Incessant attempts to defame Indian Prime Minister Modi – OpEd – Eurasia Review

In the last months before the recent parliamentary elections, during the parliamentary election campaign and in the weeks following the declaration of the results, the opposition parties in India, which presented themselves as the INDI Group, with a clear objective of to defame and defeat Modi, have been carrying out incessant well-planned and false attacks to defame Prime Minister Modi.

Clearly, these opposition parties believed that the only way to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party was to weaken Prime Minister Modi by constantly abusing him in person. Several abusive terms were used freely against Modi such as 'thief', 'dealer of death', 'dictator', 'arrogant' and so many other unprintable derogatory remarks. Even Modi's elderly mother was not spared, while using abusive terms. Prime Minister Modi has, on the whole, tried to ignore this type of campaigning wherever possible, although he has occasionally expressed dissatisfaction with the methods used by political parties during his election campaign. 'opposition.

Now that the number of parliamentary seats won by the BJP in the last elections is less than in the previous elections, the opposition parties, especially the Congress party, seem convinced that their campaign of harassment against Modi has paid off for them . They seem to have decided that this vicious campaign to further weaken Modi's image and popularity must continue.

Several political researchers have looked at various factors to determine the causes of Modi’s party’s relatively poor showing in the last elections. Most of them seem to have concluded that the abusive campaign against Modi waged in public meetings and on social media platforms such as X-platform, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube has significantly helped the opposition parties to turn a section of voters against Modi.

Furthermore, several political scientists seem to be of the opinion that several false accusations have been leveled against Modi, for example that Modi would destroy the constitution, Modi would withdraw reservation in government jobs and reservation in educational institutions for people described as “scheduled caste”. scheduled tribe” and so on. Besides, some opposition parties, including the Congress, have made false promises, like Nyay Promise, to provide Rs 1 lakh per year to poor women. Although anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics knows that such a promise of money is impossible to keep given the financial implications for the government, the Congress party and its allies have even gone so far as to provide thousands of letters of written guarantees to poor women.

Now that Modi has returned to power as Prime Minister and with the start of parliamentary sessions, it seems that the opposition parties are determined to block debates and prevent discussions by raising all kinds of questions, to give the impression to the public that Modi The government has a confrontational attitude and does not want to give in to the demands of the opposition parties at any cost. In fact, yesterday, Sonia Gandhi attacked Modi personally stating that Modi is undermining democracy and dignity, while accusing Modi of coercing opposition leaders. Astute observers know that all of these allegations are false.

It now appears that the opposition parties will take every “opportunity” to abuse Modi himself in the coming days and disrupt parliamentary proceedings on one pretext or the other.

In India, the media is largely owned by for-profit companies or vested-interest political parties. The media, both print and visual, give excessive publicity to the abusive and insane statements made by opposition parties against Modi, as they seem to think that this will increase their readership and audience and help them achieve their goals. It is increasingly rare to hear sensible voices in the media these days.

Now where could Indian politics go from here?

Prime Minister Modi's record over the last ten years is very impressive. India's place in international forums has increased considerably. Foreign exchange reserves have reached a record level. Several infrastructure projects are being implemented at high speed. Several programs have been established to promote industrial growth, economic development and social improvement. But these positive aspects are not sufficiently highlighted in the media and are completely ignored by the opposition parties.

It is possible that the opposition parties will soon realize that their personal abusive campaign against Modi will bring only short-term benefits and will become counterproductive before long. If such negative and abusive campaign continues endlessly, people will feel frustrated and tired.

While Prime Minister Modi will stand firm in such conditions and continue to move forward towards the goal of building a strong India, it is likely that the opposition parties will lose their momentum sooner or later as they have nothing to offer except abusive language.