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Journalism of Courage
Addressing a rally in Visakhapatnam’s Railway Ground on June 11, held to mark nine years of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “The UPA government led by (former Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh was weak. During the UPA regime, any Alia-Malia-Jamalia could enter and execute bomb blasts. It didn’t have the courage to do anything against them.”
“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s government worked to ensure the internal security of the country over the last nine years. Within 10 days of the Pulwama incident, our defence forces retaliated with a surgical strike inside Pakistan,” Shah added.
The words Alia-Maliya-Jamalia are common parlance in Gujarati for usage on the line of Tom, Dick and Harry.
Shah has deployed this line of rhetoric frequently, most often while talking about security issues along the border, and in the context of the Pulwama and Uri incidents.
Speaking at an election rally at Tapi in Gujarat in November 2022, news agency ANI quoted Shah as saying: “When the Modi government removed Article 370, the Congress was saying that rivers of blood will flow. But when the Article was removed, leave aside the river of blood, no one dared to even throw a stone.”
He added, “In the government of Sonia and Manmohan Singh, Alia-Malia-Jamalia from Pakistan used to run away after beheading our soldiers. But when the Modi government came, there were terrorist attacks in Pulwama and Uri. But they didn’t know that there is no Manmohan Singh in India, now there is Narendra Modi…Within 10 days, the PM entered the house of Pakistan by conducting surgical and air strikes.”
At an election rally in Lalganj, Azamgarh, in March 2022, Shah spoke similarly.
Talking of the BJP government’s decision to abrogate Article 370, which had granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he said as per a video on his official Youtube channel: “For 15 years, when Sonia (Gandhi)-Manmohan (Singh) were in power, Alia-Malia-Jamalia from Pakistan would enter our country and behead our soldiers. But the PM did not utter even a single ‘uff’. But when Modi became PM, and Pakistan repeated the same mistake, it realised within 10 days that the Congress government was not in power.”
On February 2, 2022, addressing the public in Uttar Pradesh’s Atrauli, he said, “When Congress governed for 10 years, Alia-Malia-Jamalia from Pakistan invaded our country and beheaded our jawans. Then PM Manmohan Singh didn’t do anything. But after the Uri and Pulwama attacks, PM Modi eliminated terrorists in Pakistan with a surgical strike in 10 days.”
Hailing the surgical strike at a Booth Karyakarta Sammelan in Goa in December 2019, Shah compared India to America and Israel, saying that our country was now also seen now as a nation taking strong steps to avenge the death of its soldiers, unlike the tenure of the “Sonia-Manmohan” government, when terrorists would enter the borders every day.
“Har din Aliya-Malia-Jamalia, jisko aana tha woh ghus jata tha (whoever wanted to come, could). There was no one to ask,” he had said.
Laying the foundation stone for multiple projects in Ahmedabad in October 2019, Shah said the same. Calling Singh “mauni (silent) baba Manmohan”, Shah said any “Alia-Malia-Jamalia” from Pakistan could enter India during Singh’s tenure.
Speaking at a gathering in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, on December 27, 2019, Shah said, “The Congress government ran for 15 years. Every day from Pakistan, Alia-Malia-Jamalia would enter and behead our soldiers. The PM would not say the word. The borders were left open.” At the same event, Shah accused the Congress of spreading misinformation on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
