Current Affairs : Jaganmohan Reddy praises Narendra Modi

The basic thumb rule to ensure good ventilation in a house is to keep your doors open. That is precisely what YS Jaganmohan Reddy seems to be doing by not slamming the door on Narendra Modi and the BJP by raising the old hackneyed bogey of communalism. While there is nothing overtly wrong in "appreciating Narendra Modi as an administrator'', in election season, all praise and criticism is seen through lenses that magnify many times over. 

While a pre-poll alliance with the BJP is completely ruled out, given that there are too many differences in positions on contentious issues like Telangana between it and the YSR Congress and the fact that BJP is a fringe player in Andhra Pradesh, Jagan's comments would have us believe that he is keeping the window of the possibility of a future political relationship open should Modi fulfil his condition of adopting a more secular outlook. 

Given that the YSRC has a fairly good base among the minorities, such flirting with the BJP would, to the mind of a conventional politician, amount to political harakiri. But the fact that Jagan chose not to duck the question on Modi is an indication that he is trying to shoot several birds with one stone.

One, Jagan's words of admiration for Modi would flatter the Gujarat chief minister who is busy wooing Chandrababu Naidu into the NDA fold. If present political winds are anything to go by, both the Telugu Desam and the BJP are on a weak wicket in Andhra Pradesh and the combination hardly unlikely to set the Godavari on fire. In such circumstances, Jagan's words would make the BJP keep its options open despite its possible pre-poll ally, should the YSRC reap a rich harvest of seats in the Lok Sabha polls. Alternately, if Naidu does well, the BJP will already have the TDP tally in its bag. 

Two, it would keep the Congress on tenterhooks. The ruling party would like all to believe that Jagan has come out thanks to its benevolence, a charge the YSR scion vehemently denies. The Congress gameplan all along has been to ensure that Jagan's electoral profits in Seemandhra ultimately add to the UPA tally in May 2014. By articulating his position vis-a-vis Narendra Modi and keeping his options open like the communists or the JD-U, Jagan is making the Congress heart skip a beat. 

Three, Modi would be happy to know that he is not the political untouchable that the Congress and the likes of Nitish Kumar make him out to be. That he needs to only modi-fy his image suitably to win over new friends like Jagan.

Four, many opinion polls predict that the BJP will emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha, even if woefully short of the halfway mark. It therefore makes sense for Jagan, who has ten CBI chargesheets that list him as accused number one, to keep the BJP on his right side.

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