BJP to raise national security issues in Delhi elections

Will question Cong and AAP 'silence' on 'Pak boat' and Paris attack

The strategy had bombed over six years ago but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not ready to give up on it. The BJP plans to outfox its opponents in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly election on the issues of terrorism, national security and their “vote bank politics”.

The BJP will continue to showcase Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of development, as also achievements like controlling price rise and the promise of full statehood to Delhi. But it plans to aggressively question both the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on their stand on national security issues like terrorism — muted criticism of the terror attack in Paris and their questioning the government on the “Pakistan terror boat” incident.

The Assembly elections are likely to be held in mid-February. Modi will begin the campaign at city’s Ramlila Maidan on Saturday. According to a source, PM is likely to raise the issue of terrorism and national security during his speech. The party is of the view that the issue of terrorism will have resonance among Delhi’s middle class. These sections had gravitated towards AAP in the 2013 Assembly elections.

On Friday, the BJP fielded party leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to address a press conferences at the party headquarters. Prasad said Congress President Sonia Gandhi should answer for her party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar terming the Paris terror attack on journalists of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo as an “obvious backlash” to the “war on terror”.

"Why is Sonia Gandhi silent?" Prasad asked. Prasad said Aiyar was a confidante of the Gandhi family and one of the closest friends and advisers of Rajiv Gandhi. Prasad said there was a "pattern" to how Aiyar has reacted to the terror attack in Paris, the Congress questioning the government over the 'Pak terror boat' incident, the then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde coming up with the term "saffron terror" and party leader Digvijaya Singh casting doubts on the Batla House encounter of 2008.

"We believe Sonia Gandhi's silence on this is unfortunate and we deplore it," Prasad said. The minister said the Congress should stop its "vote bank politics" on issues of national security and terrorism. He said the BJP has immediately apologised for any irresponsible remarks made by members of the party, including by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti or Sakshi Maharaj.

But BJP's raising issues of national security to outmaneuver its opponents had failed dramatically in November 2008. On November 29, 2008 the BJP had brought out advertisements in leading newspapers. The advertisements had questioned the record on national security of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. November 29 was the day Delhi was to vote to choose whether it was willing to give Sheila Dikshit a third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of the state or opt for a local BJP leadership largely perceived as ineffective.

The November 29 polling was held barely three days after the 26/11 terror attacks, and people of Delhi trooped to cast their votes even as television channels were still showing the visuals of National Security Guard (NSG) commandos mopping up their operation of eliminating the terrorists and rescuing guests from the Oberoi and Taj hotels in Mumbai. The elections results announced on December 8 shocked the BJP. The Congress under Dikshit got a historic third term winning 43 of the 70-seats, and BJP won only 23 seats.

But Dikshit is no longer the leader she once was, while the Modi magic looks intact. Recent months of communal tension in parts of Delhi, lower prices of oil and the concerns of the middle class about national security could make it an election that could return BJP to power in Delhi after a gap of 17-years.