The BJP on Saturday came out hard against Rahul Gandhi, a day after he raised the issue of Narendra Modi’s marital status. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley asked how the Congress vice-president could be disturbed by the disclosure of a “legitimate” relationship when “many” of his party men have “illicit” relationships.
“Indian politics has an unstated code of conduct. Ordinarily, we don’t drag families and ladies into controversy. (But) Rahul Gandhi is guilty of breaching that code,” Jaitley stated, even as he took a personal jibe at Rahul saying he must remember that the disturbed matrimonial relationship of a former Prime Minister was never a political issue. He said Rahul had shown his “immaturity and desperation” by raking up the issue of Modi’s marriage.
Defending Modi, Jaitley enlarged the scope of his attack on Congress by questioning the morality practiced by its leaders. “How many current senior Congressmen are in illicit relationships and yet have paraded their wives only for photo opportunities during nominations. Surely if people have a right to know about the “legal” relationship of Modi, they also have a right to know about the illicit relationships of Congressmen. The latter is more relevant for people’s right to know about the ethics of their candidates,” he said.
“Devoid of serious political issues and understanding of those issues, Rahul (Gandhi) has reflected his immaturity and desperation by making the ‘Modi marriage’ as a political issue,” Jaitley said in an article. He asked since when has declaration of a lawful relationship, whether acted upon or not, become a political issueIJ
Rahul, however, denied he made a personal attack against Modi. “I did not get personal. I just stated that on his affidavits he had previously not mentioned something. So it’s not a personal thing,” he told reporters in Amethi, his lok Sabha constituency, soon after filing his nomination papers for the lok Sabha polls.
On Thursday, Rahul had taken potshots at Modi at an election rally in J&K saying, “Don’t know how many elections he has contested till now, but he has revealed for the first time that he is married. In Delhi, he talks about honour of women, but his own wife’s name doesn’t reach the affidavit,” he had said.
Congress leaders targeted Modi on social media on the issue. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh tweeted a couplet to take a veiled jibe at Modi telling him that no one has been able to flourish by speaking lies lifelong.
Modi has for the first time declared himself as a married man by revealing his wife’s name as Jashodaben in an affidavit filed before the Election Commission along with his nomination papers for Vadodara lok Sabha seat. In the previous elections, he left the column blank.