“Modi Ka Parivar” — this is the new campaign started by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after Prime Minister Narendra Modi countered Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav who on Sunday took a personal swipe at the PM, saying he had no child or family.
“The entire country is my family…everyone in the country is saying they are part of Modi’s family. Even those who do not have anyone, Modi is there with them, and Modi is theirs,” the Prime Minister said in Telangana on Monday, saying his entire life was devoted towards the poor and the needy.
This quick turning of the political tables by Modi saw an instant response from senior BJP leaders and ministers who suffixed “Modi Ka Parivar” to their social media usernames. Among them are union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda, and many others.
The RJD seems to have handed a strong issue on the platter to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. This seems reminiscent of the 2019 general elections when Rahul Gandhi had taken a jibe at Modi, saying “Chowkidar Chor Hai” to allege a scam in the purchase of the Rafale fighter jets. The BJP had cleverly reversed the situation then too, with Modi coining the catchphrase “Main Bhi Chowkidar” and all leaders from the party taking that line to attack the Congress.
BJP leaders explain that personal attacks against PM Modi have never worked and have in fact boomeranged on political opponents. “The Congress has learnt this the hard way in the past — be it Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘Chaiwala’ comment in 2014 or Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’ remark. It is the turn of the INDI alliance now,” a senior BJP leader said.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said Modi has always addressed countrymen as “mere parivarajan” (my family members) and the PM had celebrated all festivals with the people and soldiers at the border. Trivedi said Modi’s life is devoted to the nation and that is why he had never even taken a day’s leave in the last 10 years as the Prime Minister.
Another BJP leader said that it was ironic that the RJD had launched a personal attack on the PM, given that the party was the epitome of a “family dynasty”. “Lalu Prasad was the chief minister, then he made his wife Rabri Devi CM, and then his son Tejashwi Yadav was made deputy CM twice and he has ambitions to be CM,” a BJP leader said.
He added that the RJD, Samajwadi Party, and Congress are all dynasty-led parties against whom the BJP has been consistently fighting since 2014 as it believes such family-run outfits lead to corruption and lack of inner-party democracy.
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