Modi to lose support if no change in approach: Mani Shankar Aiyar

LAHORE: Najam Sethi on Wednesday said Jahangir Tareen would face a tough challenge in the NA-154 by-poll, as the LG elections results showed that the voters considered the PML-N strong enough to complete the tenure.
Expressing his views in Geo News programme ‘Aapas ki Baat’, Sethi said the PTI could win only four union councils out of a total of 34 in NA-154, while the remaining were bagged by either the PML-N or the independents who would certainly join the ruling party.
According to Sethi, the rigging allegations should be discarded in the event of Tareen’s defeat. However, Tareen, who will spend money like Aleem Khan, has influence to attract the winning independent candidates.
The PTI would certainly have presented the proof, if it had any, before the Judicial Council. The chief justice did the right thing by rejecting the application against the ECP members. The PTI is in a habit of not accepting the facts and continuing with its propaganda.
Sethi said the Rangers would carry out a large-scale targeted operation in interior Sindh without any political objectives. The Sindh government was unhappy with the arrest of those PPP members who faced the charges of using corruption money for terrorism.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, a well-know member of All India Congress, said the emergency rule during the Indira Gandhi government and the present situation could not be compared. Emergency was imposed according to the constitution, albeit the decision was politically wrong, he added.
According to Aiyar, the steps taken by the BJP government has alerted everyone and the people are raising their voice against the trend. The BJP would face defeat in the Bihar polls, while 70 per cent people had not voted Modi in the last general elections.
Aiyar said Modi would lose public support, if he did not change his attitude. He said everyone in India, except Shiv Sena, wanted Pakistan-India cricket series and even the BJP and Arun Jaitley were not opposing that.
He said Pakistanis should not consider Shiv Sena as entire India because if was a small outfit.Former BJP member Siddharth Kulkarni said after cancellation of Ghulam Ali’s show, the Shiv Sena threatened in a letter that they would not let organising the launching ceremony of Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri’s book; however, they did not bowed before them and asked the Maharashtra chief minister to provide security to Kasuri.
Kulkarni said he had worked with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, both of whom wanted good relations with Pakistan and took some bold steps too; however, the Modi government’s policies did not reflect that. The influence of RSS had increased in the BJP, he said, adding that India could not progress without having good relations with the neighbours.
Kulkarni said a sentiment was developing that intolerance was on the rise in India, which included curbs on freedom of expression, extremism against Muslims and anti-Pakistan sentiments. However, the Indian people were against all the three aspects of intolerance, he added.