Narendra Modi, leader of the BJP, at a campaign rally this year, offered the following curious qualification for the post of India’s Prime Minister: He could not possibly be corrupt because he is a bachelor. “Why would I indulge in corruption? For whom?” reasoned Modi, 63? “There is no one behind me or in front of me,” he continued, using a Hindi phrase that means he has no family. “I surrender this body. I surrender this heart.”
But do you really think that marriage and its responsibilities can make you corrupt? Anyways, the 63-year-old Modi is not a bachelor but married to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi.
On Wednesday, Modi revised his official biography, when he noted on an election registry that he is, in fact, married. In four previous registrations, he has left the question of his marital status blank, however scrutiny over the question gradually mounted as he became the front-runner for the post of prime minister.
It was his first official acknowledgment of an arranged marriage he abandoned before long after the wedding some 45 years ago, during a period when he was considering becoming a monk or a full-time activist with a Hindu nationalist organization, which required a vow of celibacy.
A lot of pains has been bear by Modi and the BJP to keep the marriage muted for many years, even when reporters managed to interview his wife, a village school teacher. He was silent, despite the fact that his brother, Somabhai Damodardas Modi, released a statement saying that the marriage “was left as a formality” and that his brother had left the woman, Jashodaben Chimanlal, because he had chosen a life of service.
“Narendra’s whole life is a life of sacrifice, and we have to accept it; the whole country knows his sacrifice, and the people of the nation know it,” the statement said. “This event of 40 or 50 years back of a poor family in those circumstances should be seen in that context.”
Even if the leaders of the Congress Party indicted Modi of deceiving the public, it was blurred whether news of his marriage – which was according to the grapevine not consummated – would damage Modi.
General election this year offered the off the wall sight of a faceoff between two men who boasted of being single: Last year, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi told supporters that he did not plan to get married because, as he put it, “I will become status-quo-ist, and I will like my children to take my place.”
Modi was 18 years old when he got married to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi. She was 17 years old at the time of her marriage. For three years they lived together but Modi was a frequent traveler and used to travel to Himalayas for a never-to-return journey. Maybe Modi was under the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is very stern as far as Hinduism is concerned and it required a promise of celibacy.
Even older brother of Narendra Modi, Sombhai Modi made it clear that his brother is married but also said that the marriage was forced on him as per the culture of the low Ghanchi caste in Vadnagar.
A new biography of Modi, recently published and distributed to journalists by the BJP, alleged that the two never cohabitated or consummated their marriage.
But, He (Modi) spent three months with her before announcing that,” I will be travelling across the country and will go as and where I please,” and that she had not heard from him since.
Modi’s wife is now a retired school teacher and staying in a one-bedroom house in Gujarat.But she had not remarried, because “after this experience, I don’t think I want to. My heart is not into it.” She told the newspaper she was living on a monthly pension of 14,000 rupees, or about $233.
Darshan Desai was among the first to find Chimanlal, then a reporter for The Indian Express, who found Chimanlal living in a one-room apartment with no toilet or bath and a monthly rent of 100 rupees, now worth about $1.66.
As said by Desai that he had to jump into a moving car to escape a village mob angry that he was searching for Chimanlal. He said Modi called him within minutes of his returning home and asked, “What is your agenda?”
Modi’s status as a bachelor became an essential part of his political biography. Nilanjan Mukhopadyay, author of “Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times,” said his solitary life has positioned Modi as a refreshing alternative after a raft of corruption scandals hit the ruling Congress Party.
“Here is a man who lives a spartan life, who does not even keep his mother with him,” Mukhopadyay said. “It goes to enhance this moral halo around Modi, as a man who does nothing for himself.”
“Narendra refused to do something he did not want to do, no matter what the cultural or family pressure,” said the biography, noting that Chimanlal “was not compelled under Indian law to remain contracted to Narendra, and could have asked her parents to find another suitor, or found one herself.”
Keeping political talks and games on one side, a person should never veil the truth when hopes of millions of people are part of that personality. When you are a public figure then you must not keep such things away from the public.