‘Even a hair of PM Modi…’: Smriti Irani slams ‘fodder thief’ over ‘parivaar’ dig

Union minister Smriti Irani on Monday launched a scathing attack on RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and the opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc over the “parivaarvad” jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the 140 crore people of India are his family members and no one could even dare to touch even a hair of the “Pradhan Sevak” (PM Modi).

Addressing a gathering at the ‘Namo Yuva Maha Sammelan’ organised by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, Smriti Irani said the youth, the party workers and the 140 crore Indians are “Modi’s parivaar” (family).

“…By being ‘pradhan sevak’, he (PM Modi) worked for the family ‘India’…The fodder thief of INDI alliance said that he (PM Modi) has no family, I want to tell him that, we are ‘Modi’s parivaar’, these youths are ‘Modi’s parivaar’…nobody will be able to touch even a hair of that person whose family are 140 crore people of India,” news agency ANI quoted the Union minister as saying.

Further, she also dared Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is carrying out the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai, to have a debate on the “difference” between the 10 years of UPA rule and the Narendra Modi-led union government.

“If my voice is reaching Rahul Gandhi, then he should listen with open ears. Let there be a discussion on what is the difference between your (UPA) 10 years and Modi’s 10 years,” she said.

Irani took a dig saying that if she asked to discuss it with Rahul Gandhi, he would not come. He would not be able to stand even in front of an ordinary worker of the BJP. “I guarantee that even if an ordinary worker of Yuva Morcha starts speaking in front of Rahul Gandhi, he will lose the strength to speak,” she added.

Irani’s comments came days after RJD patriarch stoked a controversy by questioning the PM’s Hindu credentials and mocking him for not having a family of his own. “These days he (PM) is talking about dynastic politics. You (PM Modi) don’t have a family… You are not even a Hindu. When one’s mother dies, every Hindu, as per tradition, shaves his beard and head. Why did you not shave? You only spread hatred in society,” Yadav said at the party’s “Jan Vishwas Maha Rally” in Patna on Sunday.

Later on Monday, PM Modi hit back at the INDI alliance, reiterating his credentials as a leader who did not promote nepotism and opposed dynastic rule and said that said every poor person in the country was his family and he, in turn, was family to those who have none. The BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, and Anurag Thakur, further appended “Modi ka parivar” (Modi’s family) to their social media handles.

The campaign comes ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections and is a throwback to the BJP’s “main bhi chowkidar (I am also a watchman)” narrative in 2019 that was built to counter the Congress’s ”chowkidar chor hai” (the watchman is a thief) slogan.