India PM Candidate Gandhi Defends Modi Marriage 'Taunt'
Rahul Gandhi, prime ministerial candidate for India's ruling Congress party, on Saturday denied allegations he had made a personal attack related to opposition front-runner Narendra Modi's belated admission he is married.
Hardliner Modi, 63, the candidate for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who is tipped to win the elections, admitted this week he had a wife after years of rumors surrounding her existence.
Gandhi asserted at a rally Friday that while Modi promised respect and security for women while on the campaign trail he had failed to acknowledge his own spouse.
"I just stated that he has not stated in the past (that he was married)," Gandhi, 43, told reporters as he presented his own candidacy papers in Amethi in northern Uttar Pradesh, the constituency no fewer than three members of his family have represented in the past.
India's multi-phase national election, which kicked off last Monday, had been described as a "battle of the bachelors," pitting Gandhi against Modi. Results are due May 16.
Modi's brother said Thursday Modi was betrothed as a child to a now 62-year-old retired schoolteacher, who gave an interview in February in which she said she didn't "feel bad" about not being part of her husband's life.
"I know he is doing so due to destiny," Modi's wife told The Indian Express.
The marriage, believed to have been formalized when Modi was 17, is said never to have been consummated.
Modi went on to rise through the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist group which frowns on marriage for its senior cadres.
Gandhi's remarks came as he promised new infrastructure that "will generate employment" for his poor constituency.
Villagers showered rose petals on Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka, as they traveled in an open car along roads in the poor wheat-growing region.
Gandhi faces a tough three-way fight in the constituency of 1.2 million people but is still expected to win. Amethi goes to polls May 7.
Gandhi followed in his uncle, mother and father's footsteps in becoming the area's member of parliament, winning victories there in 2004 and 2009.
Priyanka has preferred to stay in the political shadows while she raises two children, although she is seen as the more politically gifted of the siblings.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/126332 |