‘The Prime Minister’s high trust quotient is BJP’s strength’

ON THE MORNING OF May 16, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is cheerfully busy. At Delhi airport’s Terminal 4, as the engines roar to life and his Falcon aircraft taxis along the runway, he is still talking on the phone, giving instructions and listening to his select team of bureaucrats and party members, while a small group of them accompanies him on his whirl­wind campaign tour.

Shah is only too familiar with this life in the fast lane, exud­ing confidence and commanding respect. Dressed in traditional attire, the BJP heavy­weight is forever ready to propel the third successive campaign for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is seeking re-election in his 10th year in office. As the aircraft acceler­ates down the tarmac and climbs steadily into the sky, he is ready to talk to Open. But he makes sure he is on the phone with his men until the signal vanishes.

We are with Shah, flying first to Darbhanga from where we will fly by helicopter to Samastipur and Madhubani, all in Bihar. Shah shares with us his thoughts on hot political topics whenever he finds the time, multitasking the BJP campaign in this election season. His mission is not just to ensure huge gains for his party and Modi but to also prioritise governance to fetch maximum benefits for the common folk and the marginalised.

Notably, he calibrates and recalibrates his strategy and itinerary to leave nothing to chance, even if it means symbolic visits to motivate party cadre. The Union home minister speaks to Open all through the two-day trip while at the same time keeping his ear to the ground, relentlessly staying con­nected with BJP local leaders and his associates. We return with him on the chopper to Darbhanga and then flyto Srinagar on the aircraft. The next day, we fly from Srinagar to Fursatganj in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Shah tells us midway how he and the Modi government have brought normalcy back to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) besides re­placing dynastic politics with democratic processes in the former state. Withdrawing privileges, which included payments, to the former elites meant lowering entry levels for political aspirants in J&K. On his 11th day in office in Modi’s first term, all such perks were reversed by Shah.

While in Srinagar, Shah meets several delegations of 250 people each. These delegations are from the Gujjar, Bakarwal, Pahadi, and Sikh communities. They meet Shah at the Lalit Palace hotel. Shah, meanwhile, says that his party will contest all the Assembly seats in the state. He says, this time round, BJP is not contesting in the three crucial Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar, Baramulla, and Anant­nag-Rajouri but will work towards defeating the grandees of dy­nasty politics in the fray. He wants to batter electorally the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

According to him, his party in J&K will back likeminded party cadres as a tactical approach to unseat dynasts. This BJP move is likely to fetch expected results. For instance, in Baramulla, it has put former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in a bad spot against Sajjad Lone of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference.

Open travels with Shah on Day Two by chopper from Fursat­ganj to Unchahar in UP where Manoj Pandey, the rebel Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA, recently joined BJP. Shah’s visit is meant to re-emphasise his support for the new recruit, a key Brahmin leader in the party. In Rae Bareli, his party has fielded Dinesh Pratap Singh to take on Rahul Gandhi.

Shah’s election agents maintain that he will win with a mar­gin upwards of 7.5 lakh votes from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. In the run-up to the election, he personally used to call up 400 of his con­stituents a day. “I spoke with over 6,500 people on phone,” he says.

In typical Shah fashion, every important party worker is en­trusted with a special task to streamline work and responsibili­ties. For example, in Cuttack, Shah explains to Open, BJP has bat­tened down the hatches for Bhartruhari Mahtab, a veteran BJD parliamentarian who is now with the party. As many as 16 MLAs, four district presidents of BJP in Rajasthan, have been deployed in the 21 mandals of Cuttack. The team is led by CP Joshi, MP and state president of the Rajasthan unit of the party. They are staying at a small factory guesthouse in Cuttack and coordinating election work. Shah, a rainmaker beyond compare, doesn’t pause for even a moment to rest. He has trained himself to work long hours, engage in community outreach, and collaborate with colleagues to achieve goals without displaying any sign of exertion. Shah attributes his energy to dedication for his party and commitment to its cause.

The 59-year-old BJP stalwart seems to revel in the grime and dust of the heated election campaign in North India’s scorching heat. Excerpts from the conversation:

You led the campaign of your party in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh in 2014. You spearheaded BJP’s cam­paign as party president in 2019, and you are leading from the front in 2024. How are the polls different this time round?

There is one constant in all three elections—and that’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. In 2014, people were angry with UPA for its in-your-face corruption. The then government was a failure on all counts. There was despair in the country. India was sapped of its confidence. People saw Modi as someone who had the political heft to bring about change. By 2019, the electorate had experienced what the prime minister did for the people and the nation. The poor got their due and the country felt secure against terror. In this election, the prime minister’s high trust quotient is our party’s strength. His popularity is unmatched. This popularity is on account of the performance of the government in the past 10 years. His popularity has no parallel in independent India. This popularity of the prime minister has been helping the party to expand to new areas.

Are you saying that it’s like the Nehru years?

During Nehru’s time, the opposition was virtually non-existent. It had not emerged. It was Congress that was all over. We now have several opposition parties. But they are unable to perform the role of an opposition. That’s the difference between the two.

What is the target BJP has set for itself in this election? Besides the number of seats.

For my party, the future of the country is more important than any­thing else. When I entered BJP as a karyakarta in the 1980s, we were influenced by slogans such as ‘Ek desh mein do Vidhan, do Pradhan, do Nishan nahin ho sakte (In one nation, there can’t be two Constitu­tions, two prime ministers and two flags)’. This was a slogan that the Bharatiya Jana Sangh had adopted in 1952. The Ram temple was another issue. Many took the vow of silence, an entire community did not wear pagadi for close to 500 years, and some people decided not to wear footwear till a temple was built at the place where Lord Ram was born. Maun lete lete peediyan chale gayi. But we are among those fortunate ones who saw the construction of the temple and the consecration of Ram Lalla. We saw with our own eyes a his­torical wrong being corrected, a civilisational wound being healed.

But the opposition says that these are all polarising issues.

If the removal of Article 370 is aimed at polarisation, then yes, I am polarising. If the Ram temple is aimed at polarising, then yes, I am polarising. If taking tough actions against jihadist terror is polaris­ing, then yes, I am polarising. If my stand on a uniform law is polaris­ing, then yes, I am polarising. By the way, the Constituent Assembly (CA) was in favour of a uniform law. Most of those in the CA were from Congress. The same party has promised communal quota. The same party says there will be a minority quota in government contracts. Can there be a more perverse promise? Contracts go to the lowest bidder. Contracts go to those who can provide better quality and performance. Now tell me, who is polarising? During Eid, I see Congress congregations where its leaders wear Taqiyah and scarf. They are free to do that. But there is a problem when they skip the prana pratistha of the Ram temple for fear of a vote bank.

The personal law issue is turning out to be problematic.

There should not be a separate law for Hindus and a separate law for Muslims. Laws should be based on the contemporary values of soci­ety. Social movements within the Hindu fold brought reforms and this saw the end of practices like Sati, support for widow remarriage, etc. Hindus accepted it. There was willingness to move ahead with the times. Societies that don’t change with time lose their vitality.

By extension, there should not be any control of Hindu places of worship. But most are controlled by the government.

This is my personal view. The government should not have any role in running religious places.

Of late there has been a lot of attack on Sanatana Dharma, mainly from Periyarists and their friends in politics.

It’s being done with a view to polarising the electorate. These parties cannot get votes on the basis of their performance. They have a huge deficit on this front. They should learn from history. It was Congress’ ap­peasement politics that led to the Partition of India. Now, Narendra Modi has dealt a body blow to appeasement politics. Now, political parties have to perform if they have to succeed.

BJP has been concentrating on eastern India and the Northeast for the past few years.

Except the recent ethnic conflict in Manipur, the entire Northeast has been largely peaceful and has seen a new era of development. BJP has been working at the grassroots level in West Bengal for a long time. The state had just two parties for decades—Congress and the communists. The emergence of the Trinamool Congress saw the marginalisation of Congress. The competition then was between the communists and Trinamool. The emergence of BJP as an important force led to the complete meltdown of the com­munists. I am confident that my party will get at least 30 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in this election in Bengal and we will form the next government in the state after the next Assembly polls.

Your opponents say the recent troubles in the Northeast will come in the way of your party’s prospects.

In five states of the Northeast, we are in power for a second time. Look at our track record. Incidents of violence in the UPA period were 11,121. On our watch the figure is 3,114. There is a 76 per cent reduction in security forces’ casualties now. Civilian casualties have come down 86 per cent. Besides, we have got every big secessionist group to surrender. The NLFT-SD accord, Bodo accord, Bru accord, Karbi accord, Adivasi Peace Accord, DNLA ac­cord, ULFA peace accord, UNLF peace accord, Assam-Meghalaya Interstate Border Pact, Assam-Arunachal Pradesh Interstate Pact, and the Tipra Motha Pact will increase the pace of development in the Northeast. These states’ development will match with that of the rest of India.

Odisha is another state where BJP is trying to make big gains. What is the basis of this confidence?

The popularity of the prime minister is at its peak in Odisha. So is the disappointment with state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. These two factors will give BJP a big push. If anyone looks back 25 years, these were the lost years of the state. Odisha is where it was 25 years ago. Besides what happens in natural course, nothing has changed in the state. It has failed in every sector—be it infrastruc­ture, industrial development, agriculture, power, ports, tribal wel­fare, and culture. People want BJP to be in charge of the state.

Opinion entrepreneurs, mostly academics at foreign universities who dominate editorial pages, claim that democracy is on the wane in India.

India’s democratic values are recognised and appreciated the world over. We have changed regimes without shedding one drop of blood. In some coun­tries in the West, people have to wait for 15 to 20 years and their Supreme Court’s intervention to know the outcome. That does not happen here. The image of a democracy is not built on foreign soil but in the minds of the people.

The central theme of Rahul Gandhi’s campaign is that BJP wants to undermine the Constitution.

I don’t want to use harsh words, but he is someone who doesn’t un­derstand processes. This is the tenth year of Modi as prime minister and both times he has enjoyed a two-thirds majority. Did we alter reservation policies? We are committed to reservations more than Congress. And we used our numerical strength in Lok Sabha to make the economy robust—to take it from the 11th to the fifth position globally—to secure our borders, to protect our people when the deadly Covid virus struck, to make our country a part of the solution to global problems. Modi has 10 years of performance and an agenda for the next 25 years.

But Rahul Gandhi and his friends maintain that BJP will not be able to repeat its past performance.

How do you gauge public mood? Which is the best way? It’s the elec­toral outcome. Our tally will cross 400 on June 4. Rahul Gandhi will set out for his next foreign trip on June 6. And Modi will choose an appropriate moment to take charge of the country for a third time.

How do you see your success in handling the Kashmir issue?

When the prime minister took charge in 2014, he had promised to end terrorism in the Valley. To end terror, our first task was to take the Kash­mir narrative out of the grip of those who coddle terrorists. We ended Pakistan’s interference in Kashmir. We have also ensured a balanced growth of Jammu and the Valley.

I would like to explain what changed in Kashmir in detail. There is now a ‘zero terror’ plan for J&K. We don’t allow funeral proces­sions for terrorists. Those killed are buried at the same spot. This prevents graves from be­ing turned into rallying points for hardline elements. And the result is for all to see. Stone-pelting has stopped in the Valley. There is a 69 per cent decrease in terror incidents. Cin­ema halls have been reopened after 33 years, Muharram procession was taken out after 34 years. A record 2.11 crore tourists have visited J&K. Tourism has been granted industry status and this saw an investment of ₹250 crore.

What is more gratifying for me is the elec­tion of 34,000 people as panch, sarpanch, coun­cillors and council members. In the next four years we are expecting an investment of ₹90,000 crore in J&K. I would like to specially commend Lt Governor Manoj Sinha for the rapid econom­ic progress of J&K.

Do you mean to say that the political leadership that earlier controlled J&K had failed in performing its duties?

It is common knowledge that whenever there was trouble or terror­ist violence in the Valley, its leaders were partying and playing golf on foreign shores. People of the Valley were left to fend off violence on their own. Now that the state has 34,000 elected representatives at the grassroots level, you will see radical changes. A new political class from among these ordinary men and women will emerge. The politics of the Valley will change irrevocably. We used to talk to Pakistan and the Hurriyat in the past. We now talk to the Valley’s youth. That’s the change Modi has brought about.

Naxalism is another issue affecting the country.

This murderous ideology talked about a ‘Tirupati to Pasupati’ plan—to bring under its control Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Telan­gana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhat­tisgarh. There was a time when 60 per cent of the area was under the influence of Naxals. In the past five years, every 20 days we have reviewed the progress in tackling the problem. We have been able to contain the flow of funds and arms supply to these Maoists. The security vacuum has been filled. CRPF has opened camps in every strategic location. This has helped the government’s development efforts to reach the needy. The problem now exists only in four dis­tricts of Chhattisgarh. The main factor for this was the lack of sup­port from the previous Con­gress government in the state. After BJP took over, 112 Naxals have been neutralised and 350 activists have surrendered.

How far have we come in terms of handling the drugs menace?

We are taking proactive mea­sures to handle the menace. We have a four-tiered NCORD (Narco Coordination Centre) mechanism in place. The top one is headed by the Union home secretary. And the last one is at the district level. The efforts have been showing remarkable success. We have seized drugs worth ₹22,000 crore in the past 10 years. In value terms, this is 300 times more than the seizures be­tween 2004 and 2014.

There has also been a change in the approach. The affected ar­eas were referred to as Golden Triangle and Golden Corridor. We have renamed them Death Triangle and Death Corridor. It’s not just the nomenclature; it’s the difference in approach. And this is being appreciated by agencies the world over. We are very clear that we will not allow narcotics to come into our country and we will not allow anyone here to be part of the supply chain.

Could you share the latest coordinates of the coopera­tive sector in India?

The cooperative movement in this country has a 120-year-long history. PACS or Primary Agricultural Credit Societies are the atma of this movement. PACS, made up of farmers, mo­bilise funds from their members and then on-lend the proceeds for short-term loans at subsidised rates. RBI decides the lending interest rate. Mostly PACS operate with a 0.5 per cent interest margin. This is making them unviable. Unfortunately, this did not catch the at­tention of policymakers till we took charge.

With the Modi government providing access to basic amenities like financial inclusion, electricity, cooking gas, drinking water, and health insurance, the stage is now set for their next level of trading-up. Sixty crore people with aspirations want to contrib­ute to the development of the country. But they have very little capital. If they have to contribute, then cooperatives are the only medium. That’s the only platform where people with little capital can come together to collectively generate a large output. Amul is a great example of this—3.6 million milk producers with ₹100 shareholding have now created a company whose turnover is a staggering ₹72,000 crore.

We have identified new areas for cooperatives to function. They now run Jan Aushadhi kendras, LPG distribution units, and even petrol pumps. We also want to carve out some new dimen­sions, such as insurance, health, tourism, food processing, storage, and services.

We have also framed new bylaws for cooperatives. It got back­ing across the political aisle. The communists and Trinamool backed it. This will see two lakh PACS being added to the exist­ing 66,000 million.

In the coming days you will see cooperatives becoming a force multiplier of change in the agrarian economy. Already, we have around 1.41 crore lakhpati didis. This will create three crore more lakhpatis.

These will be the new labharthis (beneficiaries) that your party will tap in the coming electoral rounds?

For us, political benefit for the party is not the most crucial part of decision-making. Our aim is to make our 60 crore poor people part of the economic development process. When Lord Ram made the Ram Setu, even the squirrel played a role. When Modi transforms India into the world’s third-largest economy, these 60 crore people will have made their contribution.

What are your thoughts on freebies doled out by some political parties?

Look at the effect of these reckless promises. Kerala does not have the money to pay its pensioners. Punjab has become a basket case. Karnataka does not have funds for developmental expenditure. The case is no different in Telangana.

Our approach is different. We have directly transferred ₹34 lakh crore to people. We have built more than four lakh homes; provided 32 crore Ayushman cards; gave access to piped water to over four crore homes and free ration has reached 80 crore people. We do tar­geted spending. On the other side, what we see is reckless populism.

What is the progress on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)?

We can never forget the history of Partition. In the first place, it should not have happened. But it is a reality now. When the country was portioned, there was bloodshed, lakhs were killed and rendered homeless. Our leaders then told them to stay where they were. And that they would be welcomed if they faced any trouble. Did the previous regimes keep this promise? Twenty sev­en per cent of Bangladesh’s population was Hindu. Now it is just 9 per cent. Where did they disappear? They have either converted or fled the country. We cannot tolerate this injustice anymore. If we go back on the promises that leaders of the Independence era made to the people, where will they go? So, BJP promised citizenship to them in its 2014 manifesto. I am happy that a few days back, the first set of people were given citizenship. This will continue in the days to come.

But leaders like Mamata Banerjee have said that their governments will stop the implementation of CAA in their respective states.

The power rests with the Centre. They have the same right on re­sources as you and I do. If anyone among them is capable, they can even become the prime minister of this country.

How can we make election funding more transparent? What was the purpose of electoral bonds?

There is a need to insulate the political process from unac­counted money and it was seen as a legitimate and transparent way to address the issue. What is laughable is the contention of Rahul Gandhi. He says electoral bonds are a scam. Really? If it’s a scam, then how did the I.N.D.I.A. bloc get around ₹6,400 crore? Are they in the business of extortion? A cursory look at the figures that opposition parties got will lay bare the fallacy in Rahul Gandhi’s argument. While we have governments in 13 states and 383 MPs, Congress has just two state governments and 78 MPs. If we pro­portionately divide the electoral bond funds according to political representation, opposition parties got many more times what BJP got. If we indulged in a scam, they indulged in a much bigger scam.

What is the way forward now that the court has eliminated the scheme?

There is a need to curb the role of black money and cash in elections. Look at the seizures that the agencies are making in this current election season. After the new government is formed, there should be a debate on this issue and a solution found.

How relevant is the one nation, one election proposal?

The time has come to implement this. Frequent elections have been disrupting the movement of policies. It is imposing a huge cost on the nation. One nation, one election will optimise the use of financial and human resources. The first four election cycles to Lok Sabha and the Assembles after Independence, from 1952 to 1967, were held together. This calendar was disturbed when Indira Gandhi began dismissing state governments. I was a mem­ber of the panel headed by Ram Nath Kovind. It is part of our Sank­alp Patra. We will work towards achieving this goal.

How do you expect the stock markets to perform in the near future?

The Indian stock markets will break all records after June 4. The av­erage Indian investor has trust in the government headed by Modi. When Modi became prime minister, India had around 2 crore de­mat accounts. Demat accounts now are a staggering 15.2 crore. Just one figure explains the trust in the Indian market—30 lakh demat accounts are being added every month in 2024. The market capitalisation of BSE companies is over ₹400 lakh crore. Those who keep repeating that only a few prospered under Modi—I know they have little familiarity with facts or an inclination to be truth­ful—should see that over 15 crore people are earning money from their investments. And these investors are mostly from the middle class, youth, and are even housewives. The manage­ment of the economy is giving people the confidence to invest. The government has minimised non-performing assets (NPAs) and the banking sector and it is out of the twin balance sheet problem—a legacy of the previous regime. They are now ready to support economic growth. This will give a major impetus to the manufacturing sector.

Under UPA, banks were considered its private property. Loans were disbursed on the basis of phone calls from higher-ups. It was a period of ‘phone banking’. Instructions to banks were issued by certain residents of Lutyens’ Delhi. Now, India has a rules-based regime. And that’s hugely beneficial to investors.

India’s banking sector achieved a milestone as its net profit surpassed ₹3 lakh crore for the first time. The combined net profit of listed public and private sector banks has surged by 39 per cent. This is a testament to our handling of banking, a sector that was most stressed during the UPA years.

Since the Jana Sangh days, your party is perhaps the only mainstream one that recognises the cultural unity of India. The Ram Mandir reconstruction is just the latest expression of this.

India is the only country in the world which is not a geopolitical entity. We are a geo-cultural country. From Kashmir to Kanyaku­mari, from Dwarka to Bengal, there is one culture that binds us. If there is a bonding, it is the cultural bonding. The British tried to break the unity of this country by trying to make it a geopolitical entity. Congress fell into this trap. Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Rajaji (C Rajagopalachari), KM Munshi, and Rajendra Babu believed in India’s cultural unity.

The legatees of Nehru are unwilling to recognise the power of cultural nationalism despite their political marginalisa­tion. That’s the reason they oppose the Sengol, a symbol of our tradition, in Parliament; the renaming of Rajpath to Kartavya Path; replacing King George V’s statue with Subhas Chandra Bose’s, and so on.

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