My Opinion

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee repeatedly turned down his offer for providing aid to those affected by Cyclone Fani.

Modi said, “I tried to speak to Mamata Didi over telephone twice after the cyclone. I kept waiting, thinking maybe she would return the call. But she never called back. Such is her arrogance that she did not talk to me over cyclone. ..Didi has left no stone unturned to do politics even with cyclone relief.”

Ten minutes later, Mamata Banerjee responded to Modi’s allegation while addressing her party rally in Gopiballavpur in West Midnapore.

Mamata said: “I do not consider him the Prime Minister, so I did not sit with him for the cyclone review meeting. I do not want to be seen with him on the same platform. I will speak to the next prime minister. We can take care of the cyclone damage ourselves. We do not need the Centre’s help ahead of the polls. ”

Amidst such a vitriolic attack, all that I can says is that the people of Bengal are fortunate that the cyclone weakened when it crossed over from Odisha to their state. There was not widespread damage like Odisha. Had there been widespread damage, Mamata Banerjee would have mounted a big attack on the Centre alleging discrimination.

Mamata Banerjee is a good political fighter, no doubt. She knows how to respond to political attacks, but in times of natural disaster, when the common man is facing crisis, it is not proper to bring political rivalry to a personal level. It was wrong on her part to say that I do not consider Modi a Prime Minister and I will not talk to him.

Narendra Modi has a wide experience in natural disaster management. He learnt a lot from the 2001 Gujarat earthquake.

Cyclone Fani struck the Odisha coast on May 3. A day before, on May 2, the Prime Minister came to our show to give a mega interview. When I interviewed him in the evening, the Prime Minister said that he had just come in from a disaster management meeting with officials to minimize the damage from the cyclone.

At that meeting, both the Centre and Odisha government devised strategy to make solid preparations to avoid major damages. They had already started evacuating more than a million people to safer places in Odisha, and had posted disaster relief teams in advance.

Modi discharged his responsibility as Prime Minister, and Naveen Patnaik as chief minister provided the fullest cooperation. For saving nearly a million lives, the United Nations praised the disaster management efforts in Odisha. But unfortunately, Mamata Banerjee took a completely diverse stand. This does not augur well for Centre-State relations.

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Thursday May 2 was a red letter day, personally for me and for our institution India TV, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Jawaharlal Nehru stadium for a mega interview in the presence of more than 2,500 strong audience, with more waiting outside to come in.

The question-answer session, that went on for nearly two hours, in front of a rapturous audience, was engaging.

In this no-holds-barred interview, the Prime Minister revealed for the first time the circumstances in which Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan was released by Pakistan.

He also revealed, for the first time, how on the spur of the moment, he rang up the then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif to congratulate him on his birthday from Kabul, and the Pakistani leader suddenly invited him to drop in at a family wedding taking place at his estate near Lahore.

The Prime Minister also revealed how Chinese President Xi Jinping rang him up in May, 2014 to congratulate him and suddenly said that he wanted to visit his hometown Vadnagar in Gujarat. According to Modi, Xi Jinping told him that the hometowns of both leaders in India and China had a common link – the 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk traveller Xuanjang (whose name we read in history books as Huien Tsang), who had visited both the places 1400 years ago.

Modi also revealed how the wife of Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his wife served him tea in Buenos Aires, and when they visited India, the leader’s wife served him tea in similar looking cups. He also disclosed how Singapore Prime Minister Li Hsien Loong and his wife took him to a South Indian restaurant for a quiet dinner.

The Prime Minister also spoke on the current general elections, Gandhi family, poll violence in West Bengal and several other current topics. Towards the end, he looked a bit introvert and spoke extensively about his personal life.

Do watch this exclusive mega interview with Narendra Modi this Saturday May 4 from 8 pm onwards on India TV.

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On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council at last designated Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood Azhar as a ‘global terrorist’, after permanent member China yielded to international pressure. China relented after intense diplomatic pressure from France, UK, and the US, and even Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, which chaired the UN Sanctions Committee asked China to lift its ‘technical hold” on the issue. Masood Azhar was the mastermind of the heinous Pulwama attack in which 40 of our CRPF jawans were martyred in February this year.

India has been pursuing the case in the UN for more than ten years, and at last, its efforts have borne fruit.

Masood Azhar, as part of the global UN sanctions list, cannot move abroad, and his assets worldwide will be frozen. Jaish-e-Mohammed has been the sword arm of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI in the Kashmir valley. After the UN sanction comes into force, all sources of funds for JeM will dry up, because any fund transfer to this terror outfit and its affiliates will immediately invite action from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) against the host country.

Much spadework was done by India’s External Affairs Ministry, and by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in particular. Modi established close rapport with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, invited him to Gujarat and struck friendship. The two top leaders have been meeting frequently on the sidelines of international summits.

When China vetoed the resolution to declare Masood Azhar as global terrorist on technical grounds, there were derisive reactions in Opposition circles. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had once tweeted that Modi is afraid of Xi Jinping.

Clearly, Wednesday’s announcement is a personal victory for Prime Minister Modi. This comes in the midst of Lok Sabha elections, and Modi can go to town to tell his voters that the Big Powers like the US, France, UK, Russia and Germany are with him in the fight against terrorism, and now China, too, has joined. This is a big victory for the people and government of India.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his ambiguously worded affidavit in which he had expressed ‘regret’ for saying that the apex court has found Prime Minister Narendra Modi guilty in the Rafale deal.

The apex court told his lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi: “What is the meaning of regret within brackets? …You needed a 22-page affidavit to express complete regret? You make a statement and try to justify? Where have we said what you have attributed to us in public speeches?”

The apex court gave Rahul Gandhi time till May 6 to file an apology affidavit. The court said: “While we observe that it will be open for the respondent to file an additional affidavit if he so desires, we make it clear that admissibility and acceptance of any affidavit, if filed, will be considered on the next date fixed, that is May 10.”

Even Rahul Gandhi and his lawyers feel that filing of a ‘regret’ affidavit, and that too, mentioning the word in brackets, was a big mistake, because the Supreme Court is the apex law court of India, and any incorrect remark made about its orders or observations can invite contempt proceedings.

When Rahul Gandhi said in Amethi and Bihar that the Supreme Court has found “chowkidar” (Modi) a “chor” (guilty) and has “found him guilty of giving away Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal”, he was treading into dangerous waters.

This was not a remark made out of lack of proper perception or an oral blunder, it was clearly an attempt to seek political capital by misusing the name of the Supreme Court. The easiest way out could have been that the Congress President should have tendered unconditional apology for making this remark, but his lawyers drafted a long affidavit which offered ‘regret’, and that too, in brackets!

Clearly Rahul Gandhi has complicated this case himself and he has very few options left. The sword of contempt of court still hangs over his head.

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West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is worried over reports of heavy polling that took place in the fourth round on Monday in her state. In the last several elections, including assembly and panchayat polls, there were incidents of large scale violence and there were allegations about TMC workers trying to prevent Congress and BJP supporters from voting. There used to be incidents of bomb throwing and stabbing in the recent past.

On Monday too, clashes took place in some pockets, but voters at large were unafraid because of heavy presence of central paramilitary forces outside polling stations. The TMC supremo is naturally worried and she has alleged that, in one incident, security forces forced people to vote in favour of BJP. Her allegation is yet to be verified.

The second point to note is that there has been heavy polling in those constituencies on Monday, where BJP has fielded strong candidates. This has caused more worry for the TMC supremo.

Mamata Banerjee is also wary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who told a rally in West Bengal on Monday that at least 40 TMC MLAs are in touch with BJP and they may cross over if her party suffers electoral defeat on counting day (May 23). Mamata has asked her party leaders to lodge a complaint with the Election Commission blaming the PM for “encouraging horse trading”.

Naturally Modi’s remark has let the cat among the pigeons in the TMC camp, and the party leaders are now busy giving clarifications.

In one of his recent interviews, the PM had revealed how Mamata Banerjee used to send her kurtas and rosogollas. A furious TMC supremo publicly said in her rally that she would now be sending soil and stones in the shape of rosogollas to the PM.

Modi knows how to turn abuses and threats made by rivals into weapons. He promptly told his rally in West Bengal on Monday that he would love to have rosgollas made of Bengal’s sacred soil on which titans like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee walked. Mamata Banerjee had no answer to this quip. Such are the hassles of reacting to remarks without putting any serious thought.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi taunted West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee by saying that if the post of Prime Minister had been available through auction, she would have tried that option too, but the problem is that the post of PM is not auctionable. Modi was addressing an election rally in Asansol, from where Union Minister Babul Supriyo is trying to retain his seat.

On the same day, Mamata Banerjee openly objected to the posting of Central paramilitary forces at polling booths. She alleged that officers of paramilitary forces were telling voters to vote for BJP. Her charges are yet to be verified but it clearly denotes uneasiness on her part about the possible Lok Sabha results from West Bengal.

Huge turnouts at PM’s rallies are common, but the surprising element this time is that large turnouts have been noticed at BJP President Amit Shah’s election rallies in places like Birbhum and Bardhaman, considered to be strongholds of Trinamool Congress. Clearly a shift in the rural voters’ mood in Bengal is discernible.

You may remember, in 2014, when Modi wave was sweeping across the rest of the country, it had hardly any effect in Bengal. There was hardly any optimism in the state BJP camp, and Mamata did not take BJP as her main challenger. Finally, the BJP won only two out of a total of 42 LS seats. But, in the last five years, both Modi and Amit Shah toiled hard to expand the BJP’s election machinery in Bengal, and the results are showing. BJP flags now flutter over housetops in the interior areas of Bengal.

BJP top brass now believe that Bengal and, to some extent, Odisha can compensate for any electoral loss that the party may suffer in the North Indian states. During the last panchayat elections in Bengal, TMC workers prevented BJP workers from reaching polling booths. This is no more the case now.

The Election Commission is holding polls in seven phases in Bengal, with four to five constituencies going to the polls in each phase. Central paramilitary forces have been deployed in large numbers, and there has been heavy polling in all the phases so far. This has caused worry in Mamata’s camp.

In neighbouring state of Odisha, assembly polls are being held simultaneously with LS elections, and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal is fighting to get a fifth term in office. Patnaik has been in power since last 19 years and he is quite popular. In the 2014 LS polls, BJD had won 20 out of 21 seats, and the lone remaining seat was won by BJP.

In Odisha, the main opposition party Congress has weakened and the ruling BJD dominates in most of the constituencies. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has personal worries about his health and there is the anti-incumbency factor too.

Prime Minister Modi has therefore decided to strike when the iron is hot. On Tuesday, he named Naveen Patnaik and said that he would not tolerate attacks on BJP workers by the ruling party supporters. Clearly, Modi has found a good opportunity to grab the political space in Odisha. The jury is still out.

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On Monday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court expressing “regret” for linking the Supreme Court’s April 10 order on petitions seeking review of Rafale verdict to his “chowkidar chor har” campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In his affidavit filed in response to a contempt of court petition by BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi, Rahul Gandhi said, his remarks about the Supreme Court declaring ‘chowkidar’ as ‘chor’ were made “in a rhetorical flourish in the heat of the moment”. He admitted that he had not read the apex court’s order before making these remarks.

It is now clear that Rahul Gandhi had lied about the Supreme Court order and I feel that he also lied in his affidavit when he said that he had not read the court order. The Congress President had said twice, both in Amethi and in his rally in Katihar that the Supreme Court has found the ‘chowkidar’ to be a ‘chor’ in the Rafale deal. The ball is now in the apex court which has to decide on his affidavit.

Soon after his affidavit was filed, Rahul raised the ‘chowkidar chor har’ slogan in his Amethi rally on Monday. The only difference this time was that he did not say the Supreme Court has found the ‘chowkidar’ to be a ‘chor’ in the Rafale deal.

Rahul has raised this slogan umpteen number of times, and there is nothing new in this. Till date, he has not showed a single evidence to establish that the Modi government had given Rs 30,000 crore benefit to Anil Ambani in the Rafale deal.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already stated that Anil Ambani’s company was one of the nearly 100 companies who got offset contracts from the makers of Rafale aircraft, Dassault Aviation. The fact remains that Anil Ambani’s company got only Rs 852 crore worth offset contract, and not Rs 30,000 crore from Dassault Aviation.

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History was rewritten in the sleepy town of Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, when Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati appeared on the dais with Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and asked voters to elect her former sworn enemy to Parliament.

In her speech, Mayawati did refer to the infamous Lucknow guest house incident of 1995, when Mulayam’s supporters had mobbed her and she had to shut herself inside a room to protect herself.

This incident led to a bitter political feud that lasted 24 years. Mulayam and Mayawati were considered two extreme poles in UP politics

On Friday, Mayawati said in the presence of Mulayam and his son Akhilesh: “I know people must be wondering why I have come here despite the state guest house incident..Sometimes in the public interest (‘jan hit’) and our party’s movement, difficult decisions have to be taken.”

I think the ‘namumkin’ (impossible) became ‘mumkin'(possible) because of the common desire of SP and BSP leaders to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power. Akhilesh Yadav acted as the catalyst in forging SP-BSP alliance and on Friday, he acted as master of ceremonies to deftly handle any leftover sparks that may have been there among the crowds .

It is true Akhilesh put in his best to forge the alliance and on Friday. He repeatedly told his supporters to give “due respect” to the BSP supremo. He also made his father Mulayam speak in the same tone, and that mattered. But the crux of this SP-BSP alliance is completely based on the convergence of Muslim, Dalit and OBC votes.

Akhilesh may be speaking about electing a new Prime Minister at the Centre, but his party is contesting only 37 seats in UP. There is no common agenda or minimum programme that is being reflected in the speeches of the SP and BSP supremos. Their unity is only aimed at ousting Modi from power.

The question is: why Akhilesh joined hands with Mayawati to oust Modi from power? Why Mayawati decided to forget the shameful guest house incident of 1995?

The answer is clear. Mayawait is presently fighting for the very existence of BSP. In the 2014 elections, her party failed to win a single seat in Lok Sabha, and she knows that if the same result is repeated this time, she may have to wind up her party. Both Akhilesh and Mayawati have joined hands because they fear that Prime Minister Modi may again retain power this time.

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Kerala, popularly known as ‘God’s Own Country’, has a tradition of bi-polar political preferences. The Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front have been dominating the political landscape in Kerala since decades. BJP, which draws its support from RSS supporters, had not been able to win a single seat  in Lok Sabha from Kerala.

It is in this context that it is surprising to notice the huge turnout of voters at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening. The crowd quietly listened to the Prime Minister’s speech with occasional rounds of applause. There was a similar huge turnout last week in Kerala at Modi’s rally. I spoke to several political pundits, who know about Kerala politics, and they too said the turnout was surprising. It means that the common voter in Kerala is keen to listen to Modi’s views on Kerala and national politics.

The moot question is: Will this turnout translate into votes? Will the BJP in Kerala be able to open its account in Lok Sabha? The jury is still out.

Modi also addressed election rallies in Karnataka on Thursday. The Prime Minister has the knack of changing his topics that suits his audience, based on local sentiments. In Karnataka, he spoke of how the Karnataka JD(S)-Congress coalition government is wobbling and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is facing lots of problems in running a coalition.

On the other hand, in Kerala, Modi spoke about the killings of BJP and RSS supporters, and told his audience how both the Congress and CPI(M) have been indulging in what he called “opportunism”. Modi pointed out how these two camps are rivals in Kerala but support each other at the Centre.

I think, the huge turnouts at Modi’s rallies in Kerala are indicative of a perceptive swing in the mood of common voters, and BJP may benefit from it.

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BJP leadership has decided to field Sadhvi Pragya Thakur as its candidate to take on senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh in the prestigious Bhopal parliamentary constituency. The saffron-robed sannyasin was earlier made accused in Sunil Joshi murder case and Ajmer blast, but was later acquitted. She is currently an accused in Malegaon blast case, which is presently in trial stage.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur joined BJP on Wednesday and within hours it was announced that she would be the party candidate from Bhopal. She may be a greenhorn in politics, but if she manages to defeat former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in the state capital, the latter will have much to answer for.

Sadhvi Pragya was and is still a saffron-robed sannyasin, but her name cropped up in national political discourse, when Digvijay Singh and several other Congress leaders coined the term “saffron terror” during UPA rule. Sadhvi Pragya was incarcerated in jail for ten years and she has last year alleged in my show “Aap Ki Adalat” how she was brutally tortured in custody, both physically and mentally.

It was Digivijay Singh who had blamed the BJP and RSS for encouraging “saffron terror” during UPA regime, but the courts acquitted Sadhvi Pragya in cases where she was charged under the dreaded MCOCA Act.

On Wednesday, BJP President Amit Shah told an election rally in Odisha that “after the Samjhauta Express blast, Congress had alleged that Hindu terrorists were behind it and sadhus were put in jail. Therefore the BJP has decided to field Sadhvi Pragya against Digvijay Singh, the person who coined the term ‘saffron terror'”.

It is an irony of fate that Digvijay Singh will now have to face the lady, whom he had blamed as a terrorist and anti-national, while for the BJP, the Sadhvi has become a symbol of nationalism and patriotism.

I may mention here that Swami Pramod Krishnan is the man who had advised Digvijay Singh to coin the term “saffron terror”. Pramod Krishnan is not a sadhu himself, but he claims to have control over several pro-Congress sadhus. He has now been fielded as Congress candidate against Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.

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On Saturday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi while addressing an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, made his usual charges about Rafale deal against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and for good measure, made this remark: “I have a question. Why all the thieves have Modi in their names, be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi? We don’t know how many more such Modis will come out.”

Replying to this, Modi on Tuesday, while addressing election rallies, pointed out to what Rahul said about the ‘Modi’ surname. The PM said that he could well understand if Rahul made personal attacks on him, but the Congress leader has now started saying, why all the ‘chors’ have ‘Modi’ as their surname.

The PM pointed out that Rahul’s remark could hurt the feelings of all those who have Modi as their surname in different states, where they belong to different castes.

Already, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modil on Tuesday said he would be filing a defamation case against Rahul, while people having Modi surnames in different states of India are also planning to file defamation suits.

This not an isolated case about slip of tongue. On Monday, the Supreme Court, acting on a petition by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, issued notice to Rahul Gandhi for misleading the public by saying that the apex court has found the Prime Minister guilty of corruption in Rafale deal.

The Chief Justice of India said: “We did not say any such thing (Chowkidar Chor Hai). We make it clear this court had no occasion to make any view or finding or make any observation as allegedly attributed to the court by the respondent (Rahul Gandhi).”

Rahul Gandhi had said “now the Supreme Court has accepted that chowkidar has done the theft”. The apex court has asked the Congress President to file his reply by April 22.

I had already said on April 10 in ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ show and written on this blog that Rahul has done a mistake in telling a lie and misquoting the Supreme Court. He may have to face trouble, when the hearing takes place on his reply on April 23.

Rahul cannot hide behind the argument that he had no intention of misrepresenting the apex court’s order, nor can he say that his remarks were twisted and quoted out of context. Rahul’s remarks are on record in videotapes.

One thing is certain: the Supreme Court is going to take a strong view over such loose remarks that are being made in the heat of election campaign. Already the Election Commission, on prodding from the apex court, has banned UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, BSP supremo Mayawati and SP leader Azam Khan from campaigning for 48 to 72 hours.

Our political leaders must exercise restraint while making remarks in the heat and dust of election campaign.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to Doordarshan on Monday exuded full confidence and said that there is “an unprecedented wave of support” for BJP, the like of which, he says, he has not seen even in 2014.

Modi mentioned Uttar Pradesh in particular, where, he said, the opposition parties are so much afraid of an electoral rout that the Congress President Rahul Gandhi had to opt for contesting Wayanad seat in faraway Kerala, as he was unsure of his victory from their family borough Amethi.

The Prime Minister was highly optimistic about results from West Bengal, where, he claimed, the people of the state have made up their mind to support BJP.

Modi also spoke on Rafale aircraft deal, on nationalism, on dynastic politics and on charges of politicization of army. He said, he can understand people opposing him personally, but it is unacceptable if while opposing him they start working against national interests and speak out against the country.

The PM said, he could understand the lies being dished out on the Rafale deal, but was at a loss to find why a 134-year-old party like the Congress had to resort to this.

Modi said martyrdom of soldiers and nationalism are as much an election issue like the suicides of farmers.

He said, “the nation is suffering because of terrorism for the last 40 years, and I do not see why we cannot raise this issue in the elections. If we don’t tell the people what our views are on this issue, then what is the logic behind this?..”

“Can any country move ahead without a sense of nationalism? In a country where thousands of soldiers have been martyred, shouldn’t that be an election issue? If farmers die, it is an election issue, and if soldiers die, it should not be an election issue? How can it be so?”

On Rafale, Modi said, the people now know the truth and the lies have been exposed. “He (Rahul) is raising the Rafale issue, in order to “wash off the sins” of his father (in the Bofors issue). ”

The PM also pointed out that by raising the issue of dynastic politics, he was trying to convey to the people of India that dynastic politics was dangerous for Indian democracy.

Modi, as I have already said earlier, has already felt the voters’ pulse by consistently raising the issue of nationalism in his rallies. He hopes that his party will repeat , if not better the 2014 LS poll result. We shall have to wait for the verdict on May 23.

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