What is it about the BJP and Italian women? For decades, the party seemed obsessed with Sonia Gandhi, rejecting all suggestions that she had chosen to adopt India as her home and focusing on her Italian-ness instead. While Sonia Gandhi’s country of birth kept the leadership busy, the Twitter scum took the line that any white woman must have had loose morals. And so, BJP supporters on social media called her a barmaid or ‘Italian bar dancer.’
I don’t know how Sonia Gandhi felt about these insults and abuses because she never responded. But then, neither did any BJP leader. Nobody of any consequence told the rabble that their language was misogynistic and far beyond the pale.
Sonia Gandhi is a much less visible figure these days, so the online mob has lost interest in her. Instead they are obsessed — this time, in an adoring sort of way — with Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy. In much of the world, Meloni’s rise to power was greeted with (possibly unfair) commentary about her fascist roots. But in India, this rarely comes up. And even if it did, it might well be treated as a badge of honour by some of those who post about her.
The current Right wing obsession with Meloni is predicated on her relationship with Narendra Modi. There is no doubt that the leaders get on and BJP supporters talk admiringly about ‘Melodi’, the name given to the ‘pairing’. The Indian Prime Minister even playfully gifted Melody chocolates to his Italian counterpart and, just as playfully, some of his supporters took to giving affectionate familial nicknames to Meloni.
Insult and Indian politics
I mention all this because BJP supporters have taken umbrage at what they say is an insult levelled at Meloni by Rahul Gandhi. At a public meeting on Thursday, Rahul went to hug Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit. In turn, Dikshit made a joke referencing Meloni, and Rahul followed up by saying that foreign policy was about more than hugging people.
It was a silly and insensitive thing for Dikshit to have said and it deserves to be condemned. If he had compared himself to any of the male leaders that Modi routinely hugs, it would have been different. Because Meloni is a woman, the remark took on a different context. And even if it was Dikshit who made the remark and not Rahul, it still reflects badly on the Congress.
With the Italian stoicism that Sonia Gandhi had previously displayed, Meloni ignored the remark. But the BJP saw its opportunity, and instructions went out to the party’s mouthpieces (social media handles, TV channels etc) to amplify the incident and to condemn Rahul’s apparent lack of respect for women.
Unfortunately for the government, the Italians did not issue an indignant response. But this was not a major problem. A fake account purporting to be the official account of the Italian Embassy posted a bogus statement protesting about the remarks. Any moderately intelligent person who saw the statement would know at once that it was a forgery. But orders are orders, and so the TV channels duly reported that the Italian government had protested and that Rahul had caused an international incident.
I mention all this not to point to the government’s total control over much of the electronic media or the willingness to treat forgeries and fake news as facts. My concern is with the sudden focus on insults in politics. At the Jantar Mantar protests, most of the slogans were directed at the Prime Minister and many were extremely insulting. Most politicians ignore abuse or insults and focus on the issues: and when students light a fire under the government’s chair, there are clearly many issues to be addressed.
But the Prime Minister rejected the stoic approach of Sonia Gandhi and Meloni, and spoke to the nation about how offended he was by the insults. He had a right to be upset; some of the slogans were meant to hurt and given that he has been the Supreme Leader for over a decade, it has probably been years since anyone dared insult him.
But he may have forgotten that even before he ruled India, not only were such insults a part of political rhetoric but that he was one of the leading insulters.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi finally has an audience that isn’t laughing at him
A symptom of something deeper
The prominent Gujarati journalist Deepal Trivedi posted on X that she had heard Narendra Modi describe Sonia Gandhi as a “Jersey cow” and Rahul as a “hybrid.” According to Trivedi, he also said he had spoken to 20 people and not one of them was willing to give Sonia Gandhi a job as a clerk or to employ Rahul Gandhi as a peon.
These were public statements made to large audiences and not remarks made to Trivedi in private. She offered many other such instances, but I think you get the general idea.
It would be quite wrong to say that the Jantar Mantar protesters were influenced by the Prime Minister’s language. It is more likely that they were influenced by the abuse and filth that is routinely directed at the government’s critics by pro-BJP handles on social media. Some of the abusers are relative unknowns (like the students who called the Prime Minister names at Jantar Mantar), but some of the handles claim to be followed by the Prime Minister.
It is not my case that it is okay to abuse the Prime Minister of India. Narendra Modi deserves courtesy. Nor should Congress leaders be making jokes about women in politics. That not only demeans women but it shames the Congress.
My point is the obvious one about pots and kettles and stones and glasshouses. The insults and the abuses are a symptom of something deeper: the coarsening of Indian politics and the rise of a culture where abuse is mistaken for dialogue or criticism.
I can understand why the Prime Minister is hurt. In some respects at least, he is as biological as the rest of us and no one deserves this kind of abuse. But if the BJP is going to get self righteous, it should just look at the language and slurs that are routinely used by its MPs, its supporters, and its leaders before pointing fingers at students and political rivals.
Vir Sanghvi is a print and television journalist and talk show host. He tweets @virsanghvi. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)