The Rajnath Singh defence of Modi: No rethink on PM candidate

Narendra Modi was controversial before he began his campaign as the Prime Ministerial campaign. But since then the Gujarat Chief Minister has been at the centre of multiple controversies, including the latest one concerning the shadowing of a woman architect in Ahmedabad. If there were any doubts about the party’s backing of the leader following the controversies, party president Rajnath Singh has attempted to lay them all to rest. [caption id=“attachment_123534” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BJP President Rajnath Singh. Reuters[/caption] In an interview with the Indian Express, the BJP president has justified the use of police personnel to watch the movements of the woman architect in 2009 and claimed it could be a conspiracy by the Congress. "… if a person is being harassed by someone and if a member of his family has links with the head of the state or if he expects that the state government will provide them protection and then if he appeals, writes a letter to him… then isn’t it the moral responsibility of the government to provide protection? What crime has Modi committed?" said Singh. Despite the five state elections being seen as a litmus test of the effectiveness of having Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, Singh brushed aside the question saying it would not affect the party’s stand in any way. The BJP president also justified the Gujarat Chief Minister not apologising for the 2002 riots since he had already admitted it was ‘sad’ and he hadn’t committed any wrong. Singh also attempted to justify Modi’s recent speeches in which he had targeted the Opposition and Congress leaders in language that some had said was unnecessary. The BJP chief claimed that Modi had never made the statements attributed to him and had only “narrated a story”, but also admitted that he hadn’t heard the speeches himself. As _Firstpost_ had pointed out earlier , the defence of using the father’s statement as a shield unfortunately doesn’t work very well given government machinery was used to watch over her, possibly without her even knowing. The fact that a major detail of watching her was to keep track of her personal meetings only makes it more disconcerting. Singh’s statements also indicate that the party doesn’t see Modi as anything beyond a star campaigner in the upcoming state polls and the responsibility any failure will solely rest on the party’s local representatives. The speeches, barbs and controversies are purely about the next general elections, the state elections are merely a stage for it. And just in case you expected Modi to make any last minute overture to the minorities ahead of the elections, the BJP president’s statements should lay them to rest. There won’t be any apology for the 2002 riots not any time before the 2014 polls. At most Modi may ‘feel bad’ about it again but may stay well clear of using a puppy analogy for it. The BJP president has already made it clear that no matter what the controversy, the party rules out any rethink of its prime ministerial candidate. And if his statements are anything to go by, the party is willing to give Modi a pretty long rope for it as well.