the reponse of Mr. Sarma on every question put to him by the media on the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur by two persons allegedly over an insult to Islam and also the Supreme Court’s obiter dicta against former party spokesperson Nupur Sharma. “At a platform like the BJP’s national executive, we were discussing macro issues, dynastic politics, casteism and appeasement politics as the greatest sins holding back India,” said Mr. Sarma. He quoted Mr. Shah as saying that the country was to be a “vishwa guru” soon and that the BJP was to be around for at least another 30-40 years and it would be the “Era of the BJP”.

Azamgarh bypoll and ‘Sab ka Saath’

On questions on whether Mr. Modi had made an intervention, asking that there must be an outreach towards the minority community, when BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh was briefing the executive about the party’s victory in the recently concluded bypolls in Samajwadi Party stronghold of Azamgarh, Mr. Sarma said that the “aim of all the policies and programmes of the Modi government was ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas”.

There were reports that Mr. Modi said that the results in Azamgarh, where there was a strong minority voter base, should get the party to anlayse what was the impact of the government’s welfare policies among the deprived sections within the minority Muslim community. He felt that the BJP could connect with the marginalised sections of minority communities on the basis of development politics, rather than identity politics.

Giving a clarion call to Bharatiya Janata Party workers to make India “shreshtha” (great), Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that the party’s goal should be “fulfilment of all” as against the opposition’s politics of appeasement.

Addressing the BJP national executive meeting in Hyderabad, Prime Minister Modi also said the country was fed up with dynastic politics and dynastic political parties and added that it would be difficult for such parties to survive long.

At a press conference, senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad referred to various points raised by the prime minister in his speech.

He outlined the evolution of the BJP and explained “the duty we owe to the country and its people”.

Referring to Hyderabad as “Bhagyanagar”, Modi said Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel laid the foundation of “Ek Bharat” (United India) by integrating the region into the Union and it is the BJP’s historical obligation to build ‘Shreshtha Bharat’.

Without naming anyone, Modi said the parties which ruled India for long are in terminal decline now. “We should not mock them but learn from their mistakes,” Prasad quoted Modi as having told the gathering.

The prime minister also hit back at opposition parties for questioning the BJP’s democratic credentials and asked what is the status of democracy within their organisations.

Modi asked BJP workers to undertake a ‘Sneh Yatra’ and reach out to all sections of society.

The Bhagyalakshmi Temple, abutting the south-east minaret of the historic Charminar, witnessed saffron whorls of political activity with several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and stalwarts arriving, with the latest being Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The temple has become a locus of political activity of sorts since the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls of 2020.

“Yogi ji had come in the morning and did the aarti and was here for around 15 minutes,” said Bhagyalakshmi Temple trustee Shashikala, who was with the Uttar Pradesh CM during his visit. “He was accompanied by Bandi Sanjay, Raja Singh, Dr K Laxman and other leaders.”

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s visit was amidst a significant increase in constabulary, and surrounded by a phalanx of security personnel.

While the temple has been in focus on other occasions, the GHMC polls in 2020 brought the spotlight on it with the BJP State president Bandi Sanjay making a significant appearance there with a bevy of his supporters. Since then, the BJP has been attempting to bring the temple into the political discourse.

“The popularity of the temple during Diwali is worth seeing. Having said that, we are also seeing that after the BJP won several seats in the GHMC elections, people’s faith here has increased,” the temple trustee opined.

But the nature of the temple, on a few occasions, has stirred controversy. In 2012, tension gripped the Old City after there was talk of its alleged expansion, an allegation that was triggered during changing of tarpaulin sheets. The High Court gave the go-ahead for the changing of these sheets to the authorities. Later, several All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen legislators were detained.

The Archaeological Survey of India, the Central government agency which is the custodian of Charminar, in different responses to Right to Information requests filed by activists and heritage enthusiasts, described the temple as “unauthorised construction” and that it came into existence after “taking over of Hyderabad by the government of India,” a position which Hindu groups oppose.