At 6.30pm on Monday, an hour before the Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi arrived at Mumbai’s MMRDA grounds for his first joint rally with Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray, it seemed like the two saffron parties had not been able to attract even half the crowds that Rahul Gandhi had drawn at the same venue the previous day. Large sections of the grounds were empty, and announcers frequently requested the audience to move closer to the stage to fill in the empty chairs.
Because of intelligence warnings about a possible terror attack, security checks at the entry points were rigorous, and people were trickling in slowly. By the time Modi finally appeared onstage, however, the crowds had suddenly swollen. The police said that 40,000 people attended the BJP rally, while 50,000 came to the Congress event.
Like the Congress rally on Sunday, many people were brought en masse from slum and chawl neighbourhoods in hired buses. But unlike Rahul Gandhi’s rally, the BJP-Shiv Sena event also had large numbers of middle-class citizens who had came to hear Modi.
The audience was diverse. Some said that they believe a Modi sarkar could change their lives overnight, some had come because they have always been Shiv Sena and BJP supporters and some, like 57-year-old Mohammed Ismail, were there because they are hoping for an alternative to a “corrupt Congress”.
“I used to vote for the Congress but in the past 10 years they have only brought on inflation,” said Ismail, a zari workshop owner from a slum in Jogeshwari. Though Ismail is apprehensive about a Modi-led government because of the communal riots that took place in Gujarat in 2002, he does not want another Congress term. “The BJP spoilt its own game by naming Modi as its PM candidate, but now I am here to see for myself what he has to say,” he said.
What Modi had to say was that he didn't think highly of the United Progressive Alliance and the Gandhi family. His diatribe was met with loud hoots and cheers.
Comparing Rahul Gandhi to a sightseer who visits the Taj Mahal and takes photos there, the prime ministerial candidate said, “Rahul sees the poor as a tourist destination. He goes to their homes to see what they are like, how they live, because he has never seen poverty. And he goes there with lots of media photographers so that he can take pictures with the poor.”
He accused the Congress of hiding under a “bunker of secularism” when it did not have answers to questions of employment, poverty or women’s security, and even brought up a recent press release from the prime minister’s office. “They had to inform the country that the Prime Minister gave 1,100 speeches in 10 years,” said Modi. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at such a sarkar.”
Modi held the UPA government responsible for “jobless growth” in India, and for placing hurdles to the completion of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat. “When the dam is complete, we will give 400 crore watts of electricity to Maharashtra for free,” said Modi.
For most of the event, the audience was disciplined, enthusiastic and constantly cheering. But when some people began to leave in the middle of Modi’s speech, BJP supporters stood up angrily and shouted at them to get back to their seats. Some even blocked the aisle to prevent people from leaving, although the police intervened.
While Rahul Gandhi spoke at length on women’s empowerment in his speech in Mumbai, Modi attacked the Congress for failing to ensure women’s safety.
“Last year they announced a Rs 1,000 crore Nirbhaya fund [in memory of the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim] but not a paisa has been spent for the cause,” said Modi. “A good tourism sector could create employment for the poorest of poor, but in the last 10 years, tourism in India has declined because of all the rapes and molestations that occur every day.”
Despite all this talk about women’s security, the he rally had a distinct air of masculine chest-thumping. “Iss desh ko Modi ji jaisa mard chahiye,” one of the local leaders declared early in the programme. “This country needs a man like Modi.” Later, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray followed this up with his own declaration: “We have a real mard standing this election.”
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Because of intelligence warnings about a possible terror attack, security checks at the entry points were rigorous, and people were trickling in slowly. By the time Modi finally appeared onstage, however, the crowds had suddenly swollen. The police said that 40,000 people attended the BJP rally, while 50,000 came to the Congress event.
Like the Congress rally on Sunday, many people were brought en masse from slum and chawl neighbourhoods in hired buses. But unlike Rahul Gandhi’s rally, the BJP-Shiv Sena event also had large numbers of middle-class citizens who had came to hear Modi.
The audience was diverse. Some said that they believe a Modi sarkar could change their lives overnight, some had come because they have always been Shiv Sena and BJP supporters and some, like 57-year-old Mohammed Ismail, were there because they are hoping for an alternative to a “corrupt Congress”.
“I used to vote for the Congress but in the past 10 years they have only brought on inflation,” said Ismail, a zari workshop owner from a slum in Jogeshwari. Though Ismail is apprehensive about a Modi-led government because of the communal riots that took place in Gujarat in 2002, he does not want another Congress term. “The BJP spoilt its own game by naming Modi as its PM candidate, but now I am here to see for myself what he has to say,” he said.
What Modi had to say was that he didn't think highly of the United Progressive Alliance and the Gandhi family. His diatribe was met with loud hoots and cheers.
Comparing Rahul Gandhi to a sightseer who visits the Taj Mahal and takes photos there, the prime ministerial candidate said, “Rahul sees the poor as a tourist destination. He goes to their homes to see what they are like, how they live, because he has never seen poverty. And he goes there with lots of media photographers so that he can take pictures with the poor.”
He accused the Congress of hiding under a “bunker of secularism” when it did not have answers to questions of employment, poverty or women’s security, and even brought up a recent press release from the prime minister’s office. “They had to inform the country that the Prime Minister gave 1,100 speeches in 10 years,” said Modi. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at such a sarkar.”
Modi held the UPA government responsible for “jobless growth” in India, and for placing hurdles to the completion of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat. “When the dam is complete, we will give 400 crore watts of electricity to Maharashtra for free,” said Modi.
For most of the event, the audience was disciplined, enthusiastic and constantly cheering. But when some people began to leave in the middle of Modi’s speech, BJP supporters stood up angrily and shouted at them to get back to their seats. Some even blocked the aisle to prevent people from leaving, although the police intervened.
While Rahul Gandhi spoke at length on women’s empowerment in his speech in Mumbai, Modi attacked the Congress for failing to ensure women’s safety.
“Last year they announced a Rs 1,000 crore Nirbhaya fund [in memory of the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim] but not a paisa has been spent for the cause,” said Modi. “A good tourism sector could create employment for the poorest of poor, but in the last 10 years, tourism in India has declined because of all the rapes and molestations that occur every day.”
Despite all this talk about women’s security, the he rally had a distinct air of masculine chest-thumping. “Iss desh ko Modi ji jaisa mard chahiye,” one of the local leaders declared early in the programme. “This country needs a man like Modi.” Later, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray followed this up with his own declaration: “We have a real mard standing this election.”
