Pakistan pokes fun at Indian PM Modi over Bihar defeat

• 10 November 2015
 
• From the sectionIndia

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionThe defeat is seen as a setback for Narendra Modi

Pakistani fundamentalists and liberals have both cheered Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election defeat in Bihar, though for very different reasons, writes the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

Mr Modi has emerged as possibly the "most hated" Indian leader in Pakistan to date.

Islamists here see him in a negative light due to his image as a Hindu revivalist. Pakistani liberals, on the other hand, dislike him because they feel his nationalist rhetoric only helps strengthen the fundamentalist lobby in the country.

Therefore, both camps saw plenty of reason to celebrate Mr Modi's election loss in Bihar.

Television channels laced their news of the BJP defeat with poetic narratives of political irony and Bollywood songs of heroes taunting villains.

Pakistan's most reputed newspaper, Dawn, in a front-page headline noted that "Bihar Steals Modi's Crackers" - a reference to BJP president Amit Shah's pre-election warning to voters that "if BJP loses in Bihar, crackers will go off in Pakistan".

A previous report on the Dawn website on Sunday evening was headlined "Bihar Voters Put Modi Out to Pasture", a reference to what many Pakistanis call "cow politics" after a Muslim man in India was recently lynched by a Hindu mob for allegedly consuming beef.

Pakistan's official PTV in a tweet reckoned that Bihar election results were indicative of Mr Modi's waning appeal in India.

Image copyrightTwitter

Another journalist tweeted that he hoped the defeat would teach Mr Modi to drop jingoism and improve relations with Pakistan

In short, there is an overall sense of vindication across Pakistan, with some predicting that this election defeat will throw water on Mr Modi's religious revivalism. Others are hoping it will cool temperatures on the India-Pakistan border.

Yet others are enjoying the moment while it lasts, like Gen Raheel Sharif - an anonymous tweeter who impersonates the Pakistani army chief - who tweeted: "Mr Modi called, said 'my party lost Bihar election, what do I do??' [I] replied, macho men never accept defeat, simply call it rigged."

Crass, loud, meaningless: Why have we ruined Diwali like this?

• India

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionDiwali has been traditionally the festival of lights

Diwali is perhaps the most important Hindu festival celebrated in north India, but over the past decade or so, it has degenerated into a crass commercial fiesta, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi.

In my family, Diwali was traditionally the festival of lights - when we decorated our homes with diyas (little clay lamps), prayed to Lakshmi, the "goddess of wealth", to make us rich, and Ganesha, the cute elephant-headed god who removed obstacles in our path, helped us pass our exams when we were young, and made us generally happy.

We would wear new clothes and gorge on traditional sweets - some bought from the market and some made at home by my extremely talented mother.

We never had firecrackers - as a child whenever I asked my dad for money to buy crackers, he would say "you might as well burn the money".

Anup Chetia: Bangladesh 'hands over' India rebel leader

The rebels have fought for a separate Assamese homeland since 1979

India says Bangladesh has handed over a jailed separatist rebel leader whose group has been fighting Indian rule in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said Anup Chetia, a leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam (Ulfa), was being brought to India from Dhaka.

Chetia was jailed in 1997 for illegal entry into Bangladesh and possessing huge amounts of foreign currency.

The rebels have fought for a separate Assamese homeland since 1979.

Mr Rijiju told reporters on Wednesday that a team of Indian federal investigators were bringing back Chetia.

However, according to the AFP news agency, Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said he had no information that Chetia was being handed over to India.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina to thank her for handing Chetia over to the Indian government.

In 2009, the government in Bangladesh launched a crackdown on Indian separatists operating out of its territory.

More than 50 rebel leaders and activists have been handed over to India since then, while others have been arrested while trying to enter Bangladesh to avoid capture in India.

Is Narendra Modi facing a mutiny?

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Amit Shah, the president of India"s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wave to their supporters during a campaign rally ahead of state assembly elections, at Ramlila ground in New Delhi in this January 10, 2015 file photoImage copyrightReuters
Image caption

Mr Modi and Mr Shah are the most powerful leaders of BJP
US founding father Thomas Jefferson once said a "little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world, as storms in the physical".

After suffering two consecutive - and humiliating - defeats in the Delhi and Bihar elections, India's ruling BJP, many believe, also needed a small rebellion to shake it out of its complacency.
On Tuesday evening, four senior party leaders, led by India's former deputy prime minister LK Advani, fired what was clearly a broadside against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

"The principal reason for the latest defeat is the way the party has been emasculated in the last year," said the leaders in a statement, criticising the party's campaign strategy after Sunday's humiliating defeat in Bihar. "A thorough review must be done of the reasons for the defeat as well as the way the party is being forced to kow-tow... and how its consensual character has been destroyed."
The scathing missive was strategically timed: it came hours after the government eased regulations for foreign direct investment in at least 15 sectors to boost reforms and inject some feel-good before a gloomy Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.