Gorakhpur (UP): Unleashing a flurry of personal attacks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BSP supremo Mayawati alleged that he “abandoned his innocent wife for political gains”, drawing angry reaction from the BJP which called her “unfit for public life”.
Ms Mayawati also alleged that women in the BJP are scared of their husbands meeting the Prime Minister fearing they might “abandon their wives like him” and that Mr Modi deserves the abusive language used against him by the opposition.
With the Prime Minister daring her to withdraw support to Congress government in Rajasthan over the Alwar gangrape case, the BSP supremo, in a statement, accused him of playing “dirty politics” over the incident.
"It is extremely shameful. How can he respect others' sisters and wives when he has abandoned his own innocent wife for political gains?" she said. "I have come to know that in BJP, married women leaders get scared when they see their husbands in Modi's close proximity. They fear that like Modi they might also abandon their wives. Under such circumstances, I specially request all the women of the country not to give their votes to such a person. This would also be their real respect to the deserted wife of Modiji," she said in her no-holds-barred attack.
Addressing a joint SP-BSP rally here, Mayawati repeated her caste swipe at Modi, calling him a "fake OBC". "He (Narendra Modi) is lamenting in his rallies that Opposition is using abusive language for him. 'Jo gaali khaata hai, woh gaali khaane ka kaam karta hai' (those who get abused must have done something to deserve this treatment)," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.
BJP leader and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that instead of answering political questions raised by Modi on the rape of a Dalit woman in Rajasthan, Mayawati resorted to personal attacks, showing her anxiety that her party's grand alliance with SP in Uttar Pradesh was "going nowhere". Mayawati should apologise, she demanded.
"Behan Mayawati - She is firm on becoming a Prime Minister. Her governance, ethics and discourse stoops to an all-time low. Her personal attack today on the Prime Minister exposes her as unfit for public life," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted. Mayawati also took a jibe at the Prime Minister for terming poverty as his caste during an election rally earlier last week, saying "he is changing his caste every second day for political selfish motives". Dubbing the PM's "affection" for dalits as "dramebazi", she cited the various alleged cases of atrocities on dalits in Gujarat and other BJP ruled states and said Modi has no moral right to make any suggestion to anyone on the Alwar case.
