Choice of words and dignity of the office

In an never before case a former Prime Minister has written a letter to the President of India asking him to advise the present Prime Minister against using “unwarranted, threatening and intimidating” language. This was bound to happen, as the election campaign in Karnataka hit an old time low with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while campaigning for the assembly election at Hubli on May 6, had said, “Congress ke neta kaan khol ke sun lijeye, agar seemayo ko paar kaorogi, toh yeh Modi hai, lene ke dene pad jayenge (Congress leaders should listen to me with open ears, if you cross your limits, this is Modi, you will have to pay).” Tone and words are clear threats held out by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Congress’s leadership and deserves to be condemned. This certainly can’t be the language of the Prime Minister of a constitutionally governed democratic country of 1.3 billion people. This can’t also be termed as a slip of tongue as Prime Minister Modi is known to be a good orator, who prepares his speeches well especially for the election campaigns. But off late he has been issuing challenges to other leaders. “For 15 minutes, without taking a paper in your hand, can you [Rahul Gandhi] please talk about the achievements of your government in Karnataka? You can speak in any language as you please- English, Hindi or your mother’s mother tongue.” He tried to hit two birds with one stone, and his reference to Congress Rahul Gandhi’s “mother’s mother tongue” didn’t go well with the listeners specially when Sonia Gandhi no longer happens to be the leaders of the Congress Party. In one way or the other Prime Minister Narendra Modi was running up to those threatening comments and perhaps intentionally. His intention has always been to impress his listeners even though it calls for twisting facts and figures. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to have lost the context of the elections. Instead of apprising the voters of his party’s plan for the state, Narendra Modi was more interested in twisting history in order to malign Gandhi-Nehru family and the Congress party. “When Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar Dutt, Veer Savarkar were jailed fighting for the country’s independence, did any Congress leader go to meet them? But the Congress leaders meet the corrupt people who have been jailed.” This was arguably the most controversial thing among many other that Modi said during elections campaigning. Modi was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Lalu Prasad Yadav. Voters were left wondering as the his claim was proved wrong as many newspapers came out with clippings of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India having visited Bhagat Singh at Lahore jail.

Then Narendra Modi made a reference to Mudhol Dogs! A breed of hounds from Karnataka, the first India breed in the Army. Prime Minister Modi said Congress should learn a lesson on patriotism from Mudhol Dogs! He even took the Congress to task for celebrating the birth anniversary of Tipu Sultan –a Mughal emperor, thus trying to send a message that Congress party is more concerned about the muslim minority.
Prime Minister Narendar Modi and his party leader Amit Shar were more content with insualting Gandhis and even had to go back to 17th century Tipu Sultan, freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and even didn’t not spare former top brass of the Army. And today, the party is standing eight short of majority mark having committed colossal blunder one after the other. His joining hands with corruption tainted Reddys and Yeddyurappas, Prime Minister Modi himself has let his image of one fighting against corruption get a hit. His choice of words has to undermined his stature as a head of the government.