In last leg of polls, Rahul Gandhi calls PM Modi ‘panauti’; BJP demands apology

“Panauti… panauti… Achha bhalaa hamare ladke wahaan World Cup jeetne waale the, par panauti harwaa diya. TV waale ye nahin kahenge magar janta jaanti hai (Our boys were going to win the World Cup, but panauti got them defeated. TV channels will not say this but the public knows),” Gandhi said at a public rally in Balotra, Rajasthan.

Rajasthan goes to polls on November 25.

Just a week ago, Modi had called Rahul moorkhon ka sardaar (leader of fools) after Rahul said everybody in India has only Chinese mobile handsets. “Congress leaders suffer a mental disease of not acknowledging India’s achievements,” Modi had said in Madhya Pradesh, and said India had taken rapid strides in mobile manufacturing.

Earlier this year, Rahul Gandhi was briefly disqualified as a Member of Parliament after a Surat court handed him a two-year sentence for his remark on the surname Modi. He was reinstated only after the Supreme Court stayed the sentence.

Demanding an apology from Gandhi for his latest remark, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “What has happened to you, Rahul Gandhi? You are so troubled because of the frustration of losses that you are using abusive language against the Prime Minister of the country. Our Prime Minister loves our players and goes to boost their morale and to help them. The Bharatiya team is doing well in Asiads, Olympics and paralympics. Our players played very well. It’s all right – defeat and victory happen. Rahul Gandhi must apologise.”

KC Venugopal of the Congress, however, defended Gandhi’s jibe. “Rahul ji has said what many have been thinking since 2 days! The World Cup finals was a moment of pride for 140 crore Indians and we were all looking forward to this historic occasion, but they were desperate to hijack it for their political mileage. The BJP should be the last ones to talk about political correctness. These Godse bhakts, including PM Modi, who have regularly insulted Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi ji, Sonia ji and Rahul ji with the most vile abuses are finding it difficult to digest the hard truth,” Venugopal wrote on social media platform X.

So now Rahul refers to PM @narendramodi ji as “Panauti” 🤬🤮

Theres more than irony or hypocrisy at work here – that a 55yr old who has never worked a day in his life, whose family has exploited country like Parasites for decades wth their corruption and whose govt destroyed… https://t.co/g9co37Dosv

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) November 21, 2023

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had triggered a political controversy during the Karnataka Assembly elections earlier this year with his “venomous snake” jibe at the Prime Minister. He had found himself at the centre of a similar controversy last year during the Gujarat Assembly elections. “We see your (Modi’s) face in corporation elections, MLA elections or MP elections, everywhere… Do you have 100 heads like Ravan,” he said at a public meeting in Ahmedabad.

The BJP had then accused Kharge of likening the PM to Ravan. The Congress was on the defensive during the 2017 Gujarat election as well when it was forced to suspend veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar from the party for his “neech kisam ka aadmi” remarks for Modi.