'Modi kahin nahi jayega': Congress again presents BJP a new slogan

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) Over the last decade, opposition jibes, especially from the Congress, have inadvertently handed the BJP some of its biggest and most successful slogans and campaigns, one example being 'Main bhi chowkidar' in 2019 in response to Rahul Gandhi's 'Chowkidar chor hai' attack.

The grand old party seems to have done it again, handing the ruling party another potential war cry, that too at a time when it is struggling with multiple issues in the third consecutive year in power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Friday roadshow in Gujarat's Banaskantha saw supporters waving posters with the message 'Modi kahin nahi jayega', basically implying that he will continue to be in power.

Apparently, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's statement, "Modi ka baap bhi jayega," implying that eventually he will also lose power, has inadvertently provided the BJP with a fresh new slogan. It is not the first time this has happened; the BJP has a history of turning opposition criticism into mass campaign slogans, for instance, the most successful rebranding of PM Modi with the 'Chaiwala' comment in 2014 and then the 'Main bhi chowkidar' campaign in 2019, which was worn as a badge of honour by party leaders to directly appeal to voters. The campaign also allowed the BJP to shift public attention away from prevailing issues such as the economy, unemployment and inflation and refocus the conversation on its most popular face-PM Modi.

It was ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched the slogan 'Chowkidar chor hai', suggesting that the guardian himself was the thief, to target the Prime Minister over alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal. Once it became a central part of the Congress campaign, the ruling party countered it with 'Main bhi chowkidar', surpassing the original Congress slogan on social media.

Incidentally, it was Congress' Mani Shankar Aiyar who in 2014 remarked that Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, would never become Prime Minister and could instead sell tea at a party event. The BJP turned the 'Chaiwala' remark into an electoral asset, with 'Chai pe charcha' transforming his humble background into a political asset by connecting him with the common man. And when RJD leader Lalu Prasad remarked that PM Modi had no family of his own, BJP supporters changed their social media bios to 'Modi ka parivar', suggesting that the entire country was his family.

Earlier this week, the BJP announced nationwide protests against Kharge's 'Modi ka baap bhi jayega' statement in response to an audience member's comment that "the Prime Minister will not go anywhere" at a party event. Home Minister Amit Shah described Kharge's language as a violation of political decorum that crossed the line into personal abuse against the PM's deceased family members, saying that this was not the first time the Congress had used abusive language against the Prime Minister or his family. "At times, they have hurled insults at his revered mother, at times called him 'merchant of death,' and at times mocked his poverty by calling him 'chaiwala'," he wrote on X.

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