PM Modi is expected to use the Congress’ personal attack on him in the Rafale case to his advantage during the 2019 campaign.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believes the “personal” nature of the Congress’ Rafale attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, freely referring to him as “chor” or “thief”, will actually enable the party to portray him as a victim and rake up the ‘neech jaati (lower caste)’ issue.
Highly placed sources in the BJP said this line of attack by the Congress had eased the party brass’ apprehensions about the damage the Rafale controversy would do to the party’s image.
“The BJP, in a way, is happy with this juvenile criticism,” said one party source.
“We did get worried about the rising pressure and perception issues. But Rafale and questions on that is one thing, and calling the PM a thief and using memes to that effect is quite another,” the source added.
“We don’t think the strategy of calling the PM personally corrupt will stick at all, given his credibility even today,” the source said.
The sources added that the PM will not speak on the issue yet, and attempt to “use it to his advantage during the campaign” for the 2019 elections.
The controversy surrounding the Rafale deal with France and Dassault Aviation is refusing to abate.
Former French president François Hollande’s claim that the Indian government had “proposed” Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as Dassault’s offset partner had forced the BJP to deploy senior ministers to defend the government.
Also read: There’s a humongous scam in the Rafale deal. It is called stupidity
Having taken on the Congress on corruption in a big way ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party was worried about having to battle the charge itself in the run-up to 2019.
The party is hoping the Congress’ attack will boomerang, with the PM said to be planning to go to the voters as a victim “who is being called a thief by the naamdaar (one who carries an important surname) because he is a kaamdaar (one who works) and of a neech jaati (lower caste)”.
An old trickCo
The naamdaar vs kaamdaar has been a binary often employed by Modi in his attacks on the Congress, seen among critics as a vehicle of one dynasty.
Ahead of the Gujarat elections, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had referred to Modi, an OBC, as a “neech aadmi”.
While neech is generally used in Hindi to describe an unscrupulous person, it is also the adjective employed for the so-called lower castes. The statement thus gave the BJP and the PM ample ammunition to interpret it as a jibe at his caste, and the ensuing backlash saw Aiyar suspended from the party.
The Congress attack on the Prime Minister has been pivoted on referring to the PM as a “chor (thief)”, with its dominant hashtag for social media jibes being “#ChorPMChupHai”.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi wants House panel probe into Rafale deal, but history shows it’s pointless
Some of the Congress tweets against the PM on the Rafale deal include: “#DaroMat PM Modi, the truth will ‘set you free’.#ChorPMChupHai”, and “It’s really hard to keep track of the Modi Govt.’s lies on the Rafale Scam, so here’s a quick reminder of the big ones. No confusion on who’s the puppet master here! #ChorPMChupHai”.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s statement to social media volunteers in Amethi Monday invoked the same theme.
“Abhi toh shuruwat hui hai, abhi dekhna, maza aayega, aane wale 2-3 mahine mein aisa maza dikhayenge hum aapko (This is just the beginning, now see, it will be fun. In the coming 2-3 months, we will have more fun), Gandhi said.
In a tweet, he referred to Modi as “commander in thief” and alleged that the “PM personally negotiated & changed the Rafale deal behind closed doors” and “betrayed India’s soul”.
Such jibes, the BJP sources claimed, made the Congress campaign seem “facetious”.
‘What rhymes with the Hindi word for peacock’
However, it is the Congress’ social media strategy, led by Divya Spandana, that has given the BJP maximum fodder.
On Tuesday morning, for example, Spandana tweeted a picture of a peacock alongside that of PM Modi, with the Hindi letters ‘cha’ and ‘ma’ written beside each photo. The idea was to convey that the Hindi word for peacock, mor, rhymed with the suggested adjective for Modi.
The accompanying message read, “You get the drift, don’t you?” Playing on tennis player Rafael Nadal’s name, Spandana had earlier tweeted a picture of Modi with the words “Rafale dalal (Rafale middleman)”. A day ago, the Congress social media head tweeted a picture of Modi painting his wax statue that had chor written on the forehead.
Also read: Rafale row an ‘international conspiracy’ instigated by Congress, says Union minister
“With the Congress social media division insisting on pushing out such hashtags, memes and pictures, our party believes they have helped shift the focus away from actual questions on Rafale to the propriety of attacking the PM like this,” said a party leader who did not wish to be identified.
However, while this might be the BJP’s strategy, the Congress’ calculation is that a sustained and concerted attack on the PM will make voters question his integrity.
Well maybe but congress has nothing to loose. And BJP has everything to loose, so the boomerang may actually hit BJP twice one for the act and one for the ignorance.
Many of us still hope the general election campaign will focus on issues that matter to ordinary households, stay clear of emotive, polarising issues, avoid harsh invective, personal attacks. However, that seems unlikely. It is for both sides to consider if they would not – apart from the country itself – be better served by keeping both the election campaign and the political discourse more civil.