‘Didi o didi…’: PM Modi takes a dig at Mamata Banerjee, yet again

‘Didi o didi’, intoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again in West Bengal on Monday while attacking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the alleged ‘mess created in the name of governance.’ Speaking in Bardhaman ahead of phase five of the 8-phase West Bengal assembly election due on April 17, the Prime Minister said that the CM was only talking about ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’.

“Didi o didi, if you want to unload your anger, I am here. Abuse me all you want. But don’t insult Bengal’s dignity and tradition. Bengal won’t tolerate your arrogance, tolabaaz, cut money syndicate because people want  ‘asol poribartan’ now,” the Prime Minister said, reports ANI

The PM has often used ‘Didi o didi’ to address the West Bengal Chief Minister and it has not gone down well with her party the Trinamool Congress. The party said the way these words were used by the PM amounted to ‘insult to women of the state’

After the Prime Minister used ‘Didi o didi’ to address Banerjee at Howrah on 6 April, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra told NDTV: “There is something we have in Bengal called ‘rock-er chhele’, which means a street-side fellow who sits on a wall and who basically calls out to every lady walking past, saying “Diddi, ei diddi”. This is the prime minister doing this,”

Reacting to PM’s use of the words, Banerjee said at a rally in Domjur, “Have you ever seen a Prime Minister doing so? Does it look nice…Don’t cross the Laxman Rekha, nor will I do it.”