‘It’s a cheap and mischievous strategy to divert people’s attention from real issues’

Swaraj India leader and political analyst Yogendra Yadav described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “bloopers” in portraying the military history of India at an election rally on Thursday as “an attempt to distract and deflect attention of the people from real issues”.

“Besides being factually wrong, it is embarrassing that the Prime Minister of a country cannot get the elementary history of the country right,” he said.

“Mr. Modi has done this with mischievous intent to send a message to the electorate that Nehru insulted military heroes of Karnataka.”

In his election speech, Mr. Modi had said that Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa and General K.S. Thimayya were insulted by the Congress.

He said India had won the 1948 war under the leadership of General Thimayya, but was later insulted by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon.

However, a fact-check reveals that General Thimayya became army chief in 1957. In 1959, Mr. Krishna Menon had rejected General Thimayya’s views on China’s military build-up. The General offered to resign, but his resignation letter was rejected by Jawaharlal Nehru.

“Mr. Modi is an accomplished performer. He won’t do anything unintentionally or by mistake. The entire thing is an electoral theatre for him and he does that to distract attention from real issues,” he said, speaking to The Hindu.

Similarly, Mr. Modi did not raise the issue pertaining to agrarian crisis in Karnataka and suicide of farmers, as he did not want people to raise questions on the issue in BJP-ruled States.

“He, who asks Mr. Gandhi to face the people for 15 minutes, does not have the guts to face the media. In the last four years, he has not faced them even once,” argued Mr. Yadav.

Hindu vs Muslim

Mr. Modi’s campaign in Karnataka, he said, was a run-up to the 2019 polls. “Mr. Modi’s grand narrative and strategy for 2019 is going to be Hindu vs Muslim. We have seen glimpses of that in Karnataka. Thankfully, he has not made that the centre piece of the campaign so far. But, he might do that in the last three days,” he said.

When asked about his take on regrouping of secular and democratic forces to fight communal, anti-democratic forces, he said Parliamentary Opposition has failed completely in their role. Real Opposition will come from unity of pro-people movement of farmers, Dalits, youth, and women.