BackPotshots at Narendra Modi, while some relief for Congress
Election round-up brings to you daily commentary on what the world is saying about the coming Lok Sabha polls
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As we get closer to the polls, and the lines of antagonism are beginning to cohere, politicians are beginning to talk about one another with greater frequency. DMK leader M.K. Stalin, says he thinks Rahul Gandhi’s skills have been underutilized. According to OneIndia.com, Stalin said: “Rahul has no opportunity to demonstrate his administrative capabilities so far as he has not served in any ministry. At this juncture, I can only say that today’s politics is different from the time of late Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv." Stalin, however, was noncomittal about his own parties alliance plans, saying that the people of Tamil Nadu would dictate his actions.
Sharad Pawar was less cordial with his thoughts on Narendra Modi. According to the DNA paper, Pawar called Modi “a myopic politician" and “an ignoramus who does not have an iota of knowledge of the country’s history". At the same convention of head loaders, Pawar asked his supporters to vote first in Satara, erase the ink from their finges, and then vote again in Mumbai. Pawar later clarified that he had said this “purely in humour". LOL.
Sharad Yadav was the other leader to speak about Modi. The Hindustan Times quotes Yadav as saying that “the place Varanasi, revered by people due to Lord Mahadev, will show him his rightful place".
Kapil Sibal targeted not just Modi but the entire BJP, according to the Business Standard. Sibal criticized the party for ‘for disregarding its veteran leaders and projecting its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as bigger than the party.’ Sibal also said that the corporate sector’s support for Modi had ulterior motives. “They want freebies from Modi as he has given them in Gujarat. That’s why they are backing him. The fact of the matter is the business community in Gujarat, especially groups to whom he has given freebies, is the one fuelling the campaign" he said.
The Left Front took the criticism one step furthers. It targeted not just Modi and the BJP, but all of them and the Congress. The Business Standard quotes leader Surya Kant Mishra as saying: “The Congress and BJP both are giving walkover to the Trinamool by fielding weak candidates, attempting to open avenues for a post-poll alliance."
Down south in Chennai, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko said that seats from Tamil Nadu were not essential for the National Democratic Alliance. The Economic Times quotes him as saying: “There is an immense Modi wave across the country. He will certainly become Prime Minister even without taking Tamil Nadu and Puducherry’s 40 seats into account."
Meanwhile, Karan Thapar at the Hindustan Times analyses why Rahul Gandhi recently provided a very careful answer when questioned if he was sorry for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Thapar’s analysis suggests that Gandhi’s position is consistent with that of the party president.
Far away in London, the Guardian newspaper has firmly stated its choice for the next government in India. “India needs change. It needs reform, infrastructure and jobs for hundreds of millions of young people. The best hope of resisting the nationalist BJP, now or in 2019, lies with Congress," the paper says in an editorial.
What about poor old Manmohan Singh, who seems to have faded into the background in this campaign? The Daily Bhaskar reports that Singh is alive and well and poised to become on the party’s star campaigners in Chattisgarh. “Silent in Parliament, vocal in campaigns?" the website asks.
In other news, the popular but unofficial ‘Har Har Modi’ slogan campaign is beginning to draw some irritating blowback for the BJP. First there was the Dwarka seer who criticised the usage. And now there is a new campaign by the Samajwadi Party: ‘Thar-thar Modi, dar-dar Modi’. The Deccan Herald quotes SP leader Arun Gupta: “We want to tell the people of the state that Modi is afraid of losing in Gujarat and so he has decided to contest from Varanasi, too. The slogan says that Modi is, in fact, a scared person."
What enables these politicians to zip across the country attending numerous rallies, sometimes several in the same day? Enthusiasm and commitment, of course. But also a growing fleet of private aircraft that caters to all parties. The Economic Times analyses the state of the business.
Finally, over at IndiaSpend.com, Praveen Chakravarty is perplexed by a series of Indian election myths ‘debunked’ by the Centre for Advanced Studies of India at the University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Endowment. He goes on to debunk the debunked.
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