Divided stance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a conspicuous outreach to the Christian community by attending a Christmas morning service at a colonial-era church in Delhi. However, two senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, the Union home minister, Amit Shah, and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath — both seen as potential successors to Modi — showed no signs of softening their hardline Hindutva image. Far from visiting a church or attending a Christmas event, neither even posted a greeting on X. They also refrained from reposting the PM’s messages about his visit to the iconic Cathedral Church of Redemption. In contrast, senior BJP leaders reached out to the community. The outgoing BJP chief, JP Nadda, the Union minister, Piyush Goyal, and the Delhi CM, Rekha Gupta, among others, visited churches and extended Christmas greetings. The Union defence minister, Rajnath Singh, the government’s official number two, posted “warm Christmas greetings” on X, adding that “may there be peace and harmony in our society”. A day after Christmas, Shah appeared to further reinforce his Hindutva credentials. He addressed a Global Hindu Vaishnav Prerna Mahotsav in Gujarat digitally from Delhi. His backdrop featured flags of multiple security agencies — CISF, NSG and SSB — showing that he spoke to the religious gathering by taking time out from an anti-terror conference.

Spot the discontent

Kerala’s BJP leadership is an elated lot after successfully trouncing the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s four-decades of rule in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. On Friday, VV Rajesh, 47, took oath as the mayor in the presence of senior BJP leaders, including the state president, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Another mayoral hopeful, R Sreelekha, the BJP state vice-president, made a hasty retreat from the council hall even before Rajesh was sworn in. A peeved Sreelekha, the first woman police chief of Kerala, was projected as the mayoral candidate if she won from the Sasthamangalam ward. She made her displeasure obvious much to the anguish of the party leadership. Now all eyes are on when the PM will arrive in Kerala to announce ‘Vikasit Ananthapuri’, a development plan envisaged by the BJP for Thiruvananthapuram. When Chandrasekhar was in New Delhi to celebrate Christmas — he accompanied Modi to the Cathedral Church of Redemption — he extended an invitation to the PM to visit Thiruvananthapuram. In all likelihood, January could see Modi visiting Kerala. One wonders how Sreelekha will respond then.

Battle stations

The ruling BJP has intensified its outreach in poll-bound Assam since December 20 with central leaders making one visit after another in quick succession — Narendra Modi (December 20-21), the newly-appointed working president of the BJP, Nitin Nabin (December 26) and Amit Shah (December 29). Both Modi and Nabin attended party events in connection with poll preparedness besides flagging infiltration, development and beneficiary schemes as key poll planks. These trips took place days after the central leadership announced its election team for Assam headed by Baijayant Panda on December 15.

Shah and Modi had also visited Assam in August and September, respectively. Moreover, the CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has been holding rallies almost on a daily basis since mid-September, hard-selling his government’s beneficiary schemes. Observers said that while the BJP has gone into poll mode with clarity and cohesion, the Opposition seems to be in no hurry and appears divided despite talks of fighting the polls unitedly to oust the ruling BJP-led alliance. Assam goes to the polls in March-April.

Facts
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The BJP’s penchant for claiming credit for being the first to do something is such that it is often economical with facts. For example, a couple of BJP ministers from Assam said that Modi is the “first Prime Minister to offer homage” at Swahid Smarak Kshetra in Guwahati, a memorial to the martyrs of the Assam Movement, on December 21. This is factually correct but what they did not mention was that the memorial was inaugurated only on December 10 by the CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma. Since there has been no change in PM since 2014, it is only natural that Modi will be the first PM to offer homage or visit the site. A BJP observer quipped in jest, “The BJP’s Assam unit should be asked if not Modi, who? There has to be due diligence before making such claims. The gesture matters, not who is the first or second.”