The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: As opposition forces rally together under the INDIA alliance and take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in parliament, the Narendra Modi government seems to be feeling the heat. The opposition has been insisting that Modi talk about the ongoing violence in Manipur inside parliament and open the floor for discussion.
On Tuesday, Modi himself began BJP leaders’ tirades against the opposition alliance, saying that they had chosen ‘INDIA’ as a name only to “mislead people”. He made these comments at the BJP’s weekly parliamentary party meet. “Indian National Congress. East India company. Indian Mujahideen. Popular Front of India – these are also INDIA. Just using the name INDIA does not mean anything,” Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted Modi as saying at the meeting.
Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi added about Modi’s statements, “PM Modi said that it is the 25th year of NDA and the alliance is the legacy of senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani. We have to celebrate it. The Prime Minister has also called for suggestions, ranging from holding meetings to exchanging ideas, to celebrate and take the NDA forward with great will and confidence.”
Soon after, a large number of senior BJP leaders jumped on the bandwagon, using social media to share derisive but vague criticisms of the opposition alliance. All of them chose one specific point of attack – the alliance’s name, ‘INDIA’.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda compared the alliance to a “child who failed in all his exams”.
“Changing your name will not change your game!” said Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath.
“”In a bid to get rid of its hounding past, the opposition alliance has changed its nomenclature. But merely changing the name to I.N.D.I.A. will not erase their past deeds from public memory. The people of our country are wise enough to see through this propaganda and will treat this old product with a new label with the same disapproval,” Union home minister Amit Shah said.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar referred to the opposition as “those who seek intervention from abroad” – perhaps forgetting the prime minister’s many large, showy events in foreign countries.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju seemed to follow the exact language Modi had used earlier in the day.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too used the same wording.
While BJP leaders went on their tweeting spree, the opposition announced that it will be bringing a no-confidence motion in parliament on Wednesday. Trinamool Congress leaders Derek O’Brien told reporters on Tuesday evening, “The overall Parliamentary strategy is in place for the INDIA parties. Tactics to execute that strategy evolve every day. Rule 198 of the Lok Sabha states the procedure of moving a no confidence motion. Picture abhi baki hai!”
Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal reacted to the BJP’s social media campaign by suggesting it was clear that the BJP was feeling the heat. “It seems like the arrow has hit its mark and is causing a lot of pain,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge questioned why the prime minister had so much time to criticise the opposition alliance, but none to address parliament on Manipur. “He is talking about the East India Company and Indian Mujahideen… those people who helped the British, the East India Company, did not take part in the freedom movement… those who belong to a party which is aligned with the ideology which killed Gandhi ji … they are telling us that we are directionless… The Congress party has always been with ‘Mother India’ i.e. ‘Bharat Mata’ … The slaves of the British were the political ancestors of the BJP. PM Modi, stop diverting the country’s attention with your rhetoric. Speak about Manipur in Parliament, don’t belittle the dignity of the PM’s post by talking ill about INDIA,” he said.