The point being made is, there is no way Narendra Modi can top up Rahul Gandhi’s Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) ‘Nyay.’ And while it’s generous to a fault to the people of the land, it’s more lethal than Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s Mig ‘Bison’ 26 for the BJP. Modi’s ‘Chowkidar Rafale’ doesn’t stand a chance in a rat-hole, not if Rahul Gandhi’s top-up MIG takes off.

Modi’s planner-cum-executioner, BJP Blogger Arun Jaitley, appeared on TV to label Rahul Gandhi ‘Bluff Master’. There is an old movie of the same title and Jaitley is of that vintage. The question is, whatever has happened to Modi after ‘Nyay’, where’s he gone to, disappeared? Suddenly, the Balakote air-strikes are fading memory. Nationalism sounds pointless to the poor with no money in the pocket. The ‘Abhinandan’ Modi got for Balakote is dissipating in thin air. “How’s the Josh?” Oops, low!

And Rahul’s wording, his bombast: The “final assault on poverty!” What an election slogan? Nyay the Killer! ‘Rahul Shatters Caste Barriers.’ Actually, no headline does ‘Nyay’ justice. It’s a hand unbeatable. The joker in the pack to ace kings and queens, knights and horses. Rahul played Dhoni’s bicycle shot and put a spoke in Akhilesh Yadav’s cycle, left the other 'UP Ka Ladka' looking ridiculous, red cap askew over crooked nose. That’s what you get for disrespecting Daddy Mulayam.

Rahul Gandhi’s 'Nyay' castled Mayawati. The elephant gone mast on gathbandhan toppled. Jatav women will have Rahul’s top-up to count on. Send children to school. Buy ice-cream. Jhumka. Bangles. Chicken for lunch. Paani-poori on lazy afternoons. If Mayawati honestly loves her Bahujan, she should get out of Rahul’s way. There are better things to do than fight Rahul’s top-up. The best top-up Mayawati can give herself is to give ‘Nyay’ a chance.

The question now is not whether it’s “doable”, and if so, how? Where will the money come from? Those can wait. The question now is, will the Congress ride to power on the back of ‘Nyay’? Will farmers cast aside Modi’s ‘PM Kisan Yojana’ and cast votes for Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Nyay’? A simple calculation of emotions will say, of course, yes. Which man/woman will refuse assured, guaranteed Rs 6000/12,000 in the bank every month?

But then, to get hold of the largesse, they will have to vote Rahul Gandhi/Congress; ensure a Congress government takes charge of the country and the country’s finances ASAP. And the way India gets a government is by elections. ‘Nyay’ is a powerful election-decider. There are those who justify ‘Nyay’ in a roundabout manner, by pointing out that the Gandhi Family and the party they lord over owe it to the nation they kept chained to poverty; that it’s payback time for the Congress, payback for holding millions mired in poverty for 60-plus years.

Of course, nothing such sublime struck Rahul Gandhi when he announced ‘Nyay’ to the voter. He gloated about the “final assault on poverty”; saying “bomb fatne wala hai”; challenging media-persons with “you guys can’t grasp it, isn’t it?” Rahul Gandhi behaves as if the Congress does not owe anything to the people of India; if anything, it’s the other way round. If ‘Nyay’ is the “final assault”, MGNREGA was the “first assault”, and everybody down to Santa knows the first assault lifted 140 million out of poverty.

‘Nyay’ will strike at the roots of poverty and clean the slate, lift the remaining 20 crore out. Jaitley can shout ‘Bluff Master” as much as he wants, the fact of the matter is, the BJP is worried. It’s on such turns and twists that the river changes course. ‘Nyay’ is like the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, a winner if executed properly. Modi’s ‘Acche Din Ayenge’ was a fluffy fake dream, a cloud with a silver lining. A maybe. Yet people fell for it and voted Modi. ‘Nyay’ is more concrete. It holds water. It will fetch votes for the Congress. Rahul’s opposition, one and all, knows this for a fact. (IPA Service)