Standards of political discourse in the country seem to be deteriorating with every passing day. Congress leader Vinay Kumar Pandey, who is contesting from the Kaisarganj parliamentary constituency, on Friday made a distasteful personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, equating stray cows to their family members.
While speaking to reporters about the menace of stray bulls and cows causing troubles to the farmers, Pandey compared the stray animals to Modi and Yogi’s ‘aunts, sisters, mother’.
Mocking the PM Modi and CM Yogi, Pandey said, “When people are travelling, they see stray bulls and cows on roads that are posing a problem for the farmers as well. This is not only a problem for the farmers but for people travelling as well. When people in cars look at these animals they say ‘Look, Modi and Yogi’s aunt is sitting there’, some say ‘their sister is sitting there’, and some say that their father is sitting there or mother is lying there.”
In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, political leaders have often resorted to controversial personal attacks against their opponents. Recently, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan raked a massive row after he made highly objectionable comments against BJP candidate from Rampur, Jaya Prada, referring to her “khaki underwear.”
The comment resulted in the Election Commission banning Khan from campaigning for the party for three days, from April 15 to 18. At a rally in Rampur, Khan had said, “It took you 17 years to identify the real face of these people, but I got to know it in 17 days that they wear khaki underwear.”
On the other hand, veteran BJP leader Uma Bharti also made a personal remark against Congress general secretary for UP (East) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, calling her a “chor ki patni (thief’s wife)”. Bharti was referring to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe against Priyanka’s husband Robert Vadra in connection with a money laundering case.
