The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY), a nationwide campaign initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 15, 2023, has seen participation of over 18 crore people in 782 districts across India in the two and half months following its inception. The yatra purportedly intends to raise awareness and achieve saturation of government schemes. However, many bureaucrats, uncomfortable with the political nature of the event, have raised concerns regarding the use of a State funded initiative by the BJP to seek votes.
In one instance in U.P., the BJP district chief was to be in attendance. A senior bureaucrat, who was uncomfortable with the political nature of the programme, decided to skip the event. “This is a State funded event. It is understandable that MLAs and MPs are present but how can BJP office bearers share and seek votes from the stage,” the senior bureaucrat asked.
Haryana’s Sonipat district witnessed one such VBSY event at the community centre in the Kharkhoda Tehsil. The event site was blaring with Centre’s campaign songs, and the slogan ‘Modi Sarkaar Ki Guarantee’ via loudspeakers.
All politics, no hope
Ajay Rathore, State executive member of the BJP’s Anusuchit Jati morcha, was greeting those at the event, and requesting them to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. He was being assisted by fellow BJP worker Sunil Panchal.
“This yatra belongs to the sarkar [government]and it is my duty to help with all initiatives of our party’s government. I personally brought 30 people to this camp who were running pillar to post to get their work done. All BJP workers have advertised this yatra so that it connects with every household,” Mr. Rathore told The Hindu.
In contrast to the exuberance of the party workers and leaders, several of the attendees, who were at the camp in hopes of getting their bureaucratic troubles fixed were left dismayed and disappointed.
“They cancelled my ration card as my family’s income had increased. But my son does not live with me any more. This system has blocked my ration as well as old age pension,” Satveer Singh, who was attending the camp in order to spilt his family’s ration card, said.
However, the officials informed Mr. Singh that splits in family cards could not be done at the camp.
In another case, Chandro and Rajrani Devi, both in their late 60s, also returned empty handed from the camp site. The biometric machines were unable to read their thumb impressions because they suffer from Adermatoglyphia; this has made them incapable of availing many of the benefits that are due to them under government schemes.
“Nothing changed for us, in any government,” Ms. Rajrani said. She added that both of them were confused as to whether or not they should vote for PM Modi in the upcoming elections.
Babli (40), wanted to avail the government’s old age as well as widow pension, procure a gas cylinder under the Ujjawala scheme, and a business loan, decided to visit the VBSY camp set up in Sonipat’s Gohana town. Disappointed after being told she was ineligible for the schemes, Babli was accosted by a BJP office bearer outside the camp with requests to “vote for PM Modi”.
Among more positive voices were Vikram Singh and Devendra, who attended the camp to thank Mr. Modi for homes they have got under PM’s housing scheme. Many farmers also hailed the PM’s schemes as did several women who were in attendance.
The yatra is scheduled to continue through February.
State funds for political capital
While many of the needy whose hopes for a bureaucratic remedy was dashed, the political nature of the event blithely marched on.
Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes member, Meena Narwal, who also fought the last Assembly election from Kharkhoda, was the chief guest at the camp. “It was our PM who fulfilled the 500 year old wish of the nation; he initiated the construction of the Ram temple,” she said reflecting the explicitly political character of the event. Ms. Narwal added that removal of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was another great achievement of the PM.
In Haryana as well as in parts of Uttar Pradesh, senior BJP functionaries attended the VBSY and sought votes.
However, Manohar Saini, a local Congress supporter, was perplexed with the political morality of the ruling party employing the State’s resources to seek votes.
Inderjeet Virmani, vice-president of BJP in Gohana, along with his wife Rajni Virmani, who is the chairperson of the municipal corporation, shared the stage with sub-divisional magistrate Ashish Vashisth in the local VBSY camp.
Mr. Vashisth was asked to repeat the pledge, a mandatory feature of the yatra, in which people commit to make India a developed country by 2047. The pledge requires people to honour India’s cultural heritage and show respect to those who safeguard the borders.
The SDM ended the pledge by declaring that all Indians will fulfil “our duty as citizens” and concluded with a chant of “Jai Shree Ram”.
Pawan Khera, Chairman Media and Publicity of Congress, termed the BJP’s presence in the VBSY as violation of government norms.
“This won’t be the first time when this govt and those who take the oath of the Constitution, would be violating the very oath they took when swearing in for office. This is apart from all norms of governance. This era would go down in the history of our democracy as the darkest era where our republic came under its toughest test,” he said.
