Letter to BS: No fear in being seen with industrialists, says Narendra Modi

But it is unlikely to go down well with people at a time when the government is unable to prove that it did not favour anyone in the Rafale deal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion that he was “not scared of being seen with big industrialists and businessmen” as a riposte to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s remark that Indian taxpayers would have “to pay Mr 56-inch friend’s joint venture Rs 1 trillion over the next 50 years to maintain the Rafale aircraft” was baffling, if anything. He seems to have made it in the fond hope that it will help in warding off attacks by the Opposition on his alleged links with “corrupt and crony capitalists” and erasing the suit-boot ki sarkar label.

But it is unlikely to go down well