{"id":357309,"date":"2025-11-04T15:30:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=357309"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T10:02:27","slug":"bihar-elections-not-employment-migration-but-insult-katta-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/bihar-elections-not-employment-migration-but-insult-katta-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Bihar elections: not employment, migration but ‘insult’, ‘katta’ politics\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At a time when politicians should be focusing on employment, migration, development, and law and order, building narratives around personal insults and the \u201ckatta\u201d in Bihar 2025 appears to be a strategic diversion from larger issues. Ahead of the first phase of elections on November 6, by highlighting ‘katta’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried to shift attention and public debate toward emotions and issues other than critical concerns, say critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit back at Modi over his \u201ckatta\u201d remark. Addressing a public rally, Kharge questioned Modi\u2019s claim that the RJD forced the Congress to concede the chief minister\u2019s post in the INDIA bloc, asking, \u201cWas Modi Ji present when Tejashwi Yadav was announced as the CM face?\u201d Modi had alleged, \u201cRJD ne Congress ki kanpatti par katta rakh kar CM pad chura liya,\u201d implying that the RJD snatched the chief minister\u2019s post from the Congress by holding a gun to its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kharge also predicted that the BJP would \u201cthrow Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar out like a fly from milk\u201d after the assembly polls. Mocking the NDA\u2019s manifesto launch, he said the event ended \u201cin 36 seconds \u2014 faster than instant coffee,\u201d claiming Nitish had been \u201chijacked\u201d by the BJP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing rallies. Priyanka Gandhi ridiculed Modi\u2019s repeated claims that opposition leaders insult the nation. She suggested he form a new \u201cApmaan Mantralaya\u201d (Ministry of Insult) to catalog everyone who had allegedly disrespected him or the country. \u201cIt could also keep records of daily insults hurled at my family by the ruling party\u2014enough to fill a library,\u201d she added, accusing Modi of distracting from pressing issues such as unemployment and poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PM Modi\u2019s \u201ckatta\u201d remark was a sharp political swipe aimed at the RJD and its ally, the Congress.  The term “katta”, a colloquial reference to a country-made pistol, is commonly used in Bihar political slang to denote intimidation or coercion. Supporters say Modi intended to highlight what he called the weakness and lack of internal democracy within the INDIA bloc, portraying the alliance as fractured and dominated by one party\u2019s aggressive tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, the PM tried to connect with local idioms familiar to Bihar voters while reinforcing the BJP\u2019s message of unity, order, and decisive leadership and underlining his party\u2019s broader campaign narrative: that opposition parties are bound by convenience rather than conviction. This is not all, earlier during the 2025 Bihar election campaign, PM Modi also invoked alleged remarks made about his mother at an opposition rally, calling the comments not just a personal insult but \u201can insult to all mothers, sisters, and daughters of India.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a time when politicians should be focusing on employment, migration, development, and law and order, building narratives around personal insults and the \u201ckatta\u201d in Bihar 2025 appears to be a strategic diversion from larger issues. Ahead of the first phase of elections on November 6, by highlighting ‘katta’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":357310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2915,15025],"tags":[17301,15573,15700,15520,15533],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357312,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357309\/revisions\/357312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/357310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}