Modi must learn Bhojpuri and stop distorting facts if wants votes in UP

Wrong Bhojpuri, wrong facts and wrong intentions were three things which disconnected people from Narendra Modi when he delivered a political speech in Magahar in Sant Kabir Nagar on Thursday on the occasion of 620th birth anniversary of Kabir.

“Aaj ham apne ke bada saubhagyashali manathani ki mahaan Sufi sant Kabir Das ji ke smriti me ho rahal ee ayojan me ye pawan dharti par aail bati. Aaj hamke ihan aa ke neek lagat ba (I consider myself fortunate that I am here at this holy place to attend a programme in the memory of great Sufi saint Kabir Das ji. I am feeling good after coming here)” , said the Prime Minister while beginning his election speech in the guise of a discourse at the place where the 15th Century poet-saint had chosen to live his last three years.

The local people pointed out that Modi was supposed to say “manatbani”, which means “consider” as he wanted to say he considered himself fortunate that he was at a sacred place on the occasion of a function organised in the memory of “great Sufi saint, Kabir”.

Rajeshwar Singh, a resident of Magahar, who attended Modi’s rally, said, “We don’t know any word as manathani in Bhojpuri. Modi also used the word neek, which we use for a subject or object and not for a feeling. It would have been better had the PM spoken correct Hindi instead of speaking ridiculous Bhojpuri. We were laughing while he was addressing the rally.”

“As the PM’s speech developed after his initial display of knowledge on Kabir, as he quoted the verses of the saint-poet and then explained in Hindi, he claimed that the selfish Opposition parties were ignorant about the teachings of selflessness of Kabir. But Modi should have known that Kabir was not a Sufi saint”, said Anil Kumar Singh, an associate professor of Hindi at Saket Degree College, Faizabad.

“It is funny to hear from a PM that Kabir was a Sufi, which means one who propagates mystical understanding of Islam and cosmic harmony. Since Modi had to insert the issue of triple talaq in his directionless speech to blame the Opposition parties for disrupting his so-called effort to enact a law in the Parliament against this social evil, he didn’t mind distorting the biggest fact about Kabir that he was a Bhakti poet who was earthly in his writings and always rejected several dogmas of Hinduism as well as Islam,”said Singh.

“And the most ridiculous was Modi’s claim that Kabir, Guru Nanak and Guru Gorakhnath had met in Magahar for spiritual discussion. He needs to know that Kabir was in 15th Century and Gorakhnath was in 11th – 12th Century,” said Singh, adding that Kabir and Nanak might have met because they were contemporaries. The devotional poet’s verses have been incorporated in Guru Granth Sahib, the most important scripture of Sikhism, founded by Nanak.