Narendra Modi has surely lost his cool after 48% of the voters of Bengal rejected him quite decisively in the recent state elections by sin...
Narendra Modi has surely lost his cool after 48% of the voters of Bengal rejected him quite decisively in the recent state elections by sinking their fierce political differences. Then followed the first real thrashing from all sections that Modi received in his seven years as prime minister for his disastrous handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
His previous chillingly-cold and calculating demeanour, which was invariably accompanied by a remorseless steely indifference, has disappeared. It has given way to unconcealed malice, knee-jerk actions and uncalled-for over-reactions.
This is clear from the ludicrous show cause notice of May 31 that his home ministry served on Alapan Bandyopadhayay the very day after he retired as chief secretary of West Bengal. This was obviously a last-ditch attempt to save Modi’s face by shadow-kicking the state chief minister’s trusted chief secretary after the missives fired by his directly-controlled department of personnel failed in its task of fixing her.
With its juvenile drafting and its use of archaic bureaucratese, the notice directs Bandyopadhyay to show cause in three days flat why he should not be charged with criminality under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act. This could entail a fine and up to two years in jail.
