New Delhi: Many senior BJP leaders added the words “Modi Ka Parivar” next to their name on the social media platform X Monday, in solidarity with the Prime Minister, a day after Opposition leader Lalu Prasad Yadav quipped that Narendra Modi had no family.
Party leaders and ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, and J.P. Nadda were among those who identified themselves as Modi’s family after the Prime Minister himself delivered a stinging rebuke to Yadav’s comment at a rally in Adilabad, Telangana, Monday.
Modi said the leaders of the “INDI alliance” were getting nervous as they were “deeply immersed in corruption, nepotism and appeasement politics”.
“After I questioned their dynasty politics, they have now started saying that Modi has no family. I want to tell them that 140 crore countrymen are my family. Those who have no one also belong to Modi and Modi belongs to them. My India is my family,” Modi told his audience.
He wondered whether the Opposition would now stop him from doing politics because he had not been to jail either.
Modi was responding to RJD leader and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s attack on him at the INDIA bloc’s “Jan Vishwas Maha Rally” in Patna Sunday.
Yadav had said: “Narendra Modi is attacking ‘parivarvad’ these days. Firstly, you tell us why you do not have any children or family. He accuses people with children of pursuing dynasty politics.”
Yadav chided Modi for not having a family, and also for “not being a Hindu”, asking him why he did not cut his hair or beard after the demise of his mother. “Every Hindu tonsures his head to mourn their mother’s death. Answer us why you did not do that,” Yadav asked.
Speaking in Telangana, Monday, Modi responded by saying that crores of women, and every poor and bereft person could count him as family. “My India, my family – With this feeling, I live for you, fight for you and will continue to fight to fulfil my dreams with determination,” he added.
Soon after the Prime Minister’s statement, BJP leaders started adding “Modi Ka Parivar” to their X handle as part of its pre-poll strategy. The party also swung into action and held a press conference in Delhi where its Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi termed Lalu Yadav’s comments as “unfortunate and painful”.
“I want to remind everyone that for him (PM Modi), the whole country is his family… Ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, he has celebrated Diwali with soldiers at the border. They are his family… When he left his family to dedicate himself to his country, that very moment he pledged the whole nation was his family,” Trivedi said.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP leaders Anil Sharma, Parvesh Verma, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Tajinder Bagga launched the ‘Modi Ka Parivar’ campaign to extend support to the Prime Minister.
According to a party leader, the BJP will continue to raise this issue ahead of the general election.
‘Chowkidar Narendra Modi’
The BJP had found a similar catchphrase in 2019, from an attack by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Modi, who had often referred to himself as a “chowkidar” or watchman of the country, was ridiculed by the Congress with the slogan “Chowkidar Chor Hain”. The phrase was coined by Rahul Gandhi to allege favouritism and price escalation in the Rafale jet deal.
Seizing on the Congress’s campaign, the BJP launched a counter-attack, with the motto “Main Bhi Chowkidar”.
Modi urged all to come forward “to fight corruption, dirt and social evils”.
In a tweet put out on his @narendramodi handle, Modi wrote, “Your Chowkidar is standing firm & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar.”
The Prime Minister had also changed his X handle to “Chowkidar Narendra Modi”, followed suit by then party president Amit Shah, who renamed his username similarly.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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