Modi must lose so that the country may win: Chaudhary Ajit Singh

Modi must go, declares Chaudhary Ajit Singh, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief while talking to this correspondent at his camp office in a hotel on Muzaffarnagar-Delhi highway.

“This is the most crucial election and we have to ensure the defeat of the ruling clique. If they return, neither the Constitution nor this country or democracy will survive,” he adds on a sombre note.

“Modi has to go,” he adds on a more emphatic note. Asked why, the RLD chief patiently explains

• During the last five years public confidence in institutions like Parliament, Supreme Court, Reserve Bank of India, Central Bureau of Investigation, PSUs, Railways and the BSNL has significantly eroded.
• Lives of ordinary farmers, the poor and daily wage earners have worsened.
• Farmers are incurring expenses on fencing their fields the money they would have spent on paying their children’s fees. They have no option if they want to protect their crops from stray cattle.
• This Government had boasted of making payments for sugarcane within a fortnight but it failed. Nor has it ensured reasonable farm prices.
• This is a Government of crony capitalists, for Adanis and Ambanis and it dares to crack down on farmers with batons.

In this election, it is not important who is contesting from where. What is important is to ensure the defeat of BJP and Narendra Modi. “Even BJP MPs have started saying that if BJP wins this election, there will be no election in the future,”he says referring to the statement of Sakshi Maharaj.

“It is true that Modi speaks of harmony, India First, nationalism, democracy and fraternity in his public speeches. But he lies and his words do not match his actions,” he adds quietly.

Asked if Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 would still cast its shadow in 2019, the RLD chief exudes confidence that both Jats and Muslims have moved on. For possibly the first time, he says, Muslims, Dalits and Jats are canvassing together while using the same vehicle.

“The communities now know who were the culprits, who created the communal divide and mischief then and why,” he claims.

The Kairana by-election in which RLD fielded a Muslim for the Lok Sabha also helped restore the faith of the minorities in Jats. The polling was held during the holy month of Ramazan and Jats spontaneously had stepped aside from queues so that Muslims could cast their votes before them, he added.

While he himself has been travelling extensively during the past few years to bridge the communal divide in the area, he says he is happy to see Muslims visiting Jat villages and seeking votes for him.

Muzaffarnagar district had witnessed large-scale communal violence between July and September 2013 resulting in the killing of over 60 persons, both Hindus and Muslims, injuries to over 100 people and exodus of over 50,000 people.

The riots created sharp communal divide in country’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. In the following Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 73 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP.

“To defeat Modi, Jats and Muslims need to work together,” he says. The Jats and Muslims, who were after each other’s throats five years ago, are seen moving shoulder to shoulder campaigning for me,” he claims.

Ajit Singh is a computer scientist who was among the first Indians to work with IBM. But in Muzaffarnagar and his home district of Meerut, he is better known as the son of the legendary farm leader Choudhary Charan Singh.