New Delhi: Campaigning in Mizoram for the November 7 assembly polls heated up this week with the arrival of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for a two-day trip to the north-eastern state.
Two days in a row – October 16 and 17 – Gandhi not only grabbed considerable public attention in the state but also seized national headlines. His party’s state unit had been eagerly awaiting his arrival to declare the candidates’ list for the assembly polls.
As planned, the party named candidates for 39 of the state’s 40 seats, leaving one seat to be decided soon.
On day one, he carried out a padyatra along the lines of his successful Bharat Jodo Yatra in Aizawl city. The four-to-five kilometre walk stretched between the Chanmari area of the capital to the Raj Bhavan.
Addressing a rally thereafter, he carried out a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being more “interested” in addressing Israel-Hamas conflict than “giving importance” to Manipur.
Stating to the public that he didn’t understand why Modi did not visit Manipur, which has been facing ethnic strife since this past May, Gandhi called it “shameful” for the leader of the country not to visit a state after such mindless violence.
Calling the Manipur violence a symptom of the problem with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he stated, “People from minority communities are feeling uncomfortable and there is oppression being carried out on the people of India under its rule.”
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On day two, Gandhi addressed a press conference in Aizawl, where he was asked a question about being a ‘dynast’.
In turn, he asked the reporter, “What exactly is the son of Amit Shah doing? What does Rajnath Singh’s son do? Last I heard, Amit Shah’s son is running Indian cricket. Please be objective. Look at the BJP, many of their children like Anurag Thakur, are [from political] dynasties.”
Gandhi was also seen interacting with the local public on the streets of Aizawl. On October 17, he paid a visit to former Congress chief minister Lalthanhalwa. Pu Hawla, an octogenarian, is a veteran leader from the state who is not contesting these elections.
On returning from his residence, Gandhi hailed a two-wheeler taxi, a popular means of transport in Aizawl. When asked about it, he said he wanted to experience first-hand the much-talked about discipline followed by drivers in Aizawl city.
Gandhi not only went after the BJP’s top two national leaders during his campaigning, but also accused the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) and the new regional entity, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), of being in cahoots with the BJP.
While the MNF is a member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), one of the constituent parties of the ZPM was a former ally of the BJP in the state.
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Calling the MNF and ZPM as “entry points” for the BJP and its ideological fount – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – in Mizoram, Gandhi said, “If you look at these two political parties, [the] MNF is directly aligned with the BJP and [the] ZPM is not fighting against the BJP. It is very clear that they are entry points for the BJP”.
He alleged that these parties are “instruments of [an] attack” on Mizo culture, tradition and religion by the BJP, while his party believes that India is a Union of states and all religions, cultures and histories should be protected.
In view of the public attention that Gandhi grabbed in Aizawl during the election season, both the BJP and the MNF’s youth wing came out with similar press statements on October 17.
Both accused the Congress of bombing Mizos in the 1960s. The Mizo National Youth Front even demanded an apology from Gandhi for the “devastating bombing” carried out during his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
Addressing a press conference on October 17, BJP state spokesperson Lalremsangi Fanai particularly tried evoking public sentiments in the Christian majority-state by accusing the Congress of “supporting” Hamas, which recently attacked Israel. She referred to Israel as “God’s country”.