Narcissistic suit to Obama's lesson on religious freedom: Here are PM Modi's embarrassing moments

On 21 May 2014, in one of his first speeches as the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had fought back his tears as he said: “An era of responsibility has begun. When we meet in 2019, I will give you and my countrymen a report card… I will live for India.”

On 26 May 2015, a year later, as a leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has certainly showed a marked shift in leadership and style of governance compared to the earlier UPA regime but the same cannot be said about his ministers.

We saw a rise in a number of BJP MPs and legislators who, thanks to their bigmouths, embarrassed the government on many occasions. Starting from Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s hate speech about the minority community to Yogi Adityanath  publicly proclaiming that ghar wapasi will continue till conversions are banned, there has been more than one instance when the ridiculous statements have shamed the Modi government. Especially a government which would not want to be in news for their hardcore hindutva agenda.

But even after a personal warning from the PM, there was no stopping the MPs. But the motormouth legislators were not the only ones who embarrassed the Modi government. Here is a list of occasions which the Narendra Modi government would have wished away.

Barack Obama’s message for bro Modi

US President Barack Obama’s trip to India in January this year was probably a high point of Narendra Modi’s government. Starting from addressing the US President by his first name to taking a private walk in the lotus garden after tea, Modi and Obama did everything which amounted to a true bromance.

However, Obama weighed in on one of India’s most sensitive topics as he wound up his visit, making a plea for freedom of religion to be upheld in a country with a history of strife between Hindus and minorities. Obama warned India not to stray from its constitutional commitment to allow people to freely “profess, practice and propagate” religion.

“Michelle and I returned from India – an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity – but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs – acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation. India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith, as long as it is not splintered along any lines, and it is unified as one nation.”

Obama’s comments provoked sharp reactions across political parties although there was no formal response from the Narendra Modi government.

“Did the Prime Ministerial Tea reinforce Barrack’s understanding of the revival ism & intolerance intrinsic in the BJP govt Another stinker? (sic),” Congress leader Manish Tewari had then tweeted.

“I think Mr Modi will answer this, they are very good friends,” AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal had said.

Stray incidents of discrimination against religious minorities in the country put the spotlight back on whether the Modi administration was serious about maintaining equality for all. Instances like  Shiv Sena MPs forcing a Muslim catering manager, who was fasting for Ramzan, to eat a full chappati or another indicating that India could become a full-fledged Hindu nation under Narendra Modi did not help the Prime Minister shut his detractors.

Narendrabhai turns Superman: Wears a suit with his name stitched on it

Before Obama reminded ‘bro’ Modi about the perils of religious bias in a country like India, our Prime Minister showed Barack Obama how he too rocks the coolness quotient among the current crop of world leaders!

A pinstripe ‘bandhgala’ suit that Modi wore when he met Obama for ‘chai pe charcha’, had his name written all over on it! They looked like stripes but it was actually the words ‘Narendra Damodardas Modi’ printed in tiny block letters on the Prime Minister’s suit.

PM Modi might have just been thinking of giving the world a glimpse of what ‘Make in India’ is all about but social media did not think so. Modi faced a heavy backlash on Twitter and was dubbed a “narcissist” for wearing a suit with his name on it!

Interestingly, Modi was not the first leader to do it and the only other person who did the exact same thing in the past was – Egypt’s ousted President Hosni Mubarak . You cannot help but wonder that Modi, who has been often accused of autocratic ways might have chosen a rather despotic Egyptian leader as his style guru.

Oh, Modi was just copying Hosni Mubarak. That makes it so much better. RT @Vidyut @siddharth3: @samar11 http://t.co/Fp7kNpBwiG

— Brown Sahiba (@Rajyasree) January 26, 2015

Like this Guardian report notes, Modi has an array of style gurus to chose from. Former President of Argentina Carlos Menem and heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield also wore their names. Unfortunately, they aren’t the perfect guru material either. Menem was arrested in a weapons export scandal and found guilty of aggravated smuggling. Holyfield is best known for having his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson.

Like Senior Editor Sandip Roy of Firstpost notes,  it is way too expensive to stay simple for a leader like Modi who makes a big deal of his humble origins.

Pearls of wisdom from Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

Addressing a rally in New Delhi in December 2014, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said this to a gathering:

“Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai (You must decide whether you want a government of those born of Ram or of those born illegitimately).”

A BJP MP and a Minister of State for Food Processing Industries in the central government, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti caused enough pain for the government by this remark. The Congress was waiting for the BJP government to falter and Sadhvi obliged.

Under pressure from the top leadership, Jyoti tendered a lukewarm apology, but she bounced right back. On her next outing, she decided to pursue her Hindu Rashtra agenda with greater subtlety and sang bhajans at a rally in riot-hit Trilokpuri. She also said, “Puri Dilli mein gaana hai, theek hai. Aur bhagwan Shyamsundar ka chakra sudarshan ke saamne jo aayega woh bachega nahi (Whoever comes before the chakra of Shyamsundar, will not live).”

Not only was the statement made by the BJP MP in a bad taste, it also made many wonder the mentality of the government that had promised wondrous things to the public before the landslide poll victory. Narendra Modi being the face of the party had to bear most of the brunt. Like Piyasree Dasgupta of Firstpost notes in this article, the Sadhvis of the BJP government did not make more sense than Baba Sehgal songs.

Opposition parties launched a full frontal attack on the government and Modi seeking truce with agitating opposition members in Parliament, had said that the matter should be put to rest after her apology, but it failed to satisfy them. To make matters worse, Modi blamed the insensitive remark by Jyoti on her background and the fact that she hailed from a village.

“Nobody can approve such things. Later, the minister apologised. She is a new minister, we know her social background, she is from a village, and she has apologised and it is the duty of senior members in the House that when a member apologises in front of such a big House, then we should also be liberal.”

Giriraj Singh tries out outshine Sadhvi 

Making matters worse for the Modi government, which was already reeling under controversies related to ghar wapsi and comments that fuelled anti-minority sentiments, BJP MP Giriraj Singh was caught on camera saying if former Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi had married a Nigerian instead of the “fair-skinned” Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party would not have accepted her as its leader.

“Agar Rajiv Gandhi koi Nigerian ladies se byaah kiye hote, gori chamra na hota, toh kya Congress party uska netritwa sweekarti kya? (Had Rajiv married a Nigerian lady, had she not been fair-skinned, would the Congress have accepted her leadership?)”

The BJP MP from Nawada district in Bihar expressed regret over his comments but also complained that what he had said had been “off the record”.

Not only did the Congress condemned the remarks, an appalled Nigerian High Commission demanded an apology, and said that it might file a complaint with the Ministry of External Affairs.

This was not Giriraj Singh’s first. In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, he had said that all those who were opposed to Narendra Modi should prepare to leave for Pakistan. The same minister had also said that Modi was their “saviour”. During a public rally , Singh told BJP cadres: “Do you know Hanuman? We are all Hanuman. Hanuman told Ram that he has no identity of his own. Hum Modi ke bhakt hain purey desh mein. (We are all followers of Modi.) People wanted to know the reason for my victory in Lok Sabha. I told them it is only Narendra Modi,” he said.

VK Singh’s moment of glory

So this is what happened: Minister of State External Affairs and former Army chief VK Singh in early April 2015 said that monitoring the rescue process of Indians stranded in the war-torn country of Yemen is less exciting than visiting the Pakistani embassy.

Dekha jaye to yeh kaam utna exciting nahi lag raha jitna mera Pak embassy mai jaane ka tha: VK Singh #YemenEvacuation pic.twitter.com/sPjyg47Bed

— ANI (@ANI) April 6, 2015

At that time, Singh was camping in Djibouti to regulate the evacuation of Indians stranded in war-torn Yemen. Dubbed insensitive by the media, Singh’s comment faced a lot of flak which did not go down that well with the retired general. Reacting to the criticism from the media, VK Singh tweeted this:

Friends what do you you expect from presstitutes. Last time Arnab thought there was 'O' in place of 'E' #TimesNowDisaster

— General Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) April 7, 2015

‘Presstitutes’, a play on ‘prostitutes’ and ‘press’, was an oblique allegation that the media tailors or twists news to fit a particular agenda. VK Singh ended up sounding like a Twitter troll. And what makes matters even worse, is that this isn’t even the first time that the good general has lashed out at the media after making headlines for the wrong reasons.

Shortly after representing the government at the national day reception at Pakistan High Commission in March, which kicked up a storm, Singh issued a series of intriguing tweets defining “disgust” and “duty” indicating that he may have been unhappy at being deputed to it.

It’s time the former army chief realises that while he is obviously free to speak his mind as an individual, and even when he was the army chief, in his role as a Minister he unfortunately doesn’t enjoy the same luxury. Everything he says will be seen to have official sanction and when he chooses to target a media house over a slight, it effectively sounds like he has the government’s sanction to do so.