Bihar betrayed again

WHEN RAHUL GANDHI exploded his 'H bomb' last week, I happened to be aimlessly switching channels in search of news from Bihar.

- TAVLEEN SINGH

And, when he popped up on my TV screen striding up and down, one hand in pocket and the other clutching a microphone, on a stage whose backdrop was a screen with many voter ID cards, all with the same photo of a beautiful woman, I stopped switching channels. I listened carefully as he demanded to know from his audience of journalists if they knew who this woman was. With the panache of a skilled quizmaster, he demanded to know if anyone knew where she was from, how old she was and if she looked like a Haryanvi woman. When nobody spoke, he revealed dramatically that she was a Brazilian model who appeared to have voted in Haryana many times during last year’s election.

This was certainly intriguing, so I continued to watch. The Leader of the Opposition expounded on his theory that the Haryana election would have been won by the Congress Party if the BJP had not cheated with help from the Election Commission. Rahul Gandhi’s 'H bomb' was potent enough for TV reporters to scurry off the next day to the villages where the Brazilian model had voted repeatedly. Sometimes as Sweety, sometimes as Pinky and sometimes as Saraswati. They found that in most cases it was a real Haryanvi woman who had voted with a real voter’s ID card, but with the wrong photograph pasted on it. Nobody knew how the Brazilian model’s picture appeared on their cards. She herself released a video saying she had never been to India. The Election Commission needs to explain.