By Terming Modi as Ravan, Congress Has Repeated its Past Mistake

Just ahead of the Gujarat elections, Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress’new president seems to have committed hara-kiri for the party. By terming Modi as Ravan, he has gifted BJP an emotional issue to be used against the Congress during the Gujarat election process.

This makes us sure that Congress and its president have not learned from past mistakes. Kharge has forgotten that personal attacks on Modi have always backfired for the Congress.

BJP and Modi will surely use the Ravan jive of Kharge to garner the sympathy of voters in Gujarat. BJP has already started to term Kharge’s remark as an insult to Gujarat’s pride. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra has already called upon the people of Gujarat to correct this insult to the son of their soil by voting for the BJP in the coming days.

Congress has tried to counter this by saying Patra’s attack on Kharge was part of anti-dalit tirade. But this damage control is not enough for the Congress party in Gujarat.

Despite being a veteran Congress leader of 80, Kharge forgot that his words now carry much more weight than what they did earlier. So, he has repeated the same mistake that Sonia Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Madhusudan Mistry, and others had done in the past.

In 2007, Sonia Gandhi, had called Modi ‘maut ka saudagar’. It was followed by Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘Chaiwala’ jibe in 2017. Aiyar repeated his folly by terming Modi ‘neech’. Recently Madhusudan Mistry said, Modi will be shown his ‘aukaat’.

Witty Modi has always retaliated to such statements. He and BJP have always transformed these personal attacks into political weapons. Recently answering Madhusudan Mistry, Modi went around saying, “I have no aukaat because I do not come from an affluent family”. Through it, he successfully related himself with the poor voters.

BJP leaders including Modi also make personal attacks on opposition leaders. But no leader in the opposition has the skill to make these personal attacks into election issues.

In the hurry to show up his identity in national politics, Kharge made the mistake of making a personal attack on Modi by terming him Ravan. It is to be seen whether this jibe of Kharge boomerangs for his party in Gujarat or not.