We should know one thing about a politician who lies…and lies repeatedly. A habitual liar, especially if he is a successful politician, is also a sane person. He is well aware of what lies to speak, when, and for what specific gains. However, on rare occasions, he also makes statements that confound his followers and critics alike. When the stakes are high, and there is tremendous pressure to counter the Opposition’s attacks, he becomes vulnerable to committing slip-ups.
Hence, in Hyderabad on 9 May, Prime Minister Modi alleged that Rahul Gandhi had stopped his criticism of “Ambani and Adani” since the notification of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Then, employing a rather colourful and streetfighter’s language, he said: “The shahzada should declare – during these polls, how much have they taken from Ambani-Adani (kitna maal uthaaya hai)? How many sacks of black money have been taken? Have tempos full of notes reached the the Congress? What’s the deal that’s been struck (kya sauda hua hai)? Why did you stop abusing Ambani-Adani overnight? Surely something is amiss (zaroor daal mein kuch kaala hai). Five years you abused the two and then stopped overnight; this means loot (chori ka maal) has been delivered to you in tempos. You will have to answer to the nation.”
In cricketing parlance, this was an easy full toss, which Rahul Gandhi hit for a six.
“Modi ji, are you a little scared?” he retorted in a 46-second video message that went massively viral on social media. “Normally you talk about Adani and Ambani behind closed doors, but for the first time, you have talked about them in public. The country knows who is the driver and helper of the BJP's tempo of corruption. Do one thing ─ send the CBI and ED to them and carry out a thorough investigation and don't be scared.”
We do not know the truth or falsity of Modi’s allegation. But one thing everyone knows: business houses never donate funds to a single party. They fund both the ruling party and those in the opposition. Why then did Modi step into a taboo terrain and thereby expose himself to indefensible barbs from his adversaries?
Notice the difference between all his other lies with communal overtones (discussed below) and his “Ambani-Adani” charge. Many (though not all) of his supporters were overjoyed listening to those lies and even circulated them approvingly on their countless social media networks. But not a single BJP leader reiterated the prime minister’s “Ambani-Adani” accusation and none of the “godi media” outlets debated the matter.
The reasons for this thunderous silence are simple. First, the attack on Rahul Gandhi was the prime minister’s own indirect but irrefutable admission about the existence of huge amounts of back money in the economy, the 2016 demonetisation notwithstanding. Second, he was also indirectly supporting the widespread belief that political parties ─ above all, the ruling party ─ continue to receive large sums of black money even after the introduction of the electoral bonds scheme, which the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional but which Modi justified by saying it curbed unaccounted donations to political parties. Third, and most obvious even to common Indians, why didn’t the prime minister order investigative agencies to probe black money donations (“chori ka maal”) to the Congress party by two of the country’s largest corporations?
One does not know why Modi scored this self-goal. Is it because he was stung by Rahul Gandhi’s charge ─ “Main inka hoon, Woh unke hain?” (I speak for the poor, whereas the prime minister speaks for the super-rich.) Likely. After all, most of Modi’s campaign speeches in this election ─ unlike in 2014 and 2019 ─ are a reaction to the attacks mounted by the Congress and other constituents of the INDIA bloc. Unable to create and communicate his own positive, persuasive and inspiring narrative to the electorate, Modi finds himself pushed to a defensive spot by an increasingly assertive opposition. Which is why, he is taking the help of lies and committing costly gaffes. In the process, he is debasing the chair he sits on.
Intentionally Spreading Falsehood About Others is a Far More Serious Moral Offence Than False Promises to Voters
When does a leader tell lies to his own people? And what prompts him to tell lies? Scholars in political science around the world have made an in-depth study of this subject, although one does not know if this was taught in the “Entire Political Science” course at Gujarat University where our Prime Minister is said to have secured his MA degree.
The gist of what scholars say is simple. Most politicians commonly spread propaganda laced with varying degrees of untruth to secure the support of the people. However, when their lies become egregious and unhinged, it is a sign of desperation and frustration.
Liars are of two types, just as lies are of two types. There are occasional liars and habitual liars. And there are less toxic lies and more toxic lies. Giving false promises to voters is a lower-order falsehood. Many political parties give promises they know they cannot fulfil. But intentionally spreading falsehood about others is a far more serious moral offence. When the stakes are high, even an occasional liar feels tempted, with a twinge in his conscience, to commit this offence. If the leader happens to be a habitual liar, speaking lies about one’s opponents comes effortlessly to him because the inner voice of conscience is long suppressed in him.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections have become a contest between two lies. Rahul Gandhi, whom I regard as a conscientious and compassionate politician, has been saying, in speech after campaign speech, that the BJP, if it got a third term, would end reservations for the SCs, STs and OBCs by changing the Constitution. This is false. The BJP has said no such thing in its manifesto, nor would it be able to do so even if any of its leaders ─ or leaders of the RSS ─ wanted to. India’s social composition and stark developmental disparities are such that no political party can hope to govern the country by abolishing constitutionally guaranteed reservations to certain marginalised sections of society. BJP leaders are not fools to contemplate such a suicidal move.
Hence, Modi was right when, at an election rally in Pune on April 30, he said, “Even if Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar himself turned up and told him to change the Constitution and end reservations, it will not happen.”
Yes, the BJP Wants to Change the Constitution…but Not in the Way Rahul is Alleging
Yes, the BJP would surely like to change the Constitution ─ and it would most certainly do so if it managed to get anywhere close to 400 seats in the next Lok Sabha. But its aim would not be the abolition of caste-based reservations. Rather, it would be guided by two other goals. First, it would like to constitutionally declare India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, a long-cherished strategic goal of the RSS and the entire Sangh Parivar. At the very least, it would want to remove the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble of the Constitution.
Second, an equally important aspiration for the BJP ─ for Modi in particular ─ would be to secure more powers for the office of the prime minister and, by corollary, restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens and limit the powers of the judiciary, media and other institutions of democracy. In short, Modi would like to take India in the direction of ‘One Nation, One Party, One Leader’.
Rahul and others in the INDIA bloc are telling the lie about the BJP wanting to end caste-based quotas in the hope of getting some support from the SCs, STs and OBCs. They may have succeeded in their plan to some extent.
But there is another kind of lie, the one peddled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These are of a far more sinister type since they not only threaten to tear apart India’s social fabric on communal lines, but they also enfeeble our democracy by spreading an atmosphere of fear, intolerance, suppression of dissent, institutional coercion and denial of justice to the poor and the marginalised.
We have already seen this in ample measure in the past ten years. If this is only a “trailer”, as Modi has haughtily stated, one shudders to think how the main movie would turn out to be in case he manages to secure a massive majority in the ongoing parliamentary polls.
PM’s Buffalo Bakwaas
Here is how my list of Modi’s lies begins.
I was with the owner of a pro-BJP television channel at his office in Ahmedabad on May 1. The TV in the room was showing the live telecast of the prime minister’s speech at an election rally in Banaskantha, a place famous for the Banas Cooperative Dairy. Modi was speaking in Gujarati, a language I, a longtime resident of multi-lingual Mumbai, have a passing knowledge of.
Something Modi said about ‘bhains’ (buffalo) provoked my curiosity. Not quite sure of what he meant, I asked the owner of the channel, who translated the relevant lines for me. “Modi ji cautioned the audience that the Congress, if it came to power, would take away fifty percent of people’s property in the name of redistribution of wealth. ‘If you have two ‘bhains’ in your family, the Congress would take away one and give to its (Muslim) ‘vote bank’. You will be able to leave only one buffalo for your child as inheritance. If you have a house with four rooms, the Congress would take away two rooms and give them to the same people.’”
“How can the Prime Minister of India speak such bakwaas (nonsense)? Is this really what Modi said?” I asked in disbelief. “Yes,” my Gujarati friend answered, with a chuckle. “Do common people in Gujarat believe this kind of fib,” I questioned him again. His giggle became more pronounced as he replied: “I don’t think common folks in my state any longer believe all he says, but this is how he attempts to attract voters. For us, this is not new. Modi ji has used such language at the time of elections even when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.”
This brief conversation revealed three things about the election scene in Gujarat. First, a pro-BJP media owner being somewhat disdainful of Modi and his habit of telling lies meant that his own supporters did not view him with respect. After all, you cannot respect a person you know is not truthful. Second, he was candid in opining that many common Gujaratis have started to disbelieve in Modi. Third, if this is happening in Modi’s own home state, where his party made a clean sweep in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections by securing 26 out of 26 seats, it probably indicates that all is not well with the BJP in Gujarat this time.
Indeed, almost all the persons I spoke to in Gujarat said the BJP’s vote share would shrink this time. They also added that the Congress fought well in half a dozen seats and might even win in at least a couple of constituencies (including Banaskantha, where Geniben Thakor, a firebrand grassroots leader, is its candidate).
The reasons for cracks in the BJP’s fortress in Gujarat are many. Infighting is rife in the ruling party. None of its top leaders in the state command respect. The president of its state unit was once jailed in a case of financial fraud. Corruption is rampant and has scaled unbelievable levels. The chief minister, a political nobody, is widely regarded as a puppet. He is controlled by bureaucrats who are answerable to, and take orders from, their masters in Delhi. Modi, when he ruled Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, used to frequently hit out at “Dilli ki Sultanat” (Congress high command) for trying to “lord over Gujarat”. Today most Gujaratis know ─ and many of them dislike the fact ─ that Gandhinagar is remote-controlled by the offices of the prime minister and the home minister in New Delhi.
In This Waveless Election, BJP is Struggling
There is no Modi wave in this election in his own home state. This is also true about every other state. In contrast, the INDIA alliance is showing far greater combativeness and cohesiveness than was previously expected. Even a completely disorganised and resource-starved party like the Congress is showing remarkable aggressive spirit. The stock market plunged a few days ago in anticipation that the outcome of the polls could be less than rosy for the BJP.
In other words, the stakes have suddenly become high for Modi in this election.
Could this be the reason why the prime minister has descended to the level of telling outlandish lies? And since he is speaking such lies in state after state ─ and since each of these lies is aimed at communal polarization of the electorate ─ does it mean that the undercurrent in the ongoing waveless election is not quite favourable to the BJP?
Look how quickly, and predictably, Modi has surrendered to the temptation of using the time-tested communal card for electoral success. Before the elections were announced on 16 March, a thumping victory for the BJP and a third term for Modi appeared a foregone conclusion. That, in any case, was the scenario created by the mainstream media. Modi himself had built an aura of invincibility by declaring, “Abki baar 400 paar” (the BJP will win 400 seats this time). With a kind of bravado never displayed by any previous prime minister, he boasted in Parliament in February: “Ek akela sab par bhaari” (I alone can vanquish all of you).
Buoyed by this self-created hype, the BJP kicked off the election campaign by focusing on “Modi ki Guarantee” ─ which was mostly in the domain of growth, development, and people’s welfare. But soon after the first and the second phases of polling showed an alarming dip in voter turnout, a torrent of lies from the prime minister filled the campaign discourse. It soon became difficult to judge which of his lies was more unbecoming of the high office of the prime minister of the largest democracy in the world.
In Banswada (Rajasthan) on 21 April: Modi deliberately falsified former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s 2006 statement (an authentic text of which is available for scrutiny in PMO’s archives) and remarked that when the Congress party was in government, “they said Muslims have the first claim over the country’s resources.” If it returns to power, he added, “the party will gather all your wealth and distribute it among those who have more children. They will distribute it among infiltrators. Do you think your hard-earned money should be given to infiltrators?”
Maligning Muslims as “infiltrators” ─ and hence not equal citizens of India ─ was a new low in the ruling party’s ten-year record of hate politics.
But since it was coming from the prime minister himself, it lent a seal of approval to the anti-Muslim bigotry that has energized the radicalized sections in the Hindutva family.
In Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh) on 22 April: “The Congress “shahzada” (prince) says if his party comes to power, they will investigate who earns how much and how much property they have. Not only this, he says the government will take over the property and redistribute it. This is what their election manifesto is saying.”
This was a lie. The Congress manifesto does not say this.
But what Modi said next was a more bizarre lie. “Just think, our mothers and daughters possess gold. But now the Congress is eyeing a change in law and it will grab the gold of our mothers and sisters. These people have their eyes on your ‘manglasutra’” (necklace worn by a married Hindu woman).
In Warangal (Telangana) on 8 May: “The Congress wanted to defeat President Droupadi Murmu in the presidential poll as her skin colour is dark”.
This, of course, is a blatant lie. But the prime minister committed a more egregious impropriety here. Never known for respecting Constitutional protocol, he dragged the Rashtrapati, who holds the highest office of the Republic, into the election slugfest.
Modi’s lies about ‘buffaloes’ and ‘mangalsutras’ were triggered by an unwarranted statement by Sam Pitroda, who was until recently chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, about the necessity of redistribution of wealth by introducing inheritance tax. No Congress leader endorsed it. Indeed, the Congress party officially disassociated itself from Pitroda's views.
Nevertheless, Modi not only misrepresented Pitroda’s view as the Congress party’s commitment in its manifesto, but he also deliberately gave a communal twist to it.
Similarly, Modi picked up another needless (and inappropriately worded) statement by Pitroda (this time on the facial features of the diverse sections of Indian society) to make a ludicrously false allegation involving President Murmu and her skin colour.
In Nandurbar (Maharashtra) on 10 May: “The agenda of the Congress party is so dangerous that they say the celebration of the Ram Navami festival is against the idea of India. They even say that going to temples is anti-Indian. Look at the Congress’ mentality, calling the Ram temple ‘anti-national’ in Lord Ram’s country. The Congress is hatching a conspiracy to erase Hindu faith from this country.”
Every word of what Modi said is false. One can question the Congress party’s self-contradictory and self-hurting stand in the course of the movement for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. But there is nothing remotely true in Modi’s charge that the “Congress is engaged in a conspiracy to eliminate Hindu faith”.
Consolidation of its own Hindu vote bank by erasing caste identities, demonising Muslims for this purpose, and painting the Congress as an anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim party has been the three-pronged election-winning strategy of the BJP under Modi and Amit Shah. This is evident in yet another falsehood the prime minister has been hawking through his campaign speeches as well as several well-scripted interviews he has given to pliant journalists.
He has alleged on multiple occasions that the Congress, if it came to power, would take away reservations meant for the SCs, STs and OBCs and give them to Muslims. There is nothing in the Congress manifesto, or in the pronouncements of Congress leaders, to lend credence to this allegation. But Modi’s attitude seems to be: “Why care for my own credibility, or for the dignity of the office of the prime minister, so long as my communal campaign succeeds in scaring Hindu voters and uniting them in my favour ─ and so long as the Election Commission keeps silent on my recurrent transgressions of the model code of conduct?”
Has India ever seen such impudence? Never.
'Modi Ji Ka Graph Gir Raha Hai'
Modi’s desperation may be because the BJP can no longer fight elections on the promise of development given its failure, mainly, to create jobs and rein in price rise. The BJP’s ‘Vikasit Bharat’ (India as a Developed Nation) slogan has not quite electrified the masses. Even the appeal of its Hindutva messaging appears to be confined only to its core support base. Hence, at this point, the BJP ─ and Modi in particular ─ seem to have backed themselves into a corner. They no longer have a coherent message capable of attracting a large number of voters beyond the Hindutva base. The resultant desperation and frustration explain Modi’s resort to outrageous lies.
A final comment. A friend in Varanasi, a politically neutral observer from Modi’s parliamentary constituency, had this to say when I phoned him a few days ago. “Modi ji ka graph poore Uttar Pradesh mein gir raha hai. (Modi’s graph is falling throughout UP.) He will of course win from Varanasi, but the BJP is losing ground in the state.”
What he said next was more telling. “Unke kayi bhakt bhi unke bhaashanon se niraash aur achambit huye hain (Even some of his ardent followers are disappointed and surprised by his speeches). Mangasutra aur bhains ki bhaasha unhe pasand nahin aayee hai (They have not liked the language of the Congress wanting to snatch away mangalsutra and buffaloes from Hindu families.) Kuchh bhakton ko Modi ji mein Devata ka swaroop dikhataa tha. Lekin Devata jhooth toh nahin bolate. Is liye ye bhakt log niraash huye hain. (Some devoted supporters saw a godly form in Modi. But they know that gods do not speak lies. That is why, they are disappointed).
Surely, this election is turning. How much? That’s an open question.
(The writer, who served as an aide to India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is the founder of the ‘Forum for a New South Asia – Powered by India-Pakistan-China Cooperation’. He tweets @SudheenKulkarni and welcomes comments at sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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