Since my wife is from Kerala, she is naturally a little more incensed over the comparison made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about infant mortality in Scheduled Tribes in that state being worse than Somalia.
The quantum leap in the PM’s imagination is impressive. What chain of thought compelled Modi to think of an African country out of context and run with it in a public rally?
Nor is it simply a diplomatic gaffe of the highest proportion it is also so tactless and unnecessary.
Why not just say we have to look into the problem, address it and find a solution.
For dropped bricks one thought Queen Elizabeth was way ahead this week with her “The Chinese are very rude” comment followed closely by British PM David Cameron who called Afghanistan and Nigeria the most corrupt nations in the world.
But Modi has obviously narrowed the gap and one has to wonder what compulsions exist for people in high places to go so totally off the verbal rails.
Naturally, the Modi faux pas has generated a certain amount of agitation and anger what with comparative graphics coming out on Kerala and Gujarat and how far ahead the southern one is.
But it is not Gujarat that should pay the price, that graph is just incidental but very clever and it is getting big time traction.
Thing is once you have said something silly, it is so difficult to stuff it back again.
Every explanation only makes it worse. Silence also doesn’t make it go away.
In itself, the remark is so ridiculous it could have been dismissed as flip and irrelevant.
Modi has become so accustomed to being given the accolade after the performance on the mike that he has begun to take liberties.
But when you are the premier of a country and you are on that soil of a state as a visitor then you should be twice as careful.
For someone whose rhetoric has defined him Namo is obviously becoming an elephant in a state of “musti” where he feels he can say and do anything and trample convention and courtesy, an arrogant political rampage that will last another three years and then we will see.
Either that or he is rattled by the lack of love in the public that he was taking for granted.
Perhaps the nibblings at the hem of his credibility, the brouhaha over his degrees and the general disenchantment with a government that is pretty much in hiding is taking its toll.
What is worrying is that Modi is not doing his homework and his advisers are not getting their cue cards in order.
The picture of young boys eating out of a dumpster in Kannur which prompted the comment was out of context.
Who advised him to go with it and indicated this would please the Keralite mindset.
Will it bruise the BJP in the electoral battlefield come May 16? For sheer bad timing this remark sucks big time. I think it will.
Keralites are a very proud people. They do not brook criticism easily and are politically hyperactive to a point well beyond other states. And this criticism was in the realm of the absurd.
A year or six months later, the slur may have been forgotten or softened by the passage of time. With less than a week for the Assembly seats and the outcry on the social platforms shrill and aggressive, the remark will balloon into an indictment of all things Keralite by the prime minister of India. And that is going to sit very badly with the voters.
The average guy on the street coffee corner will only hear one sentiment: Modi doesn’t like Keralites.
Perception is all. There is abs no time for damage control. For shooting yourself in the foot, Namo, this one is hard to beat.
And somewhere in Mogadishu, an Indian ambassador is probably getting dressed to respond to a summons from the foreign ministry.
The quantum leap in the PM’s imagination is impressive. What chain of thought compelled Modi to think of an African country out of context and run with it in a public rally?
Nor is it simply a diplomatic gaffe of the highest proportion it is also so tactless and unnecessary.
Why not just say we have to look into the problem, address it and find a solution.
For dropped bricks one thought Queen Elizabeth was way ahead this week with her “The Chinese are very rude” comment followed closely by British PM David Cameron who called Afghanistan and Nigeria the most corrupt nations in the world.
But Modi has obviously narrowed the gap and one has to wonder what compulsions exist for people in high places to go so totally off the verbal rails.
Naturally, the Modi faux pas has generated a certain amount of agitation and anger what with comparative graphics coming out on Kerala and Gujarat and how far ahead the southern one is.
But it is not Gujarat that should pay the price, that graph is just incidental but very clever and it is getting big time traction.
Thing is once you have said something silly, it is so difficult to stuff it back again.
Every explanation only makes it worse. Silence also doesn’t make it go away.
In itself, the remark is so ridiculous it could have been dismissed as flip and irrelevant.
Modi has become so accustomed to being given the accolade after the performance on the mike that he has begun to take liberties.
But when you are the premier of a country and you are on that soil of a state as a visitor then you should be twice as careful.
For someone whose rhetoric has defined him Namo is obviously becoming an elephant in a state of “musti” where he feels he can say and do anything and trample convention and courtesy, an arrogant political rampage that will last another three years and then we will see.
Either that or he is rattled by the lack of love in the public that he was taking for granted.
Perhaps the nibblings at the hem of his credibility, the brouhaha over his degrees and the general disenchantment with a government that is pretty much in hiding is taking its toll.
What is worrying is that Modi is not doing his homework and his advisers are not getting their cue cards in order.
The picture of young boys eating out of a dumpster in Kannur which prompted the comment was out of context.
Who advised him to go with it and indicated this would please the Keralite mindset.
Will it bruise the BJP in the electoral battlefield come May 16? For sheer bad timing this remark sucks big time. I think it will.
Keralites are a very proud people. They do not brook criticism easily and are politically hyperactive to a point well beyond other states. And this criticism was in the realm of the absurd.
A year or six months later, the slur may have been forgotten or softened by the passage of time. With less than a week for the Assembly seats and the outcry on the social platforms shrill and aggressive, the remark will balloon into an indictment of all things Keralite by the prime minister of India. And that is going to sit very badly with the voters.
The average guy on the street coffee corner will only hear one sentiment: Modi doesn’t like Keralites.
Perception is all. There is abs no time for damage control. For shooting yourself in the foot, Namo, this one is hard to beat.
And somewhere in Mogadishu, an Indian ambassador is probably getting dressed to respond to a summons from the foreign ministry.
