Missing Jashodaben: Modi's wife whisked off to Ramdev's ashram?

Ever since BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi officially acknowledged his wife on his nomination papers in Vadodara, Jashodaben has been among the most sought after persons in Gujarat. Multiple media crews have gone to meet her at her hometown only to return empty handed and be told that the retired school teacher was on a pilgrimage that would end only after the election results were out. But a new report hints that Jashodaben’s decision to go on a ‘pilgrimage’ was not entirely personal, and may have been quickly arranged to ensure she stayed out of the media glare. And she will likely spend the remainder of the elections in a mountain-top ashram with minders posing as pilgrims keeping an eye on her. A report in The Week said that soon after Modi’s declaration, Hindu activists and security personnel dressed as pilgrims arrived at her doorstep in SUVs. Claiming that her wish for a Char Dham yatra had come true, they immediately ferreted her away to Ahmedabad. [caption id=“attachment_1494701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kept in isolation till elections have passed? PTI image[/caption] From there she was flown in a chartered plane to Aurangabad, near the Uttar Pradesh border, and then taken to a mountain top-ashram run by Baba Ramdev in Rishikesh, the report claims. The report quoted an unnamed source who is reportedly close to Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwarka Peeth, as saying,"Jashodaben is protected by top-level security people with ties with the Gujarat security services. Perhaps, she does not even know that those with her are not pilgrims but people tasked with keeping her away from the public eye." However, despite hinting at a sinister-sounding conspiracy, the rest of the report doesn’t claim that either Jashodaben or her family are unhappy with Modi or the Gujarat government. It appears that they may even be enjoying their moment in the sun. Many have argued that Jashodaben should not be a poll issue for Modi’s rivals. As _Firstpost_'s R Jagannnathan had observed private lives have to remain private – unless they have a relevance to the public in some way. And despite all the those who tut-tutted over Modi’s decisions on matrimony, Jashodaben is neither victim nor saint , but a woman who seems to have made the best of the cards life has dealt her. And she has freely spoken her mind in several interviews. That said, this cloak and dagger operation – if true – is wholly unnecessary and in poor taste. Having lived her life on her own terms there’s little reason to have to hide her away in some kind of face saving exercise. She’s been able to handle the attention so far, there’s no reason why Jashodaben can’t make her own decision on whether she wants to speak about her marriage or not. Read the complete article in The Week here