Hitting back at Narendra Modi for his stinging attacks on Congress and the Gandhi family, Union minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday accused him of employing “bodyline” tactics against his rivals and doing “chest-thumping” all the time.
“Mr Modi after (former England cricket captain) Douglas Jardine...Mr Modi is a practioner of bodyline and you know what Bill Woodfull said when bodyline was taking place, he said there are two teams out there and one of them is not playing cricket.
“The abrasive and the abusive manner in which he (Modi) carries on a campaign...We do not want to follow in the same category but at the same time he is a political reality,” Mr Ramesh told CNN-IBN.
Jardine, a right-handed batsman, is best known for the infamous bodyline series during the 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia when he had employed “bodyline” tactics to target the body of the batsmen by short-pitched deliveries in a manner critics viewed as intimidatory and physically dangerous.
Mr Ramesh’s comments came a day after Modi attacked Congress on corruption saying, “A for Adarsh Ghotala, B for Bofors Ghotala, C for Coal ghotala, D for Damad ka ghotala (corruption)..This is the new ABCD..Which the Congress adopted to introduce a new book of alphabets for children.”
Mr Ramesh, a Congress strategist, also dismissed suggestions that the 2014 general elections would be a battle between Mr Modi and Rahul Gandhi.