Uttar Pradesh Minister of State (Independent Charge) Gulab Devi is not apologetic about calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi an “avatar of God” on Earth. Far from it.
Modi wishes it, and things happen, she explains.
Speaking to The Indian Express about the PM, the minister says: “Jab chahte hain gharon mein paani aaye, toh peene ka paani chala aata hai. Jab chahte hain garibon ke liye awaas bane, toh awaas banne lagte hain. Jab chahte hain gas ka connection miley, toh connection milne lagta hai. Shauchaley milne lagte hain (When he wants that water reaches the houses of people, then water starts reaching. When he wants that the poor get houses, then houses start getting built. When he wants that people should get gas connection, the connections start. Toilets start getting built). This thus makes him an avatar of God.”
Gulab Devi was on a visit to her constituency in Sambhal on October 26, when she made her first statement equating Modi with God and said he could remain PM for lifetime if he wanted. Attacking her, Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rehman Barq said that if PM was indeed the avatar of God, “what was he doing in politics”. He said Modi should resign then and people should pray to him, while accusing Gulab Devi of crossing the limits of sycophancy.
Gulab Devi says no one should have a problem with what was her “personal” belief, and that the Opposition had every right to talk about what it felt. “In Hindu religion, God is seen in trees, the cow, the guru, parents. So what is wrong in seeing desh ke raja (the king of the country) as a pratinidhi (representative) of God?”
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi backed Gulab Devi’s remarks, telling The Indian Express: “Hum sabhi jiska aadar, samman karte hain, usko apni bhavnaon ke anusar sambodhit karte hain. Hum janta ko janta janardan kehte hain, ussi prakar unhone apni bhavnaon ko vyakta kiya hai (We address a person whom we respect accordingly. We even refer to public as god. Similarly, the minister has expressed her personal respect for the PM).”
The 67-year-old Gulab Devi is a five-term MLA from Chandausi Assembly seat in Sambhal, and the senior-most among five women ministers in the Yogi Adityanath Government. A political science lecturer before turning to politics, her importance as a Dalit woman leader means she has been a minister in almost all the BJP regimes in the state from Kalyan Singh to Rajnath Singh to Adityanath’s first as well as second regimes — despite being low-key and almost invisible at party fora.
While in Adityanath’s first term, Gulab Devi served as Minister of State for Social Welfare, she now holds independent charge of the Secondary Education Department.
Her remarks on Modi during her visit to her constituency came in response to questions by some mediapersons on Opposition leaders demanding that a person from the minority communities be made PM. “Mananiya Modi ji ek avatar ke roop mein hain… Inka muqabla koi nahin kar sakta. Agar woh chahen to jab tak unka jeevan hai, tab tak Pradhan Mantri rahenge. PM pad se hatne wale nahi hain, na hi koi dusara aane wala hai… (Woh) avatar hain, bhagwan ke pratinidhi ke roop mein unko yahan bheja hai (Modiji is like an avatar, he has no competition. If he wants, he can stay PM for his entire life, no one can remove him, neither is an alternative going to come. He is an avatar, has been sent here as a representative of God),” Gulab Devi said.
Incidentally, SP MP Barq was among those who said that India should learn from the example of Britain, where Indian-origin Hindu Rishi Sunak has become PM, and give a member of a minority community a chance to lead the country.
Meanwhile, Gulab Devi is not done. It’s not just Modi who could wish things into being, she says. “Just like Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too is an extraordinary person, making things happen for the people of his state.”