PM Modi and football analogies: From ‘Ram card’ to ‘red card’

In Shillong, the prime minister uses an example from football to take a dig at the Opposition. Here are past instances when used analogies from the game to score a point.

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Hours before the FIFA World Cup final begins, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a football analogy at a public meeting in Shillong on Sunday while hitting out at the Opposition.

“Coincidentally, when I’m here holding a rally at a football field in the midst of football fans, the football World Cup final will be held. Football mania is going on there and development mania is going on here,” he said on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the North East Council (NEC).

“The government has shown the red card to many obstacles that came in the way of development for the North East,” Modi said, adding, “Obstacles such as corruption, discrimination, violence and vote bank politics were removed. Earlier, attempts were made to divide NE. Now, we are removing these divisions.”

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Modi has often used football analogies to hit out at his opponents in the past.

“Everyone is goal-oriented” (October 2021)

Interacting with the people of Goa involved with the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat, Swayampurna Goy (Goa)’ campaign, the prime minister said, “In football, whether it is defence or forward, everyone is goal-oriented. Someone has to save a goal while others have to score goals. The feeling of achieving each other’s goal has never been short in Goa, but the earlier governments lacked team spirit, and they could not create a positive environment. For a long time, political selfishness has been taking a toll on good governance.”

He added, “It is not possible to separate Goa from football since the passion for football in Goa is something else altogether.”

“Ram card to TMC” (February 2021)

In February 2021, speaking at the first public meeting in the run-up to West Bengal Assembly polls, Modi launched a no-holds-barred attack against the Mamata Banerjee government over corruption charges and accused it of thwarting the development of the state by opposing the Centre’s policies and schemes.

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He used a football analogy to say that once elections are over, the people of the state would show the Ram card (red card) to the TMC for committing several fouls such as “misgovernance, violence, corruption, and attacks on beliefs”.

“Bengal is a football-loving state. I want to say in the language of football that the TMC has made many several fouls, including misgovernance, violence, corruption and attacks on beliefs. People of Bengal are watching and soon they are going to show the Ram card (red card) to the TMC.”

“Show Congress the red card” (April 2019)

Speaking at a BJP rally in Imphal a week before the general elections in Manipur, Modi said, “They (Congress) have played with your lives and respect. Manipur is known for football and it’s about time to show the red card to Congress for the foul.”