Quite predictably, journalists were falling over each other to report on Modi’s first visit to Varanasi after the 2014 General Elections. His decision to adopt the village, Jayapur, 25 kms away from Varanasi, got many speculating.



Never one to miss an opportunity to take pot-shots at media people, or newstraders, as he lovingly calls them, Modi hinted in his maiden speech at the village that the press with its “fertile” (yes, he used that exact word) imagination has been churning out various stories about why he adopted the village. In his trademark style, he went on to state that he had not adopted the village and that the village had adopted him. (Remember how he did not go to Varanasi to contest elections and how “Ma Ganga” called him there?)