DNA Edit: ‘Foreign Hand’ Theory

In the volatile mix of the Gujarat Assembly elections, new, unpredictable and seemingly outlandish elements are making their presence felt, and that too very strongly.

Last week, while addressing a rally in a town of the Banaskantha district in Gujarat, PM Narendra Modi revived memories of a controversy that had erupted way back in 2015 when the now-suspended Congress leader and former diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar, while addressing a talk show, had said that there was no possibility of amity prevailing between India and Pakistan unless Modi is “removed from the way”.

PM Modi, while addressing the rally, questioned if this was the Congress’s way of pulling a ‘hit job’ against him. Arriving at the true import of Aiyar’s statement is next to impossible as the complete episode is warped with jugglery of the semantic kind.

However, one good development that has come out of this episode is the suspension of Aiyar from the Congress. The outspoken diplomat, with his confessed weakness in Hindi, is an old hand at landing in soups, for which no one is to blame except for his proclivity for making foot-in-the-mouth statements.

It is almost as if one can hear Congress say the age-old proverb of ‘with friends like these, who needs enemies?’ Islamabad, on the other hand, is seeing red. It has hit back saying that it should not be “dragged” into domestic “electoral debates”. While India certainly does not need any advice from Islamabad on these matters, one must accept that the need of the hour is to fight pitched political battles on issues vexing delivery of government services and resolving administrative obstacles.

If there is some substance, indeed, to these allegations that are being exchanged in the run-up to the Assembly polls, then an SIT or a committee should be formed to get to the root of the matter. In due time, the truth will emerge. Meanwhile, the Congress has proffered that Aiyar’s comments were made not in a secret meeting but at a social event, which was attended by the likes of prominent dignitaries, diplomats including the former Army Chief.

It is now incumbent on the government to furnish proof that there was a “three-hour secret meeting” where stalwarts of the Congress colluded with the Pakistani high commissioner and its former foreign minister over Gujarat. If the party does indeed furnish evidence that stands the test of judicial scrutiny, then the sternest of steps ought to be taken against the accused within the purview of the Indian legal system.

If the BJP cannot furnish the evidence, then it must switch the poll narrative to prosperity and development. Not for nothing have the people of Gujarat given the party a strong mandate for the last 22 years. The BJP must concentrate on overcoming the fatigue factor that has started cropping up. Additionally, it must consolidate its hold on the OBC community within the state as they command a domineering presence in 110 of the 182 seats going to polls.