Now, everyone’s getting personal

As the country goes through successive phases of polling in a long-winded election, the pitch of the political discourse is getting shriller, the narrative more acerbic and the charges and counter-charges plain disgusting.

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s recently-acknowledged wife Jashodaben has done the disappearing act by taking off on a pilgrimage to duck the media storm that was bound to head her way after his latest poll affidavit from Vadodara acknowledged her status as his wife. But neither the controversy around this topic nor the media commentary is going to disappear any time soon.

More than the media, it is the Congress, which seems to have already accepted defeat, going by the body language of the top leadership, that has been targeting Modi over this long-pending disclosure.

Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh have taunted Modi for keeping his marital status a secret. Gandhi wonders at the BJP’s posters in Delhi promising to “stand for the rights and respect of women, but we have a chief minister putting all his efforts to work to spy on a woman.” The reference is to the reported snooping on a woman architect in Gujarat a few years ago.

According to Kapil Sibal, the party has filed a petition with the Election Commission seeking action against Modi for hiding his marital status in his earlier affidavits. Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi, who was so keen to take on Modi in Varanasi, asked: “If a man can’t take care of his wife, how can he take care of the country?”

The BJP first threatened and has now hit back at the Congress leadership through posters contrasting “ desh-premi ” Modi with “ patni-premi ” Jawaharlal Nehru, alongside a laughing Edwina Mountbatten. The poster also depicts a woman planting a kiss on Rahul Gandhi’s cheek at a meet, and charges Digvijay Singh and Mulayam Singh of having two wives each and the SP strongman Azam Khan of six, well above the permissible limit for an Indian Muslim! It also questioned the “mysterious death” of Shashi Tharoor’s three wives.

This dialogue is only going to get worse. And, whether we like it or not, a sizable chunk of Indian voters will lap up such malicious slander, with the BJP acting holier than thou about the Congress throwing the first stone.

Elsewhere in the country too, attacks on political rivals are getting more vicious. The irrepressible Steel Minister Beni Prasad Varma, who suffers from chronic ‘foot-in-mouth’ disease, has been booked for calling Modi the RSS’ “biggest goonda” and BJP President Rajnath Singh “his slave”.

And then there is the SP’s Azam Khan, who made the fantastic claim that the Kargil war was won not by Hindus but Muslim soldiers! He went on to call Modi kutte ke bachchey ka bada bhai (elder brother of a pup).

Seriously, where do these leaders come from? And is this the despicable type of leadership the Muslim community needs? Mercifully, the EC has banned both him and Modi confidante Amit Shah from holding any more election rallies. If it could only add a dozen more to the list, we could keep some of the stench out of further electoral campaigns.

In another strange twist, we have the unusual combo of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Modi jointly unleashing a dog on Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, in a poster seen in Konnagar, near Kolkata. A photograph of Vinod Zutshi, deputy election commissioner in charge of Bengal, is superimposed on the dog’s face. After initial confrontation, Mamata reluctantly agreed to the transfer of eight officers at the EC’s bidding, but has sought the removal of Zutshi from Bengal.

Returning to Modi and Jashoda, the matter raises several intriguing, unanswered questions. It is not as though the media was not aware of the existence of Modi’s wife.

Several publications have either profiled Jashodaben or carried her interviews over the last few years. But through long years, Modi and his camp have maintained a stony silence on the issue. It is puzzling why. It was apparently a child marriage, as stated by Modi’s brother, and, according to Jashodaben’s family, the two lived together for three years before Modi left for the Himalayas and never met her again.

I do hope this extremely high-profile child marriage will spur a closer look into the grey area surrounding the legal status of child marriages, which are, even today, blessed and formalised by the khaps or the gram panchayats in various States. How can the Indian state fight such marriages that have social and cultural sanction, that are prohibited by law but are still legally valid, asks a lawyer friend who specialises in laws relating to marriage and divorce.

She says the person who performs a child marriage can be punished and the under-aged girl can move a court saying it was against her wish. But, if undisputed, the marriage remains legally valid.

On Twitter a vicious war has broken out about the “privacy and dignity” of Jashodaben being compromised by incessant TV debates on her plight. Led by Modi’s ardent fan Madhu Kishwar, who tweeted: “Jasodhaben hasn’t given Congis & #FirangifiedFeminists right to speak on her behalf. Better shut up. She doesn’t need phony concern.” Swami Brahmachitt’s take. “These big-bindi #FirangifiedFeminists speaking on behalf of Jasodhaben, is like Ravan’s sis SupernRekha supporting maa Sita.”

I find it difficult to vilify Modi for running away from an unwanted marriage, but think a high-profile CM like him should have come clean on it years ago.

The Congress’ malicious campaign leaves a bad taste in the mouth. But much worse is the spin being given to Jashodaben’s ‘sacrifice’ and ‘devotion’, her giving up rice, remaining barefooted, etc., for her husband’s success. It smacks of something insincere and many liberal, educated Indian women may find it laughable.

All this ‘Bharatiya nari’ stuff might, however, be a clever way for the lady’s family to get on to the Modi bandwagon — the media interviews are being given by her brothers as she has supposedly gone on a pilgrimage — but such talk only reinforces gender stereotypes the RSS might love to popularise.

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