Idolizing a film star or a sports star or a politician is pretty common in our country, thanks our habit of excessively venerating high achievers in many fields. However, hero-worship of politicians has lately taken on gargantuan proportions that are pretty difficult to accept.
PM Modi has, in recent times, been projected as the embodiment of the nation by his party supporters and his legions of fans on social media will tear you down if you dare to criticise him. BJP, which was once opposed to ‘Vyakti Puja’, has in the recent past given in to it in a way to almost make it seem like an art-form.
In the latest instance of hero-worship, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “11th incarnation” of Lord Vishnu, drawing ridicule from opposition parties.
Hon PM @narendramodi ji is the 11th #Avatar of Lord Vishnu
___ ___ __ _______…– Avadhut Wagh (@Avadhutwaghbjp) October 12, 2018
Talking to a Marathi news channel, he said, “The country is fortunate that we have got a god-like leader in Modi.”
Attacking Mr Wagh, state Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said it was an “insult” to the gods. “This is also an attempt to find lost political ground (by Wagh). I do not think this (comment) needs to be given much importance,” he added.
Even Twitter was savage in its response. Many Twitter handled ridiculed the BJP leaders for indulging in hero-worship.
Maal fuka hai kya ??? pic.twitter.com/Ni4cne1EKK
— _______ ____ __ (@pankya_G) October 12, 2018
_______ ____ __ _____ _______ ____. pic.twitter.com/vVlO9pcWPq
— _____ ______ (@zingaat1) October 12, 2018
_____ __ over-acting __ __ sir, ______ ____ __ ______
— tk (@1994_lko) October 12, 2018
Beginning of such blatant sycophancy usually marks the beginning of the decline and it has begun. Fact is Modi has miserably failed the Hindu majority that voted him to power. https://t.co/9G0zr7bx2e
— Varun V __ (@RashtraNeeti) October 13, 2018
Earlier this month, Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb said people ought to pray for PM Mod’s well being because no one in the country is like him.
” People at least for once a day should pray for his well-being . He doesn’t want anything from them. He never keeps his old mother at his official residence. Even his brother drives an auto and another one is a grocer. Who else is there like him in the country? Even his brothers are so humble,” he said.
Last Month, BJP Tamil Nadu unit President Tamilisai Soundararjan said she has ‘nominated’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Nobel Peace Prize for launching the ‘world’s largest’ health scheme.
In November 2016, when singer-turned-lawmaker Babul Supriyo was asked about PM Modi’s absence from parliament, he said if kids can take on the opposition, there’s no need to call the ‘father’ (Narendra Modi). “When little kids can answer them, then what is the need for daddy to come,” he had said.
Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu, during his tenure as union minister in 2016, called PM Modi “God’s gift to India”,and a “messiah of the poor”.
The then minister also mentioned PM Modi’s vast popularity on social media, and referred to the PM’s inclusion in the globally famous wax museum of Madame Tussauds, saying the popularity of the Prime Minister, “Modifier Of Developing India” — his acronym for Modi — has scaled “new heights”.
In the same year, the current Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had forwarded a Facebook post that said French seer Nostradamus had predicted that Narendra Modi would lead India from 2014 to 2026.
These comments are at variance with BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which does not approve of personality cults.
