JOIN USCountering Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi against criticism over his government’s response to alleged sectarian violence in some parts of the country, former Union minister Arun Shourie said claiming Modi as the greatest victim of intolerance “is the most dangerous thing to do because it will give him grounds to be vengeful”.
Shourie held that “the PM’s behaviour has lowered him to RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav’s level and made Nitish Kumar a statesman”.
Shourie was responding to Jaitley’s stand that the Congress, Left thinkers and activists were trying to project India as an intolerant society when they were themselves practised ideological intolerance towards the BJP, especially Modi.
Referring to Jaitley’s description of those who had flayed the BJP for not stopping incidents of intolerance, Shourie told a television channel that calling the protesters as “rabid” anti-BJP was inexcusable because it applied to such leading personalities like eminent scientists CNR Rao and PM Bhargava, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, and ex-Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas who had come out against the government.
Shourie, who has been critical of Modi and the BJP after his hopes of finding a berth in the Union Council of Ministers was dashed, said, “the PM is not a section officer in the homeopathy department and must speak out on intolerance.”Shourie said Modi could tweet inconsequentially “but he is silent after Dadri”.
“He has failed to fulfill his moral responsibility...the PM is turning India into Pakistan and all because winning Bihar matters more than India’s future and social strife is threatened,” he said.
Shourie, a strong supporter of Modi during the Lok Sabha election campaign last year, had said last week that this government thinks that managing economy means “managing the headlines”.