Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta sparked furious reactions on Monday after a video surfaced of her saying that before 2014 -- when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power -- India was known globally as a backward country.
In the video, Gupta is heard saying: “Earlier India was considered a backward and undeveloped nation. But after 2014, if we go abroad and say we are Indians, the people there say 'Namaskar' to us… PM Narendra Modi has worked to make this country self-reliant and prosperous… This is the golden period for Delhi as a triple-engine government is working here.”
“Before 2014, no one respected Indians… we were only known for snake charmers,” she added.
The statement drew a volley of critical posts online with social media users accusing the BJP leader of belittling decades of Indian progress before Modi’s tenure and using colonial clichés to paint a regressive image of the country.
"Just imagine if ANY Opposition leader had said this," one user wrote.
"TV anchors would be screaming. Debates would run all night. BJP would demand an apology to the nation. But now? Total silence. Because insulting India is okay, as long as you do it to glorify Modi."
Another widely shared post used a meme to mock Gupta’s worldview, juxtaposing an image of cavemen around a fire, with a family lounging in a high-rise bedroom using gadgets, labelled “India before 26 May 2014” and “India after 26 May 2014.”
The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s minority department also joined the fray, tagging Gupta and sharing a recent US travel advisory for India.
The advisory warned American citizens to exercise “increased caution due to crime and rape” and avoid parts of central and eastern India due to terrorism. “For your information, @gupta\_rekha ji,” the Congress post read.
Several critics highlighted that reducing India’s global identity to snake charmers not only ignored its rich post-Independence progress in space, IT, science, arts, and diplomacy but also endorsed stereotypes that India has fought hard to shed.
"Imagine abusing your own country and the progress of your own people for 7 decades just to please Modi," another comment read.
Gupta had not responded to the criticism. Her remark has once again spotlighted the political tendency of rewriting or diminishing the past to amplify the present.