[At an election rally in Palanpur, in Gujarat, the Prime Minister of the country, and no less, has alleged a conspiracy between, at least, some top Congress leaders and inimical forces from across the international border, i.e. Pakistan, to install Ahmed Patel as the Gujarat Chief Minister. (How? Only Heaven knows!) That's too serious a charge - one of treason, and no less.
So, this is no ordinary time. And, it's just for the sake of an election in a middle-sized state, for the state assembly. Of course, it's the PM's home state. That's all. So, the alarm belll, just make no mistake, is ringing loud and clear. One may opt to overlook it, only at one's great peril.] Five relevant extracts (the most critical being the PM's charge, at sl. no. I below, and former PM Manmohan Singh's response, at sl. no. v below) are provided below. The salient point to note, here, is that the former Pakistan Army Director General Arshad Rafique, who has allegedly batted for Ahmed Patel as the CM of Gujarat was not an attendee at the, widely attended, dinner at Aiyar's place on December 6, nor anywhere does figure the link to the alleged tweet by Rafique (or Rafiq?) advocating Ahmed Patel's case. I/V. <<Addressing a rally at Palanpur city in Banaskantha district, Modi accused Pakistan of helping the Congress and interfering in the Gujarat Assembly elections. “Now, news is that the Pakistan high commissioner, the foreign minister and Manmohan Singh met at his house just before the Gujarat polls,” said the prime minister, according to Firstpost. “This is a serious issue. I want to ask what was the reason for this secret meeting with Pakistanis. Former Pakistan Army Director General Arshad Rafique was willing to help make [Congress leader] Ahmed Patel the chief minister.” Mani Shankar Aiyar, who insulted Gujarat, held secret meetings with Pakistan High Commissioner. What was the reason? Why are people who previously held high posts in military-intelligence establishment of Pakistan writing that we should help make Ahmed Patel the CM: PM pic.twitter.com/2KPmZF8BLa>> (Source: < https://scroll.in/latest/860986/gujarat-election-mani-shankar-aiyar-held-secret-meetings-with-pakistan-says-modi-in-palanpur >.) II/V. <<Guests at a dinner hosted by suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar last week have denied that domestic politics figured at all in discussions with Pakistani leaders after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charge that Islamabad is trying to meddle in the Gujarat election. Discussions revolved around India-Pakistan ties, asserted two ex-diplomats who attended the dinner. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Vice President Hamid Ansari were present at the dinner held last Wednesday at Mani Shankar Aiyar's home for former Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's visit. Manmohan Singh was present during the discussion but "did not say a thing", top sources have said. The other guests included the Pakistan High Commissioner, former foreign minister K Natwar Singh, former Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, former diplomats Salman Haider, Satinder Lambah, TCA Raghavan, Sharat Sabharwal, Chinmaya Gharekhan and senior journalists including Prem Shankar Jha and Rahul Khushwant Singh. "It was entirely devoted to talking about relations between India and Pakistan. Inevitably, cross-border terrorism came up and Kashmir came up but no one, I am 100 per cent sure, not a single person talked about either Gujarat elections or the domestic situation in India or for that matter, the domestic situation in Pakistan," Mr Gharekhan told NDTV. Satinder Lambah, another invitee, said, "I don't comment on private dinners. There was just a general discussion on Indo-Pak relations." Addressing a public rally in Gujarat yesterday at the fag end of a vitriolic poll campaign, PM Modi raised the Mani Shankar Aiyar dinner and suggested that the Congress was conspiring with Pakistani leaders to prevent the BJP from winning the election in Gujarat, where the party has been in power for 22 years. PM Modi also said a former Pakistan Army officer has supported senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel becoming chief minister of Gujarat. "(On one hand) Pakistan Army's former DG is interfering in Gujarat's election, on the other, Pakistani people are holding a meeting at Mani Shankar Aiyar's house," PM Modi said. The Congress has demanded an apology for what it calls an outrageous charge. "The Prime Minister must take back his words. He must respect his post by apologizing," said former union minister Anand Sharma.>> (Source: < https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/gujarat-not-discussed-say-guests-at-mani-shankar-aiyar-dinner-after-pm-narendra-modis-charge-1786258 >.) III/IV. <<The dinner meeting was held on December 6 at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s residence in Delhi during the visit of Pakistan’s former foreign affairs minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri to India. The following day, Kasuri was present at a talk hosted by Ananta Centre, a Delhi-based think-tank, titled, ‘The Current State of India-Pakistan Relations’. According to sources, those who attended Aiyar’s dinner and the discussions that preceded it included former Army chief Deepak Kapoor, former foreign minister K Natwar Singh, and former diplomats Salman Haidar, TCA Raghavan, Sharat Sabharwal, K Shankar Bajpai and Chinmaya Gharekhan, among others. Bajpai, Raghavan and Sabharwal had served as Indian High Commissioners to Pakistan. Former PM Manmohan Singh and former vice-president Hamid Ansari were also present at the dinner. ... The Indian Express contacted five of those who were at the dinner, including Aiyar, of whom four said it was a get-together of “those who have known Kasuri or served in Pakistan as diplomats” and that “it had nothing to do with domestic politics.” Only Kapoor spoke on record, with the others saying that they did not want to be dragged into a political slugfest during the election. Aiyar refused to comment.>> (Source: < http://indianexpress.com/article/india/at-mani-shankar-aiyars-dinner-former-army-chief-ex-diplomats-4977213/ >.) IV/V. <<After the PM made his claims about Pakistan, AICC spokesman Manish Tewari said, "Modi is back to the same old bogey - Pakistan - to deflect. It was Mian Musharraf in 2002 despite Musharraf having been invited by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Agra in 2001; he lied about Sir Creek in 2012 and is now claiming that Pakistan is interfering in Gujarat polls. Why don't you expel the Pakistani high commissioner if the charge is true?">> (Source: < https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/cong-expel-envoy-if-pak-meddling-in-gujarat-polls/articleshow/62014615.cms >.) V. <<Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday lashed out at incumbent Narendra Modi for “spreading canards to score political points in a lost cause” and asked him to apologise to the nation. Referring to the discussions at a dinner hosted by suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar in the honour of a former Pakistan minister, Singh said “I did not discuss Gujarat elections there. The discussions were confined to Indo-Pakistan relations. The issue of Gujarat was not raised by anyone at the dinner. I am pained by canards being spread by the PM. I sincerely hope he apologises to nation for this ill thought transgression to restore the dignity of the office he holds.” ... In a rare statement, former prime minister Singh said Congress did need any certificates of nationalism from a party whose “compromised track record on terrorism is known to everyone". “Let me remind Mr Modi that he had gone to Pakistan uninvited after the attacks in Udhampur and Gurdaspur. Let him tell the reason why Pakistan spy agency ISI was allowed in Pathankot Air base to investigate an attack that a emanated in Pakistan,” Singh said adding that his own tenure of public service needed no stamps. Rejecting “ falsehoods and innuendos about the dinner”, Singh accused Modi of “setting a dangerous precedent with his insatiable desire to tarnish every constitutional office including that of the former PM and Army Chief”. ... The Congress reproduced the statement, as well as a list of people who attended the December 6 meeting, on Twitter [ref: < https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/940173220132536320/photo/1>]. The list included former vice-president Hamid Ansari and Pakistan High Commissioner, as well as some senior Indian journalists. >> (Source: < http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/apologise-to-nation-for-spreading-canards-manmohan-singh-tells-modi/511638.html >.) -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
