Why is BJP aggressively taking on the opposition over Manipur issue?

New Delhi: Despite an all-out offensive by opposition parties against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party after Manipur sexual assault videos surfaced, the saffron party has taken the issue aggressively trying to make it a larger nationwide problem.

The saffron party feels that the timing of these Manipur videos, just ahead of the Parliament session, was highly suspectable and was being used by the opposition to sway the women, youngsters and first-time voters against the BJP. This is the most important vote bank which has continued to back the Narendra Modi government over its past two tenures.

Sources stated the latest offensive was required as the BJP leadership felt that the opposition parties were being able to make a dent in the biggest chunk of Narendra Modi government’s staunch supporters, women and first-time voters.

It was felt by the saffron leadership that by playing up these selected offensive videos the opposition had tried to create a narrative that the BJP was anti-women.

“This attempt at perception creation had to be stopped immediately, hence the aggressive posturing by saffron leaders on the issue,” sources said.

This narrative built by the opposition on these videos is trying to undo years of welfare measures for women that have been done by the Central government.

This was the reason that the BJP leadership has gone all out to target the opposition narrative on women being unsafe in saffron-ruled states.

“As part of the counter-offensive, the BJP has decided to dig into similar incidents in Congress and other opposition-ruled states. The earnestness of the saffron unit can be gauged from the fact that top ministers from the Narendra Modi cabinet, BJP’s spokespersons, senior organizational functionaries and members of Parliament have been in attack mode ever since the surfacing of these videos,” sources said.

BJP leaders have been constantly highlighting crimes against women in West Bengal and Rajasthan, ruled by the Trinamool Congress and Congress respectively, asking whether these governments were accountable or not.

Instead of being on the defensive, the BJP now offensively counters all such allegations against its state governments by producing similar crime-related data and videos to put the opposition-led governments in the dock. Pictures, videos and other gruesome details of similar crimes from opposition-ruled states like Rajasthan, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and others are being put out regularly by the BJP in the public domain.

Taking lessons from past mistakes

The opposition may have smelled a whiff of panic amongst the saffron ranks as the Manipur videos went viral, also emboldening these to stall Parliamentary proceedings in the ongoing Monsoon session.

However, the BJP has tried to seek lessons from its past mistakes as it does not want to lag in the narrative war as the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are less than a year away.

The top leadership of the party felt that if the issue wasn’t nipped in the bud it could get out of hand and become a major headache like the farmers’ agitation, which had been fueled by the opposition.

The farmers’ protest led to a loss of a lot of goodwill for the Modi government and the BJP wants to avoid it at any cost.

With crucial Assembly polls later this year and general elections less than a year away, the Narendra Modi government doesn’t want to leave anything to chance.

“Any lethargy shown in tacking this false perception creation can have very dangerous consequences for the BJP. Hence the leadership’s total focus at tackling it,” sources said.

This means that the government is also willing to sacrifice the normal functioning of the Parliament to take on the opposition, sources added.

By going on a massive counter-offensive, the BJP hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to secure power for an unprecedented third time will be successful next year.