It seems that the ‘Chowkidar Chor hai’ remark has done more harm than good for the Congress president. The Congress president has been repeatedly using this remark after making fake allegations of corruption against PM Modi in the Rafale deal and this has not gone down well with the public at large. People of a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh have put up posters restricting his entry.
Kararhiya village in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh, which is said to have been adopted by PM Modi on October 23, 2017, has put up these posters which read, ‘ye chowkidaron ka gaon hai, yahan aana mana hain’. This would have not only left the Congress president embarrassed but would have also sent a loud and clear message to him. His unsavory remarks against the Prime Minister have only turned the political sentiment against him. A resident of this Uttar Pradesh village said, “Calling Prime Minister ‘chor’ has hurt the dignity of the nation. We don’t want the person to step into our village, so we have put these posters.”
Trouble does not seem to end for Rahul Gandhi over this remark. Earlier, the Gandhi scion had to apologize for using the ‘Chowkidar Chor hai’ remark in relation to the Supreme Court’s Rafale judgment. By misquoting the Supreme Court judgment, the Congress president had got himself involved in a contempt of court case. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi had moved the Supreme Court accusing Rahul Gandhi of contempt of court. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi had told the bench that the Congress president made a remark claiming that, “Supreme Court has said chowkidaar chor hai” in the verdict. Since this remark on an ongoing proceeding was clearly contempt of court, the apex court decided to hear the plea.
Once the Congress supremo had to face such massive embarrassment at the Supreme Court, the Congress chief and his colleagues should have taken the cue and refrained from using this slogan again. However, the Grand Old Party has made it a point to make this remark the focus of its poll campaign. The Congress had made this remark the central point of its election campaign without realizing how it can potentially harm its interests. Now that the remark has made the party pretty unpopular and has generated a negative public sentiment, it is too late for the Congress to withdraw. The Congress took too long to realize this and now they’ll have to pay for it.