Supporters throw flower petals around Narendra Modi on April 9, 2024 in Vadodra, India. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Narendra Modi, the frontrunner in India’s ongoing elections, has for the first time ever publicly acknowledged that, contrary to popular belief, he is not a bachelor. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate made the declaration when filing election nomination papers on Thursday, listing the name of his wife, Jashoda, and finally ending months of speculation by his political rivals.
Modi, who is now the favorite to be India’s next prime minister, has long avoided questions about his personal life and has never listed Jashoda on previous official documents. The politician has also made a point of emphasizing his single status on the campaign trail, arguing back in February, “I have no family ties, I am single. Who will I be corrupt for?” As a product of the grassroots Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the perception of a celibate lifestyle has been a major political asset for the leader and it is one he has studiously maintained throughout his ascension through the BJP.
via FT.com
As Modi biographer Kingshuk Nag points out, “People in India believe politicians become corrupt because they are under pressure from their wife or their mother or their brother or sister.” And, according to Global Post,
There is a Hindu tradition of Indian men turning their backs on family to devote themselves to a cause, Nag added, which means voters do not view his single status with the suspicion that a politician in the West might encounter.
The confirmation of his marital status, which has been rumored for months, has been seized on by his political rivals as evidence of Modi’s duplicity. It is also being used to further validate claims around his poor attitude towards women. Congress leader Digvijay Singh used the news to rehash a 2009 scandal linked to Modi, tweeting: “Modi accepts his marital status. Can women of this country trust a man who stalks a woman, deprives his wife of her right? Vote against Modi.” (The former in reference to Modi’s alleged responsibility for ordering Gujurat state police to conduct surveillance on a woman).
As much as Modi’s political rivals may make of this news, the revelation that the supposedly single politician has been married for decades will not, however, be the bombshell they are hoping for. While his marital status would appear to be at conflict with the image of total personal autonomy he has cultivated, his supporters are countering criticisms of the politician by pointing out that the union was a traditional, arranged marriage and was never consummated. A statement by Modi’s eldest brother Somabhai Modi sums it up:
We come from a simple, poor family, which was influenced by orthodox traditions of caste. Due to poverty and backwardness, the prevalence of education was limited in our family . . . To our parents, Narendrabhai was like any other child. So, in such an orthodox social context, our parents got Narendrabhai to marry Jashodaben at a tender age . . .
He quit the family and left the house at an early age. His child-marriage with Jashodaben remained a mere formality . . . We request (the people) to see this 45-50-year-old incident in the context of the then prevailing compulsions of a conservative and poor family.
In short, the news is being spun to reinforce the very aspects of the politician’s personal profile which have made him such a formidable presence against candidates like Rahul Gandhi, specifically the hard work and determination that have helped the politician ascend from the status of a poor tea seller to one of the country’s most prominent political figures. Far from proving a liability, this will only cement his standing with his base. And if personal “scandals” like these along with the more disturbing aspects of his record such as his role in Gujarat’s 2002 violence are not enough to slow Modi’s political momentum, his rivals will really have to scramble for the ever-dwindling possibility of blocking his ascension to the prime minister’s office.