{"id":89159,"date":"2022-12-01T06:36:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T01:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/?p=89159"},"modified":"2022-12-01T06:36:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T01:06:11","slug":"meri-chai-bhi-nahin-peeta-koi-how-kharges-pitting-his-own-humble-origins-against-modis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/meri-chai-bhi-nahin-peeta-koi-how-kharges-pitting-his-own-humble-origins-against-modis\/","title":{"rendered":"Meri chai bhi nahin peeta koi\u2019 \u2014 how Kharge\u2019s pitting his own humble origins against Modi\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>New Delhi:<\/strong>&nbsp;Barely a month into his tenure as president of the Indian National Congress (INC), the otherwise low-profile Mallikarjun Kharge is taking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) head-on. The octogenarian is also slowly building his brand as a leader from a disadvantaged background who rose through the ranks to hold the reins of a national party \u2014 an identity Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assiduously cultivated for himself since 2013.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 28 November, speaking at a campaign rally in Gujarat\u2019s Dediapada, Kharge \u2014 referring to Modi\u2019s angst against the Congress for \u2018targeting him personally\u2019 \u2014 thundered: \u201cI am also poor\u2026poorer than poor, untouchable. At least somebody drank your tea. Nobody drinks my tea even. And then you say ooh I am poor, they asked me what my stature (<em>haisiyat<\/em>) is. If you try to garner sympathy like this, it will not work. People are not fools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kharge was alluding to Modi\u2019s oft-repeated reminiscing about his boyhood days as a tea seller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, Kharge took another swipe at Modi, questioning why the Prime Minister is the BJP\u2019s face in every election, be it parliamentary, assembly or municipal. How many faces does he (Modi) have, Kharge<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/INCIndia\/status\/1597502706020515840\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a>asked, adding, \u201cIs he like Ravan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For much of Tuesday, the Congress and BJP traded barbs over Kharge\u2019s remarks and criticism of him for targeting Modi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BJP\u2019s Amit Malviya wrote on Twitter: \u201cUnable to take the heat of Gujarat election, pushed to the fringe, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge loses control over his words, calls Prime Minister Narendra Modi \u201cRavan\u201d. From \u201cMaut ka Saudagar\u201d to \u201cRavan\u201d, Congress continues to insult Gujarat and it\u2019s son\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congress spokespersons Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera retorted by accusing the BJP of being \u201canti-Dalit\u201d for using the word \u201cfringe\u201d for Kharge, a veteran leader from a disadvantaged background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi:&nbsp;Barely a month into his tenure as president of the Indian National Congress (INC), the otherwise low-profile Mallikarjun Kharge is taking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) head-on. The octogenarian is also slowly building his brand as a leader from a disadvantaged background who rose through the ranks to hold the reins of a national [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89161,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89159\/revisions\/89161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dailypunjabtimes.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}