On Friday, March 8, JKNC leader Omar Abdullah reacted to RJD chairman Lalu Yadav’s recent ‘no-family’ remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that such statements used by the opposition have no impact on voters. Criticising the personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir asserted that such rhetoric backfires for the opposition and only helps Modi secure a goal.
Lashing out at Lalu Prasad Yadav, an I.N.D.I.A. bloc ally, Abdullah said, “Voters are not influenced by such things, they want to know how the issues they are facing at present will be resolved. We actually do self-goal by giving such statements and allow (PM) Modi to score. We should raise issues concerning people…chowkidar, Adani-Ambani, Rafale, family…these things don’t work.”
“We must talk about the problems faced by the people. This is what the voters are interested in,” Omar said.
On Sunday (3rd March), Lalu Prasad Yadav stirred the hornet’s nest by making vicious personal attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While addressing a rally in Patna, the RJD supremo claimed, “Modi talks about dynastic politics, but what is dynastic politics? You (Modi) should explain why you don’t have children. What can we do if Narendra Modi does not have his own family?”
Continuing his vicious attack against the Indian Prime Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was convicted in the fodder scam case and is now out on bail, further claimed that PM Modi is not a Hindu.
He was heard saying, “(Modi) keeps bragging about the Ram temple. He is not even a true Hindu. In Hindu tradition, a son must shave his head and beard after the death of his parents. Modi did not do so when his mother died.”
While Lalu Prasad Yadav assumed that he would garner support for RJD by targeting PM Narendra Modi’s personal life, the political strategy has now backfired on the I.N.D.I. Alliance partner.
Soon after, while addressing a public gathering in Telangana’s Adilabad, PM Modi also reacted to Lalu’s ‘no family’ dig at him and stated that 140 crore Indians are his family. “Jiska koi nahi uska Modi hai (The person who has no one has Modi on his side),” he stated.
“The leaders of the I.N.D.I. Alliance, deeply engrossed in corruption, nepotism and appeasement, are becoming nervous. When I question their ‘Parivarvad’, they have started saying that Modi has no family,” the Prime Minister said.
“My life is an open book, 140 crore people in the country are my family. Today, crores of daughters, mothers and sisters of the country are in Modi’s family. Every poor person in the country is my family. Those who have no one also belong to Modi and Modi belongs to them. They say ‘Nene Modi Kutumbam’ (I’m Modi family),” he added.
Infuriated by the RJD chief’s remark, several social media users, in a show of solidarity and unwavering support for Modi, were quick to rally behind the Prime Minister. Calling Modi a part of their family, several social media users expressed the desire to add ‘Modi’s family’ to their names but couldn’t due to the limitations of the X (formerly Twitter) platform.
Given that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are drawing near, the BJP smartly converted this into a full-fledged campaign idea. Cabinet Ministers started appending “Modi ka Parivar” to their names on X (previously Twitter) after receiving resounding public support. Prominent members of the BJP, including Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Nitin Gadkari, and Anurag Thakur, were quick to support the Prime Minister.
It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that Lalu Prasad Yadav attempted to surprise the Modi-led BJP administration by hurling a full toss ball at them; however, the BJP foiled the plan by effortlessly smashing the ball out of the stadium. Only if the Congress-led I.N.D.I. Alliance had educated Lalu Yadav about how the BJP has become highly proficient at weaponizing personal attacks and jibes against Narendra Modi, they could have avoided this embarrassment.
‘Main bhi Chowkidar’ in 2019; ‘Chai pe Charcha’ in 2014: How BJP has mastered the art of weaponising personal attacks against Modi
In the run-up to the 2019 elections, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi repeatedly lied about the Rafale deal at all his rallies and mocked PM Modi by saying ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai‘. In response, top BJP leaders had then added the ‘Chowkidar’ prefix to their social media handles to show solidarity with the PM, countering Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ jibe. The BJP eventually swept the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Similarly, during the run-up to the 2014 elections, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar took a dig at Prime Minister Modi’s humble beginning as a tea seller and said that Modi can distribute tea but can never be the Prime Minister. Modi had then converted that remark as a badge of honour and held ‘Chai Pe Charcha’, discussion forums over tea across the nation as a way to connect directly to voters. None of us is unaware of how the BJP-led NDA transformed the political landscape of the world’s largest democracy by securing an absolute majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the first to do so in national elections after 30 years.