In times of Mani’s neech politics, why Modi, Rahul should mind their language too

After Mani Shankar Aiyar's ouster from the Congress for his neech remark against PM Narendra Modi, it's time for all politicians to act well in public.

New Delhi, Dec 8: On Thursday, when Mani Shankar Aiyar ended up blurting those infamous words, "neech kism ka aadmi" (a vile man), against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the veteran Congress leader actually exposed how "neech" (low) the Indian politics has become in the recent times.

Listen to any politician speaking on any issue; invariably he/she ends up sounding rude, crass, intolerant, biased and filthy. These days, most often, the moment our politicians open their mouths, dirt flows through them, literally.

Along with shooting off their mouths often, our elected representatives don't even shy away from exchanging blows with each other in the sacred precinct of Parliament and state Assemblies.

In fact, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have the dubious distinction of watching porn inside the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

Sadly, our politics have truly become neech.

The symptoms of such unparliamentary bearings are not missing from the two of the most popular leaders--PM Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. It is true that they have never engaged themselves in any fisticuffs with anyone in public nor do they have watched porn for that matter, but often both Modi and Rahul have disappointed the public with their "misconducts".

Recently, when Modi tried to imitate his predecessor Manmohan Singh at a rally in Gujarat by speaking in the former PM's characteristic soft voice, it shocked everyone.

As Modi is busy campaigning in poll-bound Gujarat extensively, he has repeatedly called the Congress "Mughals" to project Rahul and his teammates as "Muslim invaders who are here to loot and plunder".

Similarly, Rahul, who has now taken a moral high ground by suspending veteran leader Aiyar from the Congress' primary membership for insulting the PM by calling him "neech", too is guilty of indulging in foul language.

Back in 2016, while attacking the Modi government for allegedly politically encashing the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Rahul in a scathing remark called the BJP and PM as "dalals" (brokers) of blood.

"Humare jawan hain jinho ne khoon diya hai, jinho ne surgical strike kiya, unke khoon ke peeche aap (PM) chhupe huye ho. (You (PM) are hiding behind our soldiers, who gave their blood and who carried out surgical strikes)", Rahul said.

The language of our political class has become so low that we have almost become immune to such rampant 'mal'practices. Most often the tone and use of words by our leaders are so divisive that they have succeeded in triggering the passion of gullible public leading to riots at times.

From the use of the word haramzada (bastards) against the Muslims in West Bengal by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh to calling Modi a "coward and psychopath" by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the use of unsavory language and third-rate rhetoric against political opponents and political parties by our netas have become a fairly routine affair.

It is just that Thursday was a "bad" day for Aiyar, who paid for his "sins". The polling for the first phase of elections in Gujarat will begin in a few hours from now (on Saturday) and the Congress can't afford to lose the Gujarat battle for another "silly" mistake on the part of the veteran leader who by infamously calling Modi, a chaiwala, dug the grave for the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Otherwise, if Modi, who has taken offence to both the chaiwala and neech remarks by Aiyar, and Rahul, who has condemned Aiyar's comments, are so serious about maintaining political propriety, then next time when they stand behind the mike, the two rivals should act like statesmen of the highest order.

OneIndia News