PM Narendra Modi with Amit Shah and J P Nadda.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Modi and several BJP leaders on Monday responded to RJD chief Lalu Yadav’s jibe at the PM’s family. Addressing a rally in Adilabad, Modi said the entire “140 crore people in the country” were his family while other BJP leaders added ‘Modi ki Parivar’ (Modi’s family) to their social media names as a mark of protest against Yadav’s comments.
While the Opposition has said that this is a slide from ‘sangh parivar’ to ‘Modi parivar’, BJP leaders said this is a repeat of the BJP’s “main bhi chowkidar” campaign from 2019 which was a result of Rahul Gandhi’s jibe, “chowkidar chor hai”.
At an I.N.D.I.A. rally in Patna on Sunday, Lalu has said that why does the country need to suffer if Modi did not have a family. “What can we do if Narendra Modi does not have a family of his own? He keeps bragging about the Ram temple. He is not even a true Hindu. In Hindu tradition, a son must shave his head and beard upon the demise of his parents. Modi did not do so when his mother died,” Lalu said.
In response to this, at a rally at Telangana’s Adilabad, PM Modi said that Modi belongs to the people. “Today, crores of daughters, mothers and sisters of the country are Modi's family. Every poor person in the country is my family. Those who have no one, they also belong to Modi and Modi belongs at to them,” Modi said.
On X, several BJP leaders such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari changed their names to ‘Modi ka Parivaar’.
In response, the Congress said this is a general decline. The party’s Madhya Pradesh leader Jitu Patwari said that earlier, the BJP used to say that the country comes first, then the party and then the leader. “Earlier, it was the Sangh Parivar, now it is the Modi Parivar. These are all misleading things, they should write in their profiles why there is no employment, why MSP guarantee is not given to the farmers, Modi should give guarantee that he will bring back black money,” he said.
Congress’s media department head Pawan Khera shared a screenshot of the social media bio of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. “Modi Ka Pariwar welcomes Brijbhushan Sharan Singh,” Khera posted.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said Modi has faced such attacks for the last two decades.