Why Oppn wants to keep mum as Modi rakes up 'mother insult' row

On August 27, when a man from Bihar’s Darbhanga district hurled abuses at Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a venue that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav had left moments earlier during their Voter Adhikar Yatra, it was instantly clear that the episode would be weaponised for political rhetoric in the poll-bound state by the BJP. On Tuesday, Modi set the ball rolling to do just that.

While barbs from the BJP at Rahul and Tejashwi had come in instantly after the Darbhanga incident, it was Modi, back in India from his bilateral visit to China and Japan, who fine-tuned the line of attack on Tuesday while addressing via video conference to launch the Jeevika Nidhi Credit Cooperative Federation, a women’s cooperative, in Bihar.

“My mother, whose body has left us, who is not alive today and who had nothing to do with politics, was abused from the dais of the RJD and Congress,” Modi said, claiming that the insult heaped on his dead mother was “an insult of all the mothers and daughters of Bihar and of the entire country”.

Modi's 'emotive appeal'

“I want to tell those who abused my mother, Modi might forgive you but Bihar and India will never tolerate this insult,” the Prime Minister said, dialling up the emotive appeal of his attack, with assertions that the “pain I feel in my heart is matched by the distress felt by the people of my Bihar”. Though he was logged in to the event through video conference, Modi claimed he could “see some of my mothers and daughters (sitting in the audience) with tears in their eyes”.

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Asserting that he had been subjected to abuses by the Opposition on multiple occasions in the past too but had “never imagined” that his mother would face similar humiliation too “long after her death”, Modi said he was “being insulted because I am the son of a poor mother who you (the people) have given the honour of making your pradhan sevak.”

Takes a dig at Rahul, Tejashwi

Calling Rahul and Tejashwi “naamdaar neta” (dynasts) who were born into privilege, Modi added further that the two Opposition leaders “cannot digest that a kaamdaar (common man) like me has been elected to power… they think power is their birthright.”

Modi’s attack on Rahul, Tejaswi and the wider Opposition, though scathing, follows a script he has often adopted in the past to distinguish himself as a leader born to poverty, among common folk and with no patronage, as opposed to dynastic leaders who see power as their rightful inheritance.

For the Opposition, such a pitch from the Prime Minister has always been difficult to counter despite Modi’s long personal history of using ''foul and even dehumanising'' slurs not just for his political rivals but for an entire section of India’s religious minorities. Opposition leaders, particularly from the Congress, concede readily that personal attacks on the Prime Minister never bode well for their parties electorally, given Modi’s flair in weaponising them to his advantage by extrapolating any insult directed at him as an attack on the country.

Congress cautious

As such, the Opposition in Bihar, say sources, does not wish to rebut Modi directly on this latest row. A senior Congress leader from Bihar told The Federal that “instructions” had been given to party leaders and cadre to “offer no explanation, comment or rebuttal” to anything Modi or the BJP may say on the Darbhanga episode. Leaders from the RJD and the Left parties, who, along with Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party, make up the Opposition’s Grand Alliance in the state, also expressed a similar view.

“We have our issues, which are the SIR and vote chori, the deepening crisis of unemployment and migration in the state and deteriorating law and order under Nitish Kumar’s rule. All these were raised by Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the alliance during the Voter Adhikar Yatra and the response from the public to this has been massive. Even after the Darbhanga incident, we saw no drop in the crowds coming for the yatra or its concluding rally in Patna (on September 1). The BJP and JD (U) have no reply to the issues that we are raising and so they are using incidents like the one in Darbhanga to mislead voters. We don’t even know the man who has been arrested for abusing (Modi); he is not a member of the Congress or any other party in the mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance),” said Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram.

'No links with parties'

The Congress and the RJD have maintained that Mohammad Rizvi, a native of Darbhanga’s Bhopura village who was arrested by the Bihar police for allegedly abusing the Prime Minister, is not associated in any capacity with either party. An RJD MP, The Federal spoke to, even questioned if the Bihar Police had “arrested the right man” or was Rizvi being “made a scapegoat because of his religious identity so that the BJP can get on with its usual trick of polarising the election”.

RJD suspects foul play

The RJD MP added further, “All our leaders had left the venue when this incident happened. No one in our party knows the man who has been arrested; he is not a member of our party, of the Congress, or the Left. How do we know that he was not planted there by the BJP to create this controversy? The fact is that the people of Bihar know these tricks by the BJP too well by now and nobody is being fooled; the people of Bihar will see through all this; they know that only the BJP stands to gain from such incidents and so they are also questioning why would anyone from the Opposition use such language… We condemn the use of any abusive language against any leader but has anyone in the BJP ever condemned the Prime Minister or other leaders of the party who have a long record of abusing their rivals?”

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While the senior leadership of the Opposition parties believes they must stick to the narrative of their choosing and not engage with Modi on the Darbhanga episode, there is, however, also some nervousness within their ranks on the possibility of some "troublemakers" raising the issue to aid the BJP.

"The senior leadership of all our allied parties has made it clear that this (the Darbhanga incident and Modi's attack) is not something we should be commenting on but we have to be cautious. In a couple of weeks, we will start discussing seat sharing and candidates and this is bound to leave some leaders unhappy who might think that they're ticket is in danger or that they are not getting due attention in the campaign. These people could create trouble and rake up the issue, which the BJP can take advantage of but then that is something we can't predict or prevent," a Bihar Congress MLA said.