BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s adeptness in connecting with the masses and tapping their pride to his political advantage was in ample display at the Parivartan Rally as he started and ended his speech in Kannada.
Departing from his start by addressing the gathering as “my dear brothers and sisters”, Modi took the name of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru as he started his speech. What followed was not only a long list of icons of the state who evoke pride in the hearts of the people of Karnataka, but also logging on to the minds of all major communities (Vokkaliga, Veerashaiva, Dalit and Kuruba) which have identified themselves with these icons.
Karnataka is a great land of Kempegowda; social reformers Basaveshwara, Madara Chennaiah, Kittur Rani Chennamma, who fought against the British; Sangolli Rayanna, the freedom fighter who was hanged to death by the British; and Sir M Visvesvaraya, the illustrious statesman and engineer, he said and appealed to the gathering “Karnataka Parivartane Maadi, BJP Gellisi,” (Bring change in Karnataka by ensuring the victory of BJP).
He ended his 55-minute address in Kannada stating “Karnatakadalli noora aivattu kamala aralistheeri annuva vishwasa idhe,” (I am confident that you will ensure 150 lotuses bloom in Karnataka in the forthcoming Assembly election), which is a reference to BJP’s ‘Mission 150’.
Modi even tapped into cricket and Karnataka’s cricket icon Rahul Dravid as he lauded his contribution to the success of under-19 India cricket team which won the World Cup on Saturday.
BSY talks in Hindi to impress Modi
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised the audience with his Kannada, a little earlier BJP state President BS Yeddyurappa turned to Hindi to impress the Prime Minister. Yeddyurappa, who devoted his address to bash the Siddaramaiah government suddenly switched to Hindi as he vowed to realise ‘Mission 150’ in the state.
“I am giving an assurance that I will realise Modi’s dream of Congress-Mukt Karnataka,” Yeddyurappa said in Hindi. He accused the Siddaramaiah government of betraying the farmers by failing to spend Rs 10,000 crore every year for irrigation, irregularities in utilisation of funds provided by Union government and total collapse of law and order in the state. Union minister Ananth Kumar exhorted the gathering to end the dynastic politics by voting the BJP to power in the state and re-electing Modi as the Prime Mnister for the second term.