Indians have the capability and intelligence of defending elections by their own, without any sort of advice by the country of Pakistan, the ruling BJP said today in a stinging response to Pakistan in the war of words sparked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments at a rally in Gujarat.
“Narendra Modi or BJP can win the elections through the support of the public. Pakistan can stop giving us advice”, Said Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, he added “We completely abominate any interference. We feel proud of our Democracy”.
Today morning, Islamabad reacted very sharply to PM Modi’s charge that Pakistan is conflicting with Gujarat elections. Narendra Modi on yesterday had referred to a dinner hosted previous week by Suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, which featured the officials of Pakistanis, Congress leaders including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, retired diplomats and senior journalists. A day after the dinner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed at a rally in Palanpur, Mani Shankar Aiyar made the comment “Neech”.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal tweeted: “India should stop dragging Pakistan into its electoral debate and win victories on own strength rather than fabricated conspiracies, which are utterly baseless and irresponsible.”
The dinner that PM Modi refers to took place last Wednesday at the Delhi home of Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was suspended a day later for his “speech aadmi” slur at PM Modi.
Two guests at the dinner have strongly denied that there was any discussion on Gujarat or domestic politics. Discussions revolved around India-Pakistan ties, assert former diplomats Chinmaya Garekhan and Satinder Lambah. Manmohan Singh was present but “did not say a thing”, top sources have said.
“It was entirely devoted to talking about relations between India and Pakistan. Inevitably, cross-border terrorism came up and Kashmir came up but no one, I am 100 percent sure, not a single person talked about either Gujarat elections or the domestic situation in India or for that matter, the domestic situation in Pakistan,” Mr Garekhan said. Satinder Lambah said: “I don’t comment on private dinners. There was just a general discussion on Indo-Pak relations.”
