Gandhinagar : A storm in a teacup or a gale in a poll storm? The marital status of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is suddenly the talking point, especially after he admitted that he was ‘married’ in his Lok Sabha nomination form, a fact that he had not acknowledged in the Assembly elections in Gujarat.
The lady in the eye of this storm, his wife Yashodaben has, meanwhile, left on a ‘chardham yatra,’ her brother Kamlesh Modi told the press in Patan on Thursday. This essentially means that she will not be accessible till the election results are out.
“She has taken a vow not to eat rice or put on footwear until her estranged husband becomes the prime minister of the country,” the brother was quoted by a local TV channel as saying.
Even as Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modvadia sought action against Modi for hiding facts pertaining to his marital status, Gujarat Congress legislature party leader Shankersinh Vaghela said that an opponent is entitled to his private life, which should be respected. “A certain element of decorum needs to be maintained in the matter of personal life,” Vaghela added.
Modi’s elder brother Sombhai Modi issued a statement to the media on Thursday placing the issue of his marriage in proper perspective.”I appeal to the media and the public not to evaluate a happening that took place almost 50 years ago in the backdrop of today’s stature, status and position of Narendrabhai”.
Sombhai said that his younger brother’s marriage at a very early age has to be seen in the poverty ridden existence of the family of five brothers and a sister with very average means of subsistence.
‘‘Half a century ago our family was part of a society steeped in ignorance and ills like child marriage. Narendra’s marriage at a very early age was in a way byproduct of the same system. It also happened at a time he was consumed with nationalistic fervor. He left home around the same time heeding the call of social service and has never looked back,” Sombhai added.
However, the opposition remained unmoved and both the Congress and the Aam Admi Party demanded that Modi disqualified from membership of the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha for hiding his marital status all along.
Meanwhile, support for the BJP prime ministerial candidate came from unexpected quarters.”In my opinion there is no point in publicizing his personal life. I am a witness to his life all these years and I can say that he has not lived a married life. Jashodaben has said that Narendrabhai is her husband and he has acknowledged that she is his wife. The matter should rest at that,” he added.
Vaghela, former chief minister and a senior BJP leader in the past, had worked closely with Modi and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel in building the Jan Sangh and later the BJP in the state before they parted ways and Vaghela left to form his own regional party which later amalgamated into the Congress.
