Modi issue puts PMO on backfoot

'Singh did not speak to CM'

A day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his trip to the United Kingdom, citing "security threats, conveyed to him the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, himself", the Prime Minister's Office took rear guard action.

The Prime Minister already under fire from the Congress for zealously pursuing the issue of the US denying a visa to Modi, appeared at pains to explain that his "concern" for Modi did not drive him to a breach of protocol.

The controversy arose when the Gujarat government claimed last night that the "Prime Minister and the home minister had spoken to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi." "Acting on their advise, the trip had been cancelled," said a Gujarat government spokesperson.

On hearing this, the PMO was quick to issue a denial that Singh had never spoken to Modi on the matter. While the PMO officials admitted that the Prime Minister had spoken to leader of the Opposition L K Advani, but they were vehement in denying that Singh had called up Modi.

"Home Minister Shivraj Patil had spoken to Modi on the apprehension that a couple of anti-Modi groups would demonstrate, but there was no talk of a threat to his life," said a PMO spokesperson. What was a matter of threat perception for Modi, quickly turned into a matter of protocol.

Modi, desperately trying to fend off dissidence is trying to gain a "larger than Gujarat" image projecting himself a "pariah because he championed the Hindu cause", according to a senior BJP leader.

"For him to claim that the Prime Minister himself called him up was a matter of assertion of his importance as the Hindu Hriday Samrat," added the leader.

For the Prime Minister, however, things could not get worse. While the Congress conceded that the US denial of a visa to Modi could not go undefended by the government, their antipathy towards Modi, however, is pushing them to make sure that the matter does not end up with the government appearing to be a champion of Modi's politics. Which is why the PMO had to issue a clarification.

The Modi-Manmohan saga got a final twist when late on Friday evening the Gujarat government conceded that the Prime Minister had not in fact called up the chief minister, it was the home minister who had the fateful conversation.

The Gujarat government said the decision to cancel the visit was arrived at through consensus with the Centre and termed as "unfortunate" the PMO's statement that Manmohan Singh did not call up Modi to advise him to call off his trip.

"Based on mutual consultations between Chief Minister of Gujarat, Union home minister, leader of Opposition and Prime Minister...a decision was taken by consensus to postpone the visit of Narendra Modi"', the statement said.

"It is highly regrettable that a matter like this should be tackled in this manner especially when then state government has fully respected the feelings of the Government of India on a sensitive issue like security'', it said.

The entire episode is just another demonstration of the government's unease with defending Modi to foreign governments while reviling him at home.