scorecardresearch
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeOpinionModi MonitorThis is what has angered Narendra Modi this Lok Sabha election

This is what has angered Narendra Modi this Lok Sabha election

In an election marked by coarse language, the PM’s unseemly comments about Rajiv Gandhi touched a new low.

Follow Us :
Text Size:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi ko itna gussa kyon aata hai? Why is Modi so often so angry?

This past Saturday, Modi described Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s father Rajiv Gandhi, a former prime minister, as “Bhrashtachari Number One” (most corrupt). On Monday, he followed up his remarks by challenging the Congress to contest the remaining two phases of the Lok Sabha elections in the name of the former prime minister against whom serious allegations of corruption had been levelled.

In an election marked by coarse language, the PM’s unseemly comments about Rajiv Gandhi touched a new low. In ‘bhartiya sanskriti’, you don’t speak ill of the dead. His remarks invited a backlash not only from a variety of political leaders, from Mamata Banerjee to Chandrababu Naidu, it also put the BJP on defensive.


Also read: How Rajiv Gandhi, ‘such a nice man’, won and ruined India’s biggest mandate


They also seemed to have rankled Modi. At the rally in Jharkhand Monday, he explained why he had been so caustic about the former PM.

Yeh log picchle ek saal se desh ke pradhan mantri ko a-maryad bhasha main, anaap-shanaap bhasha main, jo chahe woh gaaliyan dete rahein,” he said.

For the past one year, the Congress has been hurling abuses at the office of the Prime Minister, he said.

Then he added: “Maine toh ek shabd bola aur aapko bicchhu kaat gaya (I said one word about him, and you were stung by the scorpion),” the PM asked.

So, why is Modi so angry and irritated all the time? Here are three likely reasons:

First, he seems genuinely hurt that Rahul Gandhi has doubled down on “Chowkidaar chor hai” and called into question his integrity. When the whole world is lauding him for being the key to India’s extraordinary progress, Modi believes, according to a political leader who knows him well and spoke on the condition of anonymity, how can someone question him on his moral compass.


Also read: Rajiv Gandhi to nuclear button: PM Modi has made it amply clear he’s panicking this election


Modi feels that the “naamdaar” Gandhi family, along with the “Lutyens media”, wants to make fun of him in front of the world leaders he has taken such care to placate, and that certainly is a low thing to do. So, he has decided to hit back at the Congress leadership’s soft spot, Sonia Gandhi’s husband and Rahul-Priyanka Gandhi’s father, Rajiv Gandhi.

Note that Modi hasn’t targeted Rahul’s grandmother Indira Gandhi in the same way, perhaps because he wants to demonstrate that her strong-armed tactics, especially the imposition of the Emergency, were far ahead of her time.

Second, at the end of the fifth phase of the elections, with 424 seats having gone to the polls – and only two more phases to go – Modi may be wondering if he is going to win India like he did in 2014.

If the ‘mahagathbandhan’ holds strong in Uttar Pradesh, if the Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee holds West Bengal in the face of a determined BJP onslaught and if the Congress party wins between 90-100 seats, then it is clear that Modi and the BJP are certainly encircled.

That’s many ifs and buts. But being the sharpest and shrewdest leader in India today, Modi is certainly analysing the data from the 2000+ assembly constituencies (a number quoted by a political expert) that have already voted in this election.

How did the caste constituencies vote? How did the Muslims vote? Did Muslims vote in large numbers, knowing that they have been marginalised almost completely?

And third, Modi’s decision to turn the 2019 election into one that has all the characteristics of hardline Hindutva, according to one analyst, demonstrates his growing dependence on party president Amit Shah.

In contrast, the 2014 election was much more about issues like eradicating poverty. Words like “Hindu” and “Hindutva” were deliberately pushed to the background in favour of “vikas” as well as the quotidian “chaiwallah”.

An India Today study, which analysed Modi’s five election speeches in 2014 as well as in 2019, found that in 2014, the dominant words in candidate Modi’s speeches were “poor” (55 times), “Congress”(43 times), “BJP” (31 times), “Gujarat” (28 times), “farmers” (28 times) and “development” (25 times).


Also read: I’m a traditional BJP-voting industrialist. Narendra Modi made me vote NOTA


In contrast, in 2019, “chowkidar” appeared 106 times, followed by “poor” (41 times), the word “Modi” (37 times), “Congress” (36 times), “farmers” (23 times) and “BJP” (24 times).

For Modi, the 2019 election has been more like the aftermath of the 2002 riots, rather than the 2014 campaign when the hopeful and aspirational prime ministerial candidate swept the nation.

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

13 COMMENTS

  1. Mam, did you rightly predict the modi wave of 2014? Or the Yogi wave in UP elections?
    If not then please stop wishing that modi loses and masquerading those wishes as ground analysis !
    As far as the question of Rajiv Gandhi goes, can death really be the reason for stopping all criticism of that person? Even if his/her actions were wrong?
    Consider: godse, Jinnah, Hitler, Mussolini, Osama, kasab etc. Am I supposed to start respecting all of these “late” gems?

    • Dear Anon(ymous), I like the respect shown by you to the lady journalist even if you strongly differ with the content of her article, which incidentally even I do. Maintain those good values – don’t get influenced by people with acerbic tones.

  2. I am only interested in the truth. I don’t bloody hell care whether the accused person is dead or alive. There is enough evidence for the public to see that Rajiv Gandhi and his cohort were guilty of Sikh massacre, Bofors and many other things during his time. It is history except that he was killed before he was convicted. Sonia Gandhi and many of Rajiv’s colleagues have continued the same corruption and have protected those involved in the corruption.
    So, I do not find any thing wrong in what Modi said.
    If Congress is going to bring up “Bharatiya Sanskriti”, to hell with it. Corruption is not our sanskriti nor is genocide.
    We still call Hitler evil or Ravana evil or Jarasandha evil or Chenghis or Timur etc as evil. They are all dead people right. Do you mean to say Congress leaders will never talk about them as evil in future?

  3. Why doesn’t the Congress talk about the 2002 Gujrat riots and the current PMs complicity.
    He is welcomed as the PM of India . Let him try traveling on his personal passport and then we will know the real situation.

  4. Modi’s biggest flaw was his inability to engage with the press. He not only displayed the same reluctance to questioning by press as his predecessors, but showed open disdain for it. By being answerable to the press, he would have set not only an outstanding precedent in establishing a professional politics-press channel of communication – a break from presstitutism – so essential in a mature democracy, but also cleared the shadow on his integrity. Unfortunately he chose to be as haughty and imperial as Sonia on this front. Extremely mediocre!!

  5. Shekhar gupta ko bhi dekha ki same question puch rahe hai twitter pe ki Indra ko target kyun nahi karte Bjp wale, are gar wo nahi kar rahe to aap log kar lijiye likhiye article ki kaise Indra ne democracy ki dhaniya udaai kaise jabardasti secularism add kiya constitution me kisne roka hai aap logo ko aap log bhi to target nahi karte Indra ko, ab Bjp ke bahane hi sahi logo tak sach pahuchaye.

  6. When fake narrative is built by Rahul Gandhi about 35 ,000crores out of 57,000 crores of the rafale deal, learned media must than question how come aircrafts are sold at double the price, if the narration is wrong must question it, if narendra modi is using the same stick to beat his opponent one cannot find fault.

  7. So people can’t question first family congress piddis bring modi mother (who is not a public person) to politics then it was fine with pappu father Rajiv G was also PM the worst one India had but we can’t question him because he was cute has class stop this chatukarita and do some journalism.
    Death doesn’t erase his crimes be it sikh killings or Safely take Anderson from Bhopal jail to USA. Or smallest one bofors kewal Rahul ka baap nahi pura gandhi khandan chor hai.

  8. Let’s be clear: this so called below the belt language is used by both Rahul and Modi. Of course, when Rahul speaks, he finds a new confidence whereas when Modi replies he is uncultured! Indeed, one does not use any bad words for a martyred leader. But that is not point Modi was making and he referred to Rajiv as starting Mr. clean but ending as Most corrupt one. Obviously, Modi cannot attack Rahul on performance as he has never held any office and hence, the harsh language was used against his father in a tit for tat attack. Avoidable but very effectively used, though below the belt! In the heat of electioneering, one has to accept this in overall context and move on. In any case, whatever Modi does, the Leutyen Media and left liberal pseudo seculars will never like him. So why bother about them!!

    • Using the language against Rajiv, Modi did not do any good either for BJP or himself.. it only increased goodwill for Gandhis.. Rajiv was never convicted and BJP too could not find any shred of evidence as part of JPC.. These statements will haunt him for years and no other BJP leader has repeated it.. Modi is a disgrace as PM and a undignified loser.. Elections are not the end of life for anyone but Modi as he knows that none will look at him if he is not PM.. He has a big inferiority complex.. God give him wisdom..

  9. Dear Author,
    Are you kidding?
    It is the Sonia and Rahul Gandhi playing politics with Rahul Gandhi’s death. For what reasons you would accommodate the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and go to the extent of visiting them in the Jail and seeking pardon for them. All these for the sake of Tamil votes or for fear of life.
    Modi being an opposition leader will raise the corruption of Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv died but then he is still the alleged corrupt PM. What is wrong in point this out. The money trails of Bofors confirm money going to Uncle Q, the relative of Sonia Gandhi.

  10. This election will, of course, be decided, patiently, one by one, in 543 constituencies, in the absence of any wave or tsunami. However, the hinge will turn in UP. When Dr Prannoy Roy asked Shri Akhilesh Yadav, good naturedly, So, will you win 79 seats, he replied with the gravitas one associates with him, Our alliance is far, far ahead. If our cadres fan out and get the voters out, our adversary could be reduced to almost single digits. Punya Prasun Bajpayee in his analysis of the fifth phase reckons the incumbent is down almost a hundred seats. He said, Expect the discourse to become even more harsh over the last two phases.

  11. Over the five years Modi used every forum to abuse Nehru Gandhi family. If one observe Rahul often called Papu maintained calm, but when he saw his entire family is being abused none other by Modi the Rafale came handy and that’s where Chor has come into public domain. The entire campaign was planned step by step, the attack on late PM was last line.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular