Brother leaps to Modi's defence, says he gave up wife for country

BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is in a spot after acknowledging for the first time that he is married. A number of people on Twitter seem to be angry at this new revelation and are asking why Modi hid his wife for so many years.

The formidable online Modi brigade has already swung into action, eager to defend their man. And now, Modi’s brother, Sombhai Damodar Modi has issued a clarification on his marriage. In the clarification, Modi’s brother says that he was married to Jashodaben over 45 years back when he was a minor and the family was poor and uneducated.

“What happened 45-50 years ago should be seen in context with the circumstances of a poor and superstitious family,” he said.

Sombhai also said that Modi had ‘given up family for the country’s service’ and appealed to voters to not judge Modi on the basis of his past.

In his nomination form for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, which he filed amid much fanfare on Wednesday, he entered the name of Jashodaben as his wife. She is a retired school teacher in Brahmanwada, a village about 35km from Modi’s hometown, Vadnagar.

In the 2012 Gujarat elections, Modi had not acknowledged Jashodaben, and had left the section of the form which asked about spouse as blank. This is the first time that Modi acknowledged Jashodaben in an official document.

Just a month back, Modi underlined his de facto single status , saying only such a person alone can effectively take on corruption.

“Mere liye na koi aagey, na peechhey. Kiske liye bhrashtachaar karunga? (I’ve no familial ties. Who would I ever try to benefit through corruption?),” said Modi. He pointed that only people who are free of mundane worries can tackle the issue of corruption.

Modi, however, does not qualify as single – at least on paper. Married at 17, Modi walked away from his marriage and has refused to admit his marital status.

Read the full text of Sombhai’s clarification: