Sakshi Maharaj, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Unnao, has a colourful past – he was an accused in the Babri demolition and also has charges of murder, misuse of constituency funds, and of rape for which he spent time in Tihar but was later acquitted. He has been on a roll of late with a flurry of sensationalist statements (what is it that sadhus smoke to keep away the cold – we’ll have some of it!).

Maharaj quickly came to his senses – or was made to – on his latest Godse howler, where he seemed to back the honouring of Mahatma Gandhi’s killer, calling him a patriot. With the opposition up in arms, Maharaj has apologised thrice since in Parliament for his remark, and even taken it back – if only to jump into the midst of another row by backing Uttar Pradesh Governor’s controversial demand for a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, saying “no one can stop the building of Ram Mandir”.

While the opposition is holding him accountable for both comments, one speech – also in the span of this week – has got less attention in comparison.

Attending a public meeting in Delhi earlier in the week, he decided to not only – bizarrely – bring up prime minister Narendra Modi’s estranged wife, but – and this is even more whacko – even draw comparisons with her and the mythological Hindu tale of Ram-Laxman vanvas.

According to reports, Maharaj, addressing a crowd, said: “Jaise Laxmanji ki patni vanvaas par nahi gayi, lekin jitni shakti ka pradarshan Laxmanji ne dikhaya woh sab unhi ki wajeh se tha, waise hi Modiji ki patni Jashodaben ke upvaas, vrat Modiji ke saath jude hue hain (Just as Laxman’s wife didn’t go with him on his exile but it was because of her penance that Laxman fought the war so well, Modi, too, won the elections thanks to Jashodaben).”

This is either pure lunacy or very good weed because this comment is hardly a favour to either Modi or his government, which has had to face questions on the role of Jashodaben, a retired school teacher, who Modi left (those opposed to Modi use the term “abandoned” or “deserted”) early on in their arranged teenage marriage.

The odd circumstances of the marriage – arranged, then broken, and then not nullified, as we also know from Modi’s filing on nominations papers for Lok Sabha seat in April, where he put his marital status as married to Jashodaben – makes it an awkward proposition to attack Modi (Jashodaben has publicly stated often that she has nothing against Modi, and, in fact, follows his progress and wishes the best for him). However, it’s equally difficult to support him.  That Jashodaben has indeed been forsaken as a wife by Modi is hardly something to celebrate, considering the decision was unilateral as is evident from a recent interview where she said she was only waiting for word for him that she join him, and she would

The odd dynamics of Modi’s on-paper marriage, therefore, are of no political benefit to either the opposition or to the BJP – attacking a man for a teenage marriage that didn’t work out, or defending the man’s leaving of his wife, without the compensations and benefits that a legal divorce may have brought, are both in equally bad taste.

Any attempt to drag her into a political battle is a disservice to Jashodaben’s own life an adult and her indomitable spirit of self-reliance. In interviews given often enough ever since Modi’s ascent to high office became a probability, she has not spelled out animosity towards Modi, or expressed unhappiness over their arrangement.

Therefore to attack Modi over his “treatment” of her takes away from Jashodaben’s agency and dignity.

However, it is equally insulting that her role as a separated-wife-be turned into an eulogy for the pious, eternally waiting wife who sacrifices her own feelings as her husband sets out to fulfill his high duty of changing the world.

This is plain wrong on so many levels – it is an insult to Jashodaben, an illiterate woman who educated herself to become a school teacher and made her life on her own terms without the help of her husband who left her without giving her any explanations.

It is an insult to not only her struggles, but also that of countless other women who overcome hardships and struggle to get back on track after troubled marriages in deeply patriarchal societies.

To spin this as a tale of pious patient womanhood who must be loyal to her husband, no matter what he himself does, is anti-women speech. Further, to give it a religious stamp only makes it more unacceptable and dangerous in a society that is still struggling to move away from culturally imposed gender attitudes that have contributed to the high record of violence against women.  More importantly, the Ramayana connection is far-fetched at best as Laxman only followed his brother and Lord Ram to vanvas. It was not his own decision as Modi’s leaving of his wife was, nor was it a marital decision, and nor is Modi in “exile” at the moment.

Sakshi Maharaj was rightly made to apologise for his Godse comment. He will be taken to task by the Opposition for his polarising comment on Ram Mandir. But while the Opposition may not want to pick up his anti-woman tirade on Jashodaben – wrapped as an “ode” – because there is no political mileage from it, it is an equally disgraceful comment and worthy of condemnation not just from feminists, but also from within and without the party of the Prime Minister and governing party BJP.