Seven months ago, Congress president Rahul Gandhi told a gathering that his party did not believe in insulting its political rivals. “Show them love, even if they abuse you”, he had grandly advised. Since then, he has led his party in demonstrating exactly what he meant. He called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “corrupt” and a “thief” on the basis of non-existent evidence. Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani said Modi was namak haram. The daughter of a former Union Home Minister in the Congress-led UPA regime said the Prime Minister was a “dengue mosquito”.
The most recent abuse has come from Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor. Speaking at a literature festival in Bangalore, he quoted an “RSS source” as saying that the Prime Minister was like a scorpion on a Shiv Linga, which can neither be removed nor hit. Tharoor dug up this remark which was supposedly made by an RSS functionary back in 2012. Tharoor’s attack has to do with the promotion of his recent book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister, where he relentlessly flays Modi. The erudite politician and author has no qualms about stooping low to publicise his book.
There is something intrinsic in the Congress which prevents the party from taking on Modi without resorting to abuse. Worse, the flag-bearers of such abuse are also those who are well-read, highly educated, and have occupied prestigious positions in public space. While, as Congressmen, they were expected to be critical of the Modi Government and of the Prime Minister’s functioning, they certainly were not expected to use filthy language to make their point. That was left to uncouth motormouths of the Sanjay Nirupam kind.
Among the earliest ‘intellectuals’ in the Congress to abuse Modi is Mani Shankar Aiyar. Well educated, a former Indian Foreign Service officer and former Cabinet Minister, he has become a serial abuser. In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he not only declared that Modi could never become the Prime Minister but also offered space to him at the Congress headquarters to run a tea stall. More recently, he called the Prime Minister ‘neech” (a man of low means). The Congress had suspended him from the party and its spokespersons had made a big virtue of the decision, claiming that the party had zero tolerance for political abuses. But only recently, Aiyar’s suspension was revoked. However, that shouldn’t have surprised anyone. It was obvious that action against Aiyar had been taken while keeping electoral considerations in mind. Once that consideration no longer held validity, the serial offender was back in the Congress.
Still, why blame these leaders, when the chief himself is not above board. It was within days of the forced hug he gave to a startled Prime Minister in Parliament, that Rahul Gandhi launched a personalised tirade against Modi over the Rafale deal. As a political opponent, he is well within his rights to criticise the Prime Minister, but it is not done to call the country’s Prime Minister a thief. If Rahul Gandhi is today showing the way to his party men (and women), it was Sonia Gandhi as Congress president who had done her bit once upon a time. Almost a decade ago, while campaigning in Gujarat, she had abused Modi, who was then Chief Minister of the State, calling him a merchant of death (“maut ke saudagar”). Years later, Rahul Gandhi got into the act and accused Prime Minister Modi of indulging in “khoon ki dalali” in the death of security personnel in certain terrorist attack cases.
Congressmen usually respond to criticism that their senior leaders indulge in below-the-belt personal attacks on Modi, by retorting that BJP leaders too have resorted to similar remarks against their senior leaders, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. True, there have been unsavoury and condemnable statements from some BJP leaders. But Modi, neither as Prime Minister nor even when he was Chief Minister, ever used abuse to address his political rivals. He has been scathing in his attacks on Congress leaders — on issues of dynastic politics, compromising with national security, belittling tall leaders of the freedom movement to promote members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, etc — but one does not recall his calling Sonia Gandhi or her son a scorpion or neech or a merchant of death — and more. That’s the difference.
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