'Crass and shameless': BJP leaders react to Congress leader Vilas Muttemwar's comments on Narendra Modi's father

Adding to a series of recent personal attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a video of former Union minister of state Vilas Muttemwar has gone viral, in which he was seen comparing the lineage of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Modi. “The world knows who the father of Rahul Gandhi was, who the grandmother of Rahul Gandhi was, but nobody knows the name of Modi’s father,” he was heard saying in the video. The statement has garnered sharp criticism from the BJP:

Shameful statement by Congress leader and former Central Minister Vilasrao Muttemwar. He says that the world knows past generations of Rahul Gandhi but no one knows who Modi’s father was! pic.twitter.com/TwUhpdCBET

— BJP (@BJP4India) November 25, 2018

Other BJP leaders also hit out at Muttemwar over his remarks. Party leader Priti Gandhi terms them “crass” and “shameless”. The co-in charge of the party’s publicity literature department, Vikash Preetam Sinha, also condemned Muttewar’s statement in a tweet and said: “Today, the man whose father’s name is known to all has become the subject of jokes. He is only ruining his father’s name by engaging in antics. On the other hand, the world recognises the man whose father’s name is not known to anyone. This is the reason for the Congress’ pain and frustration, and this is also the punishment for it.”

जिसके बाप का नाम सब जानते हैं उस पर आज चुटकुले बन रहे हैं, अपनी मसखरी और फूहड़ हरकतों से वह उसी बाप का नाम खराब कर रहा है

और जिसके बाप का नाम कोई नहीं जानता उसे आज दुनिया जानती है. यही तो टीस और कुंठा है काँग्रेसियों की और यही सजा भी.

— विकास प्रीतम सिन्हा (@VikashPreetam) November 25, 2018

Omar Abdullah also took a swipe at controversial statements Congress leaders and suggested that such remarks end up helping the saffron party.

Has the BJP got sleeper cells in the Congress? The amazing regularity with which some in the Congress go out of their way to oblige the BJP & PM Modi, nothing else makes sense. https://t.co/qNElrxmHDx

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 25, 2018

Muttemwar’s comments come amid many other personal attacks on the prime minister. Congress leader CP Joshi had attacked Modi and Uma Bharti, questioning their authority to speak about Hinduism. “If anyone is qualified to speak on religion it is the Pandits, the intellectuals and the Brahmins,” he said. Joshi’s comment was heavily criticised by the BJP and also met with disapproval from his own party, after which he tendered an apology. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar had compared the devalued rate of the Indian rupee to the prime minister’s nonagenarian mother. “He (Modi) used to say that the Indian rupee has fallen so much against the dollar that it was nearing the age of the then prime minister (Manmohan Singh). Today, the rupee’s valuation has dropped so low, that it is inching closer to your beloved mother’s age,” Babbar, who was campaigning in Madhya Pradesh, said.