Interview with BJP's national general-secretary
Mahesh Kulkarni & Bibhu Ranjan Mishra | Bangalore March 29, 2014 Last Updated at 00:21 IST
Bharatiya Janata Party’s national general-secretary H N Ananth Kumar, trying for a record sixth continuous term from the Bangalore South constituency, is in a tough battle against Congress candidate Nandan Nilekani. In an interview with Mahesh Kulkarni & Bibhu Ranjan Mishra, he says his basic opposition to Aadhaar is that citizenship of a country should be by determination and not by declaration. Edited excerpts:
What is the mood among voters this time?
There is a tremendous wave in favour of BJP in Bangalore. The BJP is going to win not only in all the three seats in Bangalore but it may also provide surprise results outside Bangalore in places like Chikkaballapur and Kolar.
In 2009 elections, the BJP was ruling in Karnataka and you won 19 seats. Now, your party is not in power. Do you think it will affect your chances of retaining as many seats?
First you need to understand that in Karnataka people have definitely voted differently for the Vidhan Sabha and the Lok Sabha. In 1991, when we first won four seats, we only had four MLAs and that was the biggest ever swing in the annals of Indian democratic history. From 2.6% in 1989, we became 28.6%. Same thing happened in 1996. We got six seats and in 1998 that became 16 with Lok Shakti of Ramakrishna Hegde. I think, on the Narendra Modi wave it will be 20 plus seats.
There is a tremendous wave of Modi this time. There is a huge anti-Congress wave similar to 1977. This time it will be a full time BJP government under Narendra Modi. He has become the icon.
How many seats do you think BJP will win at the all India level?
At the all India level, BJP will win more than 272 seats on its own and form the government.
What is the basis for your confidence?
What is the biggest debate going on in India today? The biggest debate is two-fold. The choice is between good governance, bad governance and no governance. People feel good governance means Narendra Modi, bad governance means Manmohan Singh and no governance means Arvind Kejriwal. Therefore, the choice is good governance and secondly, when the choice is Narendra Modi for good governance, why we should not give him a clear mandate.
The enlightened citizens of this country have seen the 1989 experiment, 1996 experiment and 1998 experiment of the 24 party coalition government of Atal Behari Vajpayee. They know the limitations of each of these experiments and therefore they feel this time we will give a clear mandate to Narendra Modi.
So, you will not require the help of NDA partners in forming the government?
I have clarified this earlier. In my earlier press conference in Delhi as the general secretary of BJP, I said that BJP, despite attaining clear majority, will form the government with the help of NDA partners. Further, we are for the extension of NDA and we want further extension of NDA because we realise that this country cannot be governed only by majority, it can be governed by consensus or near consensus.
In this election, what do you think will be Karnataka’s contribution to the BJP in forming the government?
There are three happening states in the country in this election. One is Uttar Pradesh, another is Bihar and third is Karnataka. Therefore, these three states will make the BJP government. In UP, if you are winning 40+ seats, 20+ seats each in Bihar and Karnataka, it will make our government.
In Karnataka, you took some hasty and desperate moves like inducting Pramod Mutalik and dropped him immediately? Do you think voters will still vote for the party?
I have already said that was a mistake and within two hours that mistake was corrected. Mistakes do happen. Nobody can afford such mistakes, but when mistakes happen, whether you correct it or not.
But, Mutalik is contesting against your candidate in Dharwad?
We are in democracy. Anybody can contest from anywhere. In 1991, Prof Venkatagiri Gowda, the noted economist, contested and became MP from BJP in Bangalore South. In 1996, he was removed from BJP for his anti-party activities and he contested as an independent. He got only 3,000 votes. Therefore, people are going to vote for BJP and against BJP. They are not going to waste their votes.
Your opponent Nilekani says the people of Bangalore South are looking for a change..
There is a tremendous amount of fatigue against the Congress. The congress candidate should understand that this is not a municipal election, this is national election. People are not going to vote for municipality issues and they are going to vote for national issues like price rise, governance, and national security among others.
I entirely agree with him that people are looking for change at the national level. They want to throw out the Congress government at the Centre. There is a tremendous amount of fatigue over price rise, bad governance for the last 10 years of Manmohan Singh government, about economic recession, stagnation, inflation and about insecurity on the borders and inside the borders and at the first ever opportune moment, they are going to pack this Congress government at the centre. When they are packing the entire party that includes individual candidates also.
What are the main issues in the high-profile constituency?
I have already explained, people look at national issues. The people are also questioning Nilekani's new found love for Bangalore in the last 18 days. He came to Bangalore 18 days ago and started loving Bangalore. But here is an MP who has been serving with great commitment for 18 years. Ananth Kumar has been tried, tested and trusted five times. People of this constituency know me as their family member. In each locality, mohalla and gulli, I can call many people by their names. I can call not less than 10,000 people by their first name.
While you claim that the internal democracy is stronger in BJP than other parties, why is the information going out through social media?
We are not a political party like the Congress or family ruled parties like Mulayam Singh Yadav's or Lalu Prasad Yadav’s parties. In BJP, there is a large amount of internal debate and discussion. Because of this free atmosphere, sometimes, this seeps into social media also. You are asking about party’s internal debate. For example, in Karnataka on March 8, we cleared 20 seats with almost no discussion. But for the remaining 8 parliamentary segments, we took three weeks. It is natural for any political party. Because, where leadership is clear there you can easily do it. And where it is not clear and where there are more than one contestant or claimants, you need to pursue and convince them.
In Bangalore South you are facing an IT industry veteran as your opponent in this election. He claims to have created thousands of jobs when he was in IT industry. Could you explain what was your contribution to the IT industry?
First of all, the entire electronics city came during our period. Number two, you see that major roads connecting the main city to the electronic city was started during Vajapayee’s tenure and completed by the BJP government in the state. It is well known to the world that if there is one government which has provided wherewithal to the IT industry with tele revolution, power reforms and all the sops for software and hardware companies, it is the A B Vajapayee government. I can give you a list of what all the NDA government did between 1999 and 2004.
What are your achievements as MP in the last five terms and what is your contribution to Bangalore South voters?
First of all, I brought Kempegowda international airport to Bangalore. We acquired 3,500 acres land and formed a special purpose vehicle to implement the project. We went for global tendering and laid the foundation stone to the first ever Greenfield international airport for Bangalore.
Secondly, I also brought, as a minister for urban development, the Bangalore Metro project. I appointed Shreedharan and DMRC as the consultant for Bangalore Metro and I gave the money to prepare the DPR, conducted soil test and also had a tie up with JICA for equity and finance.
Thirdly, the Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BMP) was bleeding in 2001, they were not having money for projects. HUDCO was under me and I gave Rs 10,000 crore credit line to state government and Rs 1,000 crore to BMP for creation of more than 250 parks and 57 water reservoirs and tanks. A number of flyovers, underpasses and grade separators were built. We also provided money for construction of 100 Nirmal Shouchalayas (toilets).
Fourthly, I also gave Bangalore two more things, which are on the anvil. Like Mumbai, Bangalore should have a suburban rail. It will have four radials towards -- Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune-Mumbai and Mysore.
We commissioned RITES for conducting detailed project report, which was approved by BJP government in its last budget before 2013 assembly elections. We are the first ever state, which has proposed it to the Centre under the 50:50 joint venture under K-RIDE (Karnataka Railway Infrastructure Development Enterprise), which is a special purpose vehicle created only between government of Karnataka and government of India. That proposal is pending before the Central government.
My recent proposal for Bangalore city is setting up a dedicated power plant at Bidadi with a capacity of 1,250 Mw. I persuaded GAIL to lay the gas pipeline, which is already ready and the DPR is ready for the power project. The government would be floating global tenders very soon for the project.
I have also brought additional 500 MLD water through the Cauvery water 4th stage project for Bangalore despite Jayalalitha’s opposition. I provided Rs 800 crore through HUDCO for the project.
If NDA returns to power, what are your programmes for Bangalore in the first 100 days?
I will take up three projects like, suburban rail, Bidadi power plant and thirdly, rejuvenation of tanks and a metro rail link to international airport.
