From modest beginnings of a chai-wallah to a viable contender for the Prime-Ministership of India, Mr. Narendra Modi could well be described as a self-made man, and he now seems to want to make himself into the man: as in, the boss-man, the emperor, the ruler on the throne of India.
With that goal in view, he has been touring his would-be dominion, trying to win over the hearts and minds of his would-be subjects with all kinds of rosy reports of his “achievements” and golden promises of things to come. The fact that much of what he says is… er, not true … seems not to bother him much. And his own record (which he may have a reason to mischaracterise on purpose), is not even the only thing he fudges.
He is just so wrong on so many things that he just seems not to be aware of things in the world as they actually happen. Of course, his kar-sevaks like to argue that his quotes were altered or taken out of context or that his corrections to any ‘goof-ups’ are never highlighted by the media the way the mistakes themselves are. But, there comes a point at which “mistakes” become a pattern. Here’s a very small sampling of his goofs, “un-Modi-fied” from 2013.
The Government of Gujarat had helped in empowering women
In a speech at the FICCI, while addressing a gathering of female industrialists, Mr. Modi claimed that the Gujarat Government was all for female empowerment. Meanwhile official data collected from the state revealed that female secondary-drop-outs in Gujarat were higher than the national average and that the sex ratio in the state’s population had in fact dropped from 918 women for every 1000 men in 2001 to 915 per every 1000 men in 2011.
China spent 20% of their GDP on education
Modi claimed 32 of Chinese Universities featured in the world’s top 500 compared to India’s solitary 1, because China spent 20% of its GDP on education. In reality, however, China allocated only 3.93% of its annual GDP to education.
Alexander was defeated by India, and that Taxila was in Bihar
While political opinion stood divided over the effectiveness of the Hunkar Rally help in October 2013 in Patna, Bihar, public opinion overwhelmingly appointed Mr. Modi as a favourite among the people there. A crowd of an estimated 7 lakh turned up for his speech, and stayed to hear him out in spite of explosions in the vicinity. However, Mr. Modi slipped in a number of places when he attempted to champion the potential of the people of Bihar- declaring that Alexander had been defeated on this side of the Ganges and that the ancient university of Taxila was in Bihar (it is in fact to the North West of Islamabad).
Jawaharlal Nehru was not present at the funeral of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
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In an interview championing the construction of the Statue of Unity (a statue commemorating one of the founding fathers of the republic of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel), Mr. Modi managed to somehow get on his pet peeve: the accusation that the Nehru-Gandhi family is always looking to serve their own ends. As evidence of their self-centered treachery, Modi asserted (though he later denied having done so) that Jawaharlal Nehru had not attended Vallabhbhai’s funeral. But there just happens to be video footage to show that Nehru was in fact present at the funeral, proving once again that it is in fact Mr. Modi who had distorted the facts to serve his political ends.
Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the same person as Gujarati freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Verma
At a recent rally, Mr. Modi confused the Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee with a Gujarati freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Verma. According to the BJP spokesperson, though the slip of tongue was later clarified, that clarification wasn’t reported by the media.
