New Delhi: While talks are doing round over a possible deal between the BJP and BJD for the Deputy Speaker post in Lok Sabha wherein BJP is expected to support the BJD candidate, Cuttack MP and senior BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab ruled out any such talks – at least yet.
Asked whether any deal has been struck between BJP and BJD for the post, he said, “The matter has to be considered by the leadership of both the parties and so far I am not aware of any such discussion.”
Speaking about his party’s rivalry with BJP in the state, he said that BJP is certainly a force to reckon with, both at the state level in Odisha and at the national level, but a lot of it is also about ‘falsehood’.
“Elections in Odisha in 2019 was different. More than calling it a tough, I will say it was different. BJP’s campaign strategies and maneuvering all are different than our erstwhile rival Congress. But it is also true that the saffron party has created an atmosphere of falsehood,” Mahtab told UNI here.
However, he said as the elections are over and people have given a mandate, “all parties including the opposition parties and the ruling BJP, now need to come out of election mood”.
He said – “The focus should shift to nation building and development. There must be intense debate about dealing with the problem of poverty, unemployment and other challenges”.
Mahtab, who romped home from Cuttack parliamentary constituency for the sixth consecutive term, said “On all these works and for development, our party BJD is going to cooperate with the Centre”.
Answering questions, he said, “I need not elaborate much on BJP’s falsehood dimension. But most of their leaders and workers probably do not know the difference between patriotism and nationalism….They may say both are the same”.
However, he said, the European history in the beginning of 20th century would tell clearly what is the difference between patriotism and nationalism.
In fact, his statement was in reference to the conviction that the patriot is proud of one’s country for what it does (qualitatively) and a nationalist is one who is also proud of the country – but for whatever the country does.
Obviously, his reference is to one’s belief that prescribes a blind following, arrogance and war and of course the other one – that is patriotism which creates a feeling of responsibility and nation building.
To a question whether he faced a ‘tough’ candidate in Prakash Mishra, a former state DGP, Mahtab said: “As far as I could examine, the election was different. It was ‘Modi Modi’ campaign by BJP all around and so individual candidates did not matter much”.
Answering a question, he, however, said: “the BJP’s electoral strategies were different. We were used to dealing with Congress challenges in electoral politics so far. But BJP’s campaign was more aggressive. They have cadres, cadre-based approach and resources. The campaign itself was more aggressive. As a regional party, we were tuned in to face Congress challenges. This time, we learnt a lot on how to fight BJP electorally”.
Elaborating further, he said the use of social media has given a different dimension to politics.
To a question on whether RSS workers have helped BJP’s growth prospects in states like Odisha, he said – “The aggressiveness was verbal and as well as physical”.
But Mahtab maintained ‘falsehood’ also has limitation. Therefore, he said – while they succeeded in winning parliamentary seats, when it came to state level issues and assembly elections, the BJP failed in Odisha. They could win only 23 seats in the 147-member assembly”.
(UNI)
