Media reports talking about Modi’s silence, too, are in a different vein. Firstpost carried a piece detailing “conspiracy theories” about Modi choosing to remain silent since there’s no love lost between Shivaraj Chouhan and him. Other reports have used words like mysterious and even unsettling. But there are those who have called out Modi for not speaking up. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of Centre for Policy Research, in an op-ed for The Indian Express says: “In politics, it [silence] is often a sign of evasion, complicity or cowardice. The prime minister’s silence, so far, on the burgeoning Lalit Modi scandal is beginning to carry the whiff of all three.”