Capt Amarinder could be Modi’s only challenger

Thursday, 09/05/2019

https://www.brightpunjabexpress.com/index.php/2019/05/08/capt-amarinder-could-be-modis-only-challenger/

CHANDIGARH : Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greatest advantage as of now is that he does not have any challenger. Rather there are many challengers like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Bannerjee, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Chandrababu Naidu and may be a few more, who are secretly nursing their Prime Ministerial ambitions. It is an irony that despite the current General Elections having taken a ‘Presidential’ form, there is only one contender in the ring and that is Modi. If Modi could have a challenger, it could be the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, who is ranked as the second most popular leader in the country, first being Modi himself.

A survey conducted by the Punjab Express, through various social media platforms over a period of last two weeks, found that the Punjab Chief Minister was the most popular leader in the country after Narendra Modi. Capt Amarinder even found support among those Facebook and Twitter accounts, which apparently seemed pro-BJP. The survey on social media was corroborated with direct phone calls to about 200 people across the country, which included the Presidents of various press clubs and the bar associations. Most of the respondents replied that they not only knew about Capt Amarinder, but they also admired him.

In fact, he is seen to be the only nationalist leader in the Congress, apparently for his unambiguous stand on national security. His speech in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack continues to be liked and shared on the social media, more by the right-wing handles and groups. “If the Congress wanted to give serious fight to Modi Ji, it should have projected Capt Amarinder as the Prime Ministerial candidate, rather than keep it vague and ambiguous as a dangling carrot for likes of Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Bannerjee and Chandrababu Naidu”, read an FB post by one Satinder Singh, claiming himself to be a nationalist and Modi supporter.

The Congress, from day one, has been reluctant to announce and project Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate. The party has been too timid and apprehensive that the opposition parties, like Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party and even Trinamool Congress and Telugu Desam Party which are prepared to rally around it, may back out, since the leaders of these parties have their own Prime Ministerial ambitions. While two of them, Mayawati and Akhilesh are former Chief Ministers, two others, Mamata Bannerjee and Naidu are the sitting Chief Ministers.

Leaving Gandhi aside, none of the sitting and former Chief Ministers match the charm and charisma of the Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. Not just the current survey conducted by this newspaper, several earlier surveys also projected Capt Amarinder as the most popular leader in the country after Narendra Modi. This was immediately after the Pulwama attacks, when he led from the front and spent days and nights on the border along with the troops in apprehension of possible hostilities between the two countries in the aftermath of the attack.

While there are suggestions for considering him as the possible Prime Ministerial candidate in case the UPA gets in a position to form the government, Capt Amarinder himself will be the last person to accept it, since he would like to see Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country, as he treats him like his son. Rahul’s father Rajeev Gandhi and Capt Amarinder studied together at Doon School. They remained friends ever since, even after Capt Amarinder resigned from the Congress in 1984 to protest against the Operation Bluestar.

Otherwise, Capt Amarinder possesses all the attributes to qualify for the Prime Ministership. He is a decisive leader who calls spade a spade. His nationalist credentials can be rivaled by none. In 1965, he rejoined the army, although he had taken premature retirement earlier, to fight war against Pakistan. He is an avid reader and a military historian, having written five voluminous books on military history. He falls in the league of scholar statesmen like Winston Churchill, Pandit Nehru and PV Narsimha Rao. If the occasion demands and if he accepts the challenge, Capt Amarinder can prove to be the best Prime Minister.