In India elections are never fought in a straight line. It's fought on many issues, at many levels, with multiple emotions and with a bit of good luck, too. Sheela Bhatt reports from Rajasthan.
The BJP enters challenging times where it has been given a task to hold onto the values of Ram in running the country as defined by Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, notes Sheela Bhatt.
Narendra Modi has proved through execution of this event in Ayodhya that amongst all his contemporaries in politics he knows ordinary Indians like none other, notes Sheela Bhatt.
'These naval sailors should have been given due respect as freedom fighters.' 'February 18, 1946 should be as important as January 26 because that date changed everything.'
'Whoever thought that building toilets and providing free rations to the poorest of poor Indians would give Modi a halo other political leaders would envy?' asks Sheela Bhatt.
'I see in the BJP an attempt to get growth and redistribution of resources.' 'For growth you need growth of the economy.'
'So you have welfare programmes, you reach out to the poor, you cut out the middlemen, you cut out the leakages and you try to raise the standard of living.'
If Modi's political retreat -- he has tried to avoid a pre-1984 type of situation in Punjab -- helps soothe Sikh sentiments, nobody should complain Modi, asserts Sheela Bhatt.
'To get success in business one should know how to create and attract talent and how to retain it.'
Just months before the deadly gas leak in Bhopal killed 15,000 people, journalist Rajkumar Keswani -- who passed into the ages on Friday, May 21, 2021 -- had warned that the 'city stood on the edge of a volcano'.
This was a difficult election to win, but the Modi card, the caste divide and the division in the Opposition vote bank helped overcome many challenges.
'The BJP has the torch and with that same torch, the BJP is trying to light up its house in Bihar.' 'The BJP is trying to burn Nitish Kumar's house with that torch.'
'I am not minimising either the seriousness or the complex nature of the current situation.' 'Naturally, we have to do what it takes to secure our borders.' 'We are talking to the Chinese, both through military channels and diplomatic ones.'
'In fact, they work in tandem.' 'When it comes to finding a solution, this must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings.' 'And not attempting to alter the status quo unilaterally.'
'Let me reveal for the first time that around August 2019 Congress President Sonia Gandhi told the Congress leadership and CWC members to form a consensus over the name of a non-Gandhi leader.'
'Unlike India and Sri Lanka, there was no internal air travel needed.' 'For all 8 teams, different hotels are available, a separate one for the broadcasting team too.'
Just six years after his father's Rath Yatra, the BJP came to power in New Delhi in 1996, points out Jayant Advani.
'Does a secular nation not believe in its ancestry? The Constitution has a photo of Ram also.'
'If the Ram Mandir is made, it is because of the collective strength of our country.'
'The lockdown was for both: To flatten the curve or more correctly, delay the rapid spread of COVID outbreak, and to create healthcare infrastructure.'
'"The end" depends on two things.' 'Either you develop a vaccine which is effective or if you have a drug, you can terminate this infection very quickly.' 'Otherwise, you have to depend on herd immunity.' 'I think it should happen earlier. Far earlier, than we can imagine or achieve 'herd immunity'.'
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