Country needs chowkidars, not kings, says PM Modi at Main Bhi Chowkidar event

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that India needed more chowkidars, or watchmen, rather than “Raja aur maharaja”, as he attacked the opposition at a ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign event held at the capital’s Talkatora Stadium and relayed to around 500 locations by video link.

The campaign and its message

The campaign is widely seen as a reply to Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s anti-corruption attack on the Prime Minister using the slogan “chowkidar chor hai”. As part of it, senior BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and party president Amit Shah, added the word chowkidar to their Twitter names. The audience at the venue included first-time voters, farmers, professionals, social workers and BJP supporters.

Speaking to BJP workers, farmers, traders and watchmen, Modi said he had worked to keep his promise of acting against those accused of corruption and had brought them to the gates of jail, but needed more time to see them punished. He said taxpayers’ money belonged to the poor and he had not let anyone misuse it. Setting out his agenda for the next five years, he said every Indian would have a proper house by 2022 and India would become a $5 trillion economy.

Balakot and Pakistan

On the air strike at Balakot in Pakistan, Modi said he took the decision because the fight had to be taken to the place from which terrorism was being directed. He said a majority government gave India a strong voice abroad, and that Pakistan had assumed he would be too busy with elections to respond. He said India should move ahead rather than keep engaging with Pakistan.

Opposition parties have accused him of politicising the strike, which followed a suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF personnel. Modi said he did not claim credit, as he had given the armed forces a free hand. He said those demanding proof of the damage to the Jaish-e-Mohammed camp were helping Pakistan with their statements.

Attack on the Congress and the response

Modi said the queue for the Prime Minister’s post among opposition leaders had grown longer since 2014. He accused four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family of promising to end poverty without delivering, and urged people to judge leaders by their record.

Congress spokesperson Pranav Jha replied that Modi himself behaved like a ruler, and said the public had seen through his chowkidar campaign.

What happened next

The Pulwama attack took place on 14 February 2019 and the Balakot strike on 26 February 2019. In the Lok Sabha election counted on 23 May 2019, the BJP won 303 seats, and Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

Originally published on 1 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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