From the Viewsroom: Verbal abuse

The Prime Minister has taken electioneering to a new low by accusing former PM Manmohan Singh and a few other Congress leaders of meeting the Pakistani high commissioner over dinner and plotting his downfall.

The insinuation was made in the form of a rhetorical question — but the implication was not lost on anyone. Every day he has plumbed new depths — and unfortunately, he has been able to play the victim even though, he has been an equal opportunity offender.

The country can only watch in quiet horror as invectives and innuendos are exchanged between the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders.

The PM’s share of responsibility is greater since he is the leader of the nation and not merely the party. The country expects him to be dignified and mature always. And he must outgrow this tendency to blame the Congress party for all ills in society or the economy and stop asserting that India has begun growing into a modern nation only with his rise to power. It is getting tiresome.

India was a great country long before his birth and will remain that way. Modi would do well to remember the words variously attributed to Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV, “After me, the deluge.” The world has survived and even thrived after them.

The fact that the Gujarat campaign was not about the BJP’s development track record is itself a give-away. Cheap potshots are what you associate with the fringe elements of any party — not its core leadership. An apology to Manmohan Singh and to the nation is very much in order. That would reveal genuine humility, hitherto absent, and provide some hope for the future.

NS Vageesh Associate Editor

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