Arun Shourie: PM silent just to win Bihar polls

Former Union minister Arun Shourie Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of deliberately maintaining silence on incidents like Dadri lynching while his ministerial and party colleagues kept the issue “alive” merely to win the Bihar elections.

He also agreed with the suggestion that Mr Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were pitting one community against another in Bihar and cited a Pakistani analyst to say that while the neighbouring country was trying to get out of the pit, India was slowly going down its way.

The former BJP insider attacked finance minister Arun Jaitley’s defence of Mr Modi that he was the worst victim of intolerance since 2002, saying this was the worst defence he had heard and Mr Modi “in his mind will get the fullest justification for being vengeful”.

Coming out in support of writers, authors and artistes returning their awards against the “climate of intolerance”, he told a TV channel that they are “conscience-keepers” of the country and their motives cannot be questioned. Praising scientists like P.M. Bhargava and Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, who have expressed concern over these incidents, Mr Shourie questioned how these people can be called rabid, a term used by Mr Jaitley. These people have contributed immensely to the country, he said.