‘Saugat-E-Modi’ Is Taking The Narendra Modi Cult To Another Level

By Sushil Kutty

What is ‘Saugat-e-Modi’? The literal translation is ‘Modi’s Gift’. It’s a gift scheme for members of “minority communities” during this festive season, even if it sounds like unmistaken “Muslim appeasement.” Dig a little deeper and ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ is cultivating the Modi Cult and the question should be asked, “Who is paying for ‘Saugat-e-Modi’?”

Narendra Modi wants to be recognized as a popular Prime Minister accepted by all sections of India ever since 2002, when Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat and the 2002 Gujarat riots marred his record. Today, he is using all the resources at his command to correct the impression about him. And a Prime Minister is very powerful.

Fact is, Prime Minister Modi doesn’t wear a red rose in his bandh-gala buttonhole and he is no ‘Chacha Nehru’. Children these days are also savvy beyond their years. Suffice to say, there is a Modi Cult for which persistence is the key. ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ didn’t fetch the desired result even after Modi rolled out welfare schemes to the doorsteps of Muslims.

Ration, LPG, PM Awas! No Muslim looks at a gift horse in the mouth but Muslims also will not vote for Modi, or for the BJP. As many as 542 Muslim families of a UP village were allotted 542 PM Awas but none of the 542 families voted for the BJP. Imagine!

The Prime Minister did not give up. He has widened the net to include 32,000 Muslims reporting to 32,000 mosques and distributing Rs 500/600 worth of Eid goodies to 32 lakh Muslim families. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is like the ant. Stubborn!

It is called “Modi’s Pasmanda-Prem.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost a big chunk of Hindu votes for his Pasmanda obsession. The BJP’s Lok Sabha count fell to 248! Did the Prime Minister learn his lesson?

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s Budget says he hasn’t. The Delhi Chief Minister has promised thousands of “awas” for the “poor.” Gupta is the latest Mukhya Mantri to board PM Modi’s ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ gravy train.

“Yesterday” when she presented her first budget, the treasury benches kept up the chant “Modi, Modi, Modi…” like there would be no tomorrow. The week before Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini thanked Prime Minister Modi for the BJP’s sweep of the local body elections, thanking “Pradhan Mantri Modi” thrice in 40 seconds, once because women voted for BJP, second time for youth voting BJP and the third time for the BJP sweeping the elections!

That in short is the Modi Cult. And ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ is yet another expansion of the cult, a mirror on the duplicity of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which only the other day was crying hoarse against Muslim reservation in Karnataka. ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ will make it to the Guinness Book of World Records if only because it is proof of Modi making a fool of Hindus “all the times.”

‘Saugat-e-Modi’ “extends support to minority communities during their festivals” but Muslims are its face and its core beneficiaries. On March 25, members of the BJP Minority Morcha fanned out to 32,000 mosques nationwide and listed 100-200 members from each mosque for the ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ kit, each kit containing Rs 500/600 worth of festivity goodies.

It is a neat trick to popularize Prime Minister Modi though it beats why a popular Prime Minister, a people’s Prime Minister, should need a ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ to popularize himself? This is, however, not the first time. Remember the Covid-19 vaccine and Prime Minister Modi’s face lighting up every Covid Vaccination Card?

Needless to say, the BJP Minority Morcha is at the beck and call of the Prime Minister. Morcha President Jamal Siddiqui spearheads ‘Saugat-e-Modi’. BJP spokespersons are also talking of ‘Saugat-e-Modi’, like Shehzad Poonawala, who is a Pasmanda and a favourite of Prime Minister Modi.

BJP spokespersons have to bring a sense of servility and loads of “G-Hazoori” to the table. It is mandatory for BJP spokespersons to name/thank Modi at least three times in two sentences. Building the Modi Cult is their first call of duty.

BJP spokespersons like Rajya Sabha MP Sudanshu Trivedi, Supreme Court advocate Gaurav Bhatia, Shehzad Poonawala, physician Dr Ajay Alok and ex-pollster Pradeep Bhandari never tire of singing “Pradhan Mantri” Modi’s praise. These are the selfless gentlemen who plod on in the hope Modi will one day reward them.

That being said, the ultimate Modi cultists are the media-plants of whom there is always one, two or three in every news television channel channelling their talent to suck up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Like the chap who runs the “Pathshala” in a Hindi news channel and another who shouts mongrelized Hindi-English and also owns the channel.

A typical statement that helps the Prime Minister maintain his cult status is: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi always says that he is the guardian of 140 crore Indians and he takes part in all festivals. He participates in Christmas, Easter, Baisakhi and sends ‘chadar’ for offering at Nizamuddin Dargah and Ajmer Sharif.”

‘Saugat-e-Modi’ initiative will be extended beyond Eid to include Sikh and Christian festivals; @Rs 500 per family for 32 lakh families will cost Rs 150 crore. Truely, the BJP will “do anything for votes” like Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has charged the BJP with. Prime Minister Modi’s Muslim appeasement shouldn’t surprise anybody. LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were consigned to the BJP’s ‘Marg Darshak Mandal’, Modi wants to continue as Prime Minister till he is well over 75. ‘Saugat-e-Modi’ takes the Modi Cult to another level. (IPA Service)