Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an important point about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday. He attacked Banerjee for mentioning that the flyover, which collapsed in Kolkata last week killing 27, was a project initiated by the previous government. Modi asked if Banerjee would have similarly given her rivals credit if the flyover had been successfully built. Then he went and ruined this important point with the offensive suggestion that the flyover collapse was a message from god in election time.

"Whenever a disaster happens and the chief reaches there, the first act is to ensure the injured are rescued and sent to the hospital. But the first thing Didi did was to say that the tenders were awarded during the Left regime," Modi said, at an election rally in Madarihat, West Bengal. “Tell me, if you went to inaugurate the flyover after it was completed, would you have said the tender was awarded by the Left regime?"

Advertisement

So far so good. But Modi then went on to talk about the claim that the flyover collapse had been an "act of god." That claim didn't come from the West Bengal government, it actually emerged from the Hyderabad-based company that was building the flyover. But the prime minister nevertheless connected it to Banerjee and resorted to that characteristic word play he is famous for.

"This is not an act of god, Didi, it is an act of fraud," Modi said. "This is an act of god only in the way that it happened during the elections, so that you can understand what kind of government is being run. This is why god gave a message to the people, that today a bridge has fallen down, tomorrow all of Bengal will be finished, save these people, this is the message of god."