Rahul Gandhi takes a dig at 
Modi’s marital status

Two days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi acknowledged for the first time that he is married, in an affidavit he was required to file along with his nomination papers for the coming Lok Sabha elections, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi launched a frontal attack on him on the issue on Friday.

Rahul Gandhi puts a cap before addressing an election rally as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah (right) looks on during the event in Doda, some 175km from Jammu, on Friday. — AFP

Addressing an election rally at Doda in Jammu & Kashmir, Gandhi wondered how a party led by Modi could make claims about treating women with respect and dignity when he did not even acknowledge the existence of his wife for years.

“I don’t know how many elections he has fought, but for the first time he has written that he is married,” Gandhi told the crowd.

After years of silence on the issue, Modi finally acknowledged his marriage in the affidavit that he filed with his nomination papers in the Vadodara constituency of Gujarat on Thursday. He mentioned his wife’s name, Jashodaben, in the column for the name of the candidate’s spouse in the affidavit.

In a similar affidavit filed for the 2012 elections to the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, in which he led his party to a third consecutive win, Modi had left the column blank.

In the affidavit, uploaded onto the website of the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat, Modi, however, has simply said “not known” in all other columns related to his wife, including details of her income, her income tax permanent account number (PAN), assets and liabilities, investments, bank accounts and properties.

Gandhi raked up the issue in Doda on Friday and went on to talk about “Snoopgate”, the case in which Gujarat officials and policemen were involved in stalking and monitoring the movements and telephone conversations of a young woman, allegedly at the behest of Modi.

He also referred to incidents in Karnataka, which was ruled by the BJP then, including one in which some of the party’s members were allegedly found watching pornographic video clips on their mobile telephones in the state legislative assembly.

“In Delhi, they talk about respecting and empowering women...What kind of respect is this,” Gandhi asked.

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman defended Modi, saying he had never lied about his marriage. “Rahul Gandhi should read Mr Modi’s affidavit properly. He never lied, there was nothing illegal,” she said.

Another senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad reacted more strongly. “This is a sensitive matter, and Mr Gandhi should know that, if it comes to personal attacks, we know many things about the Nehru-Gandhi family, about Jawaharlal Nehru, about Indira Gandhi, about Rajiv Gandhi and others.”

Modi’s silence on the issue had invited attacks from his opponents over the years and the Congress has repeatedly asked him to “come clean” on his marital status.

He is understood to have decided to mention his wife in the affidavit this time in view of a Supreme Court order and subsequent instructions from the Election Commission making it mandatory for candidates to make full disclosures about certain aspects, including finances, investments, assets, liabilities, properties and so on.

After becoming the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Mr Modi had in some campaign speeches said that he had no family ties. “I am alone. Who will I be corrupt for?” he had asked, while drawing attention to allegations of corruption and nepotism against his political rivals.

Jashodaben, 62, told a newspaper recently that she was married to Modi when he was 17 and that they had separated three years later, after which they had never been in touch. Even in those three years they were together for hardly three months, the report quoted her as saying.

news@khaleejtimes.com

• India