Modi's meanderings

Although exit polls show that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won elections in Gujarat and Himachal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems like a worried man. While verbal excess by rivals during election campaigns is nothing new, this time Modi has even outdone his own conspiracy theory bent during the Gujarat election campaign of his party, Bharatiya Janata Party. Floundering amidst the tide seemingly turning against the BJP in Gujarat, Modi had come up with the fantastic claim that Pakistan is colluding with the opposition Congress Party to defeat BJP in the state. And what proof or evidence does Modi adduce in support of his outlandish claim? According to him, a meeting at Mani Shankar Aiyar's house attended by the Pakistan High Commissioner, a former Pakistani foreign minister, former Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, et al, discussed the Gujarat election. In addition, he quotes the Facebook post of a retired Pakistan army officer hoping for a Congress victory to construct his elaborate but shaky structure of an argument. As if all this were not enough, he accuses Aiyar of putting Modi on a hit list to ensure peace between Pakistan and India. Even BJP's Shatrughan Sinha, a Bollywood veteran, raised a similar question. The 'Bihari Babu' hit out at the PM and party chief Amit Shah for the type of campaign the BJP had run in Gujarat and pointed out that they were willing to do just about anything to win. Naturally, the Congress Party has hit back to rubbish this conspiracy theory. And as often happens in such matters, attempted to show Modi his own face in the mirror of holding a 'soft' corner for Pakistan. Quite appropriately, our foreign office, while rejecting Modi's airy fairy accusations, has requested that Pakistan not be dragged into India's domestic electoral battles.
Last but not least, Modi seems to have done a huge favour to Aiyar who, in his response to former's accusation, has concluded his response in an article titled "Modi-ji Thank You For Ending My Has-Been Status" carried by India's NDTV:
"It is shameful that baseless allegations have been flung from public platforms by no less a personage than the present Prime Minister, with the Election Commission taking no suo motu notice of these repeated transgressions of electoral ethics, political morality and very possibly the Model Code of Conduct. Such distinguished citizens of our nation as a former Prime Minister, a former Vice President and a former Chief of Army Staff, besides a former Foreign Minister and a former Foreign Secretary, plus a raft of some of the best diplomats the Indian Foreign Service has produced since Independence, not to mention three of our best known political and national security commentators, have been, in effect, accused by high authority of subversion, sabotage and sedition. How, in a democracy, can the right of any citizen to express views contrary to those of the government be questioned as Modi and his cohort are doing? Are we not drifting towards becoming a police state?
"I know Modi hates me. But my party so distrusts me that I was perhaps the only Congressman of 25 years standing who was not sent to Gujarat for the campaign. Yet, Modi's invective was reserved for me as if the Battle for Gujarat was between him and me. Towards the end of my Rajya Sabha term, I asked him a question on the floor of the House. He brushed off my enquiry, adding, quite gratuitously, that I would soon be joining the ranks of the "bhule-bisre"- the forgotten and the destitute. That indeed would have been my fate - except for Narendra-bhai Modi. He has given me more publicity than I could have garnered for myself in three lives. Thank you, Prime Minister."