Narendra Modi blasts Rahul Gandhi for Nawaz Sharif's 'dehati aurat' comment on Manmohan Singh

Pakistan prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s alleged comment, describing his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh as a dehati aurat (village woman) resulted in a major political controversy on Sunday.

While the journalists before whom Sharif made the remark denied that the Pakistan PM used derogatory words for Singh, the row provided fodder for the opposition to take on the a beleaguered PM, who was recently pushed on the back foot by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Gujarat CM and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi lashed out at Sharif and Rahul for humiliating Singh.

Addressing a rally in the capital, Modi said there cannot be a bigger insult for our country than the Pakistan PM calling Singh a dehati aurat.

“How did he dare to say that? It is because in the PM’s own party, he has no respect. The prince of his party tells him he talks nonsense. So what do you expect? When his own party’s young leader calls the PM nonsense, how will other countries respect our PM?” Modi said. “All those journalists who were sitting listening to Nawaz Sharif also need to answer us.”

Within hours of Modi’s tirade against the PM, Singh met Sharif in New York. The Gujarat CM, however, was pessimistic about the outcome of the meeting. “I doubt if the PM will be able to speak with Sharif in any voice. We hope you will speak forcefully, though you have lost your power of speech in recent years,” he told the crowd in Delhi.

“We suspect, prime minister, you will not be able to find a solution to the terror problem with Sharif. Can you ask the Pakistani PM to return Pakistan-occupied Kashmir? Will you hear the voice of the families of those soldiers who were mercilessly killed at the border?”

Modi said Singh sat with US president Barack Obama and begged before him, saying he is from India and that he belonged to a poor nation.

Mocking Rahul Gandhi’s statement that poverty is a state of mind, he asked if the poverty that the PM spoke to Obama about was also a state of mind. “Were you talking about the prince’s (Rahul Gandhi) notion of poverty or theactual poverty in the streets and lanes of this country?”

Criticising dynasty politics, the Modi said people have to decide whether the country will run according to the Constitution or the whims of shahzada (Rahul Gandhi). “The PM, on his return from the G20 meeting, had declared that he would work under shahzada. Now the UPA partners will have to decide whether they want to work under the Constitution of India or shahzada,” he said.

Taking a dig at Rahul on ordinance issue, Modi said that dynasty is not only hurting the PM, but that it is also insulting the Constitution, the institution of Parliament and the cabinet.

Claiming that the decision-making at the Centre is paralysed, Modi said that the UPA has no vision. “Look at the budgets and PlanningCommission reports of the last 10 years. They just look different withnew packaging. But they are the same old dusty things,” he said. Referring to corruption cases under the UPA regime, he said just like people are addicted to alcohol, the Congress is addicted to corruption.

“The UPAis devoted to Gandhi bhakti and these Gandhi chaps then pick notes with Gandhi embossed on them. That is Gandhi bhakti. Gandhi worship means they take all the currency notes with Gandhi’s imprint on them in tonnes. We now need to talk of corruption in terms of tonnes.” 

On the upcoming assembly election in Delhi and the general election next year, he said it is for the people to decide whether they want a dream team or a dirty team to govern the nation. “It is 67 years since Independence. The nation has to decide whether it wants to continue in this state or wants to see a new and emergent India,” Modi said.

Pak journalist Hamid Mir told Geo TV that Nawaz Sharif told him and NDTV’s Barkha Dutt in New York that Manmohan Singh complained like a dehati aurat about Pakistan to Barack Obama. On Sunday, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi hit out at Sharif for insulting India’s PM

Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken ridiculed Narendra Modi for trusting a Pakistani journalist.