Sonia's trips: Did Modi lay a trap, or fall into one?

Why did Narendra Modi quote a dubious figure—Rs 1,880 crore—as being the money spent on Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s “five-star” foreign trips by the UPA government? Surely, an astute administrator and wily political operator could not have come up with a wildly inflated number when it could easily have been rebutted? Modi claimed the figure came from an RTI reply - which the RTI applicant Ramesh Verma quickly rejected as false. The figure was also attributed to a report in a vernacular daily. But the report never became a national headline, and Modi surely was skating on thin ice in this regard. Did Modi goof up or is there some larger gameplan behind this obviously misleading charge targeted at Sonia Gandhi?[caption id=“attachment_476716” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Gujarat, Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. PTI[/caption] BJP insiders are speculating that Modi—usually someone who speaks after a lot of calculation - must have had a reason for mentioning a challengeable fact. For one, it comes on the eve of Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Rajkot in Gujarat for the Congress’ election campaign on 3 October; and secondly, it comes just ahead of the Election Commission’s announcement of poll dates for Gujarat. The schedule could come this week, since all consultations are over. Once the poll schedule is announced, Modi will have to start Round Two of his campaigning (Round One is nearly complete) and start focusing on more Gujarat-based issues. Party insiders believe that the repeated targeting of Sonia is intended to get the Congress party to respond in kind, which is what allows him to polarise opinion around himself. More than anybody else, Modi knows that he is hated with a passion by the Congress. He wants to turn this to his advantage. This is how Modi escalated his attacks. First he tried to link Sonia Gandhi’s trip to the US and the UPA’s decision to allow FDI in retail; then he dragged her name in the Coalgate scandal at the Surajkund public rally; and now he has brought up her so-called “five-star” visits abroad at the cost of the exchequer. Quite clearly, he is waving the red rag to the Congress bull and hopes that either Sonia Gandhi or Rahul will rush to retaliate. Political leaders of various hues have known for some time that Sonia Gandhi is combative by nature and cite her actions on a number occasions to substantiate their point. She led the Congress attack on LK Advani in the Lok Sabha, when he termed her government an “illegitimate” one, and forced him to take it back. Later, at a party meeting, she told her MPs that they should not try to defend the government, but to attack the opposition. In Gujarat itself, in the 2007 elections she attacked Modi as a “maut ka saudagar” - a remark which allowed a polarisation in the vote and is widely seen to have been a turning point at that time. This time, the Congress has taken extreme care to avoid taking on Modi directly even when judicial verdicts have embarrassed him - like the Naroda Patiya case and the decision to shift Amit Shah’s encounter killing case outside Gujarat. Shah is a very close political confidante of Modi. But only stray Congress voices were heard against the Gujarat chief minister. The Congress’ strategy this time is to focus on local issues and avoid giving Modi any opportunity to raise emotional issues like the Gujarat 2002 riots. Sonia’s Rajkot rally on Wednesday will thus be watched for cues on how the Congress plans to reply—or not reply—to Modi’s provocations. So far, Modi has not succeeded in generating a retaliation by bringing up the issue of Sonia’s foreign visits. Modi knows that she has cabinet rank in her capacity as hairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), and thus her costs on foreign trips and medical expenses may be borne by the government. And even if they are not, the question arises: who paid for it? Modi is clearly trying to force the government’s hand after the latter has successfully managed to stonewall all RTI queries on her foreign trips. No Congress leader ever talks about it, except to announce that she may be abroad for a medical check-up. It is now public knowledge that there is an RTI pending before the UPA government asking for details of her visits, the amounts spent and for what purposes. The Hisar RTI activist who rebutted Modi’s claims became a national name overnight, but he left before the media a larger question: why don’t we get answers to these questions? The Congress may find it difficult to answer why the Prime Minister’s Office is not responding to the RTI despite clear directives from the Central Information Commissioner. More so, when RTI has been the ruling UPA’s showcase achievement for all these years. Firstpost also has RTIs pending with the government on Sonia Gandhi’s foreign trips. Modi has already given himself an exit option by challenging his detractors to “prove me wrong and I will immediately apologise”. But he has managed to throw the ball back in the Congress" court. The moot point is: did Modi lay a good trap for the Congress or did he fall into one? Will the Congress spring a surprise by disclosing the details and making him eat his words. The coming days will tell.