Partisan politicians attack the PM, insult public
Indian politics isn't exactly known for the quality of its discourse any longer. But even by its low standards, usually set in the heat and dust of election campaigns, Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid's comments, made on foreign soil, regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government he leads, are galling and must be condemned in the strongest terms. Earlier this week, in an interview to a Pakistani news channel, Mr Aiyar said that if India and Pakistan were to achieve peace, the incumbent Prime Minister would have to be “removed”. He added that Pakistan would have to wait until the Congress ousts the BJP in the next general election and returns to power. Before that, Mr Khurshid had told his audience at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad the week before, that while Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was “genuinely committed to peace with India”, he was disappointed that “the Indian establishment has done precious little in recent months to fortify his endeavour.” Mr Khurshid also launched a personal attack on the Prime Minister, adding that since Mr Modi had “little experience of conversations with people other than his admirers”, he was incapable of understanding that “diplomatic challenges are often quite different in the nature of conversations that need to be undertaken.” There is no point in debating the merits (or lack thereof) of these statements because those are irrelevant to the larger issue at stake: The insult of the Prime Minister who holds the mandate of the nation. let there be no doubt that when Messrs Aiyar and Khurshid, as senior Indian politicians, so bitterly criticise the sitting Prime Minister on foreign soil, they not only attack the high office he holds but also insult every single citizen of the country, whose collective will is represented in the Prime Minister — and this is all the more ironic because in the 2014 general election both Mr Aiyar and Mr Khurshid were so staunchly rejected by the voters that they lost their deposits. Moreover, politicking aside, it is odd that Mr Aiyar and Mr Khurshid speak of abilities, standards and decorum, but themselves have no qualms in engaging in utterly undiplomatic and inappropriate behaviour. Perhaps, they could have been cut some slack had they been country bumpkins unfamiliar with the rules of engagement at the global high table something that Mr Khurshid directly accuses Mr Modi of — but surely the former diplomat (currently a Rajya Sabha member) and the former Minister for External Affairs know their protocols well. That these two leaders, despite their long years in politics and Government, have been so consumed by what is clearly a deep and personal distaste for the Prime Minister that are unable to rise above partisan politics even at the cost of the national interest, speaks volumes.
However, while Messrs Aiyar and Khurshid deserve every bit of criticism that has come their way, it must also be said that BJP leaders have responded to the situation in poor taste. Referring to political rivals as members of the barbaric Islamic State or the brutal Taliban is offensive to the thousands of innocent men, women and children who have been victimised by these terror groups. Also, such statements make a mockery of the real threat that these groups pose to the world.