Ok, you can lose your keys, misplace your pen. Never find a scissor when you need one.
But a wife. Like that’s the girl you marry, spouse, the other half, that person.
Narendra Modi’s, BJP candidate, chief minister of Gujarat and possibly, not most likely, prime minister of India within 60 days managed to misplace his wife for years.
Not that there aren’t hundreds of unhappily married men who would love to know how the heck he did this but if you are standing for high office can we afford to have a guy who might misplace the country...only kidding.
It is baffling why he kept his marriage a secret. Perhaps it truly was a non-event in his life, period. Obviously, it must have been one of those ‘force fed’ arrangements that Modi went through to keep the elders in his family happy then trotted off to do his own thing. Fine. But what no one quite understands is why the secrecy and why make it look like some sinister plot or scandal. OK, the guy was married in a ceremony that he did not take too seriously. Let it go.
Are you still with me...or have I lost you?
He is fortunate, it is so far back in time that the non-marriage marriage has lost its sting and the people don’t particularly care. Firstly, it is personal, secondly it has no stain on his probity, maybe it was mutual, third, what is he today, that is more important.
Naturally, the Congress scion, Rahul Gandhi went for it. He taunted the BJP and said the party talks of women empowerment but refuses to talk about its prime ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi's wife.
Why should they discuss his wife? She is not on the election manifesto. She is not a relevant factor in the battle of the ballot. And how their marriage hit the rocks is private and not a reflection of the sort of person he is… but having led you up to here, are we being too unforgiving.
Dude, you should remember you got married. That worries me.
Indeed, bad PR and terrible advice from his close team who should have downplayed the relationship and not set it up as ammunition for the opposition.
Having gone to bat for him on this issue it is now time to turn the focus onto his shortsightedness. Why would he leave his nomination papers blank in the ‘Marital status’ box. That is truly absurd. He did that in 2012, too.
Now, he has had to file an affidavit saying he is married to ensure he is not disqualified from the election for wrong data. Again, absurd. Because it does show him as a liar?
The most hilarious part is that his wife who has come in from the cold is walking around barefoot and not eating rice praying for his success and being the atypical sacrificial Indian wife, which really adds up to gimmickry of the first instance.
Who is conning whom?
No wonder the NYT also gave up on the story. Imagine, a US president going in to the Hampshire primaries and the news leaking that he was once married but has kept it a secret. The NYT would go ballistic.
