Does the 'Frequent Crier' cry off camera too? Debate rages on 'political tears' of the PM

A frequent flier, he is now also becoming known as a frequent ‘crier’. He is however on record saying in 2017 that he had no faith in either crying or in making others cry (Mai na toh rone me vishwas rakhta hoon aur na hi doosron ko rulane me, he had said in Hindi). But there are enough recorded instances of the Prime Minister crying.

Leaders have been known to cry. Jawaharlal Nehru is said to have cried after listening to Lata Mangeshkar singing, " Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon, Zara Aankh Me Bhar Lo Paani...". But while other Prime Ministers like H.D. Deve Gowda was also seen crying in public, Prime Minister Modi's tears have been triggered by the retirement from the Rajya Sabha of a Congress MP also. The sheer frequency of events triggering his tears sets him apart from others. Here are some of the recorded instances of the PM crying:

“Modi broke down into tears briefly for a minute while recalling how the people of Kutch bore the brunt of the quake,” read media reports in January, 2004 at a function in which the then PM Vajpayee dedicated a new hospital at Bhuj to the victims of the Gujarat earthquake.

In May 2014, he wept after being chosen as leader of the BJP parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha. This was after LK Advani said Modi had done a great favour to the party. He cried and said, “…Like India is my mother, BJP is my mother, too… How can a son do a favour to a mother?”

In September 2015, at a Town Hall discussion in the presence of Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who asked him about his family background, his voice cracked up and he sniffled while claiming that she washed utensils at homes of their neighbours to raise him. Like many such claims, his biographers failed to find any corroboration.

In August 2016, he “fought back tears” during a speech he made at the death of Pramukh Swami, spiritual guru and head of the Bochasanwani Akshar Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), which has been accused in a US federal court of keeping Indian Dalits as bonded labourers in New Jersey for construction of a temple there (See Page 2).

In November 2016, the Prime Minister “choked with emotion” in Goa, where he called upon people to trust him and bear with hardship following a hasty demonetization. Calling upon his “brothers and sisters” to give him 50 days for ending the chaos, he declared that he knew “what kind of powers” he had taken on. “I am aware they will not let me live,” he added while wiping tears from his eyes.

In December 2017, after leading the BJP to a hard-fought victory in the Gujarat Assembly, he broke down thrice while addressing party MPs.

In October 2018, at the inauguration of the National Police Memorial in Delhi, he choked up while paying tributes to the services and martyrdom of police personnel.

In February, 2021, while bidding farewell to Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose tenure in the Rajya Sabha was coming to an end, he again choked and tears filled his eyes as he took long pauses, at one time to sip water. What he claimed had moved him to tears was his recollection when Azad as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister called in 2006 to personally inform him about the terrorist attack on Gujarati tourists.

In May, 2021 during a video conference with Varanasi’s medical fraternity, he seemed to hold back tears and his eyelids fluttered as he recalled how people had been losing their dear ones in the pandemic.

Whether he cries off camera is not known however. But as someone had once tweeted, the rebuke ‘Why do you cry like a woman’ is fast being replaced with ‘Why do you cry like the PM’.

Ironically, the Solicitor General of India is on record asking people complaining against the government to not be ‘çry babies’.

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