British Prime Min­is­ter Boris John­son at­tended some par­ties dur­ing the first Covid lock­down when such par­ties were pro­hib­ited. Now that cer­tain pic­tures and de­tails of these “so­cially-dis­tanced par­ties”, held months ago have be­come pub­lic, he is be­ing asked to go by the op­po­si­tion as well as some of his own party mem­bers. Boris John­son de­scribed it as work-events in his de­fence in the British Par­lia­ment,  Though he has an­nounced he will not re­sign, the cho­rus of protests seek­ing his res­ig­na­tion by his own party is get­ting louder by the hour.

COM­PARE THIS TO NAREN­DRA MODI who im­posed the harsh­est of lock­downs, catch­ing the peo­ple un­awares and then pro­ceeded to hold mas­sive ral­lies. For­get any­one from the BJP crit­i­cis­ing him or ask­ing him to step down, even the Op­po­si­tion failed to call for his res­ig­na­tion.

Now, Britain’s power cor­ri­dors are rife with talk about the new suc­ces­sor to Boris John­son – and it could be an In­dian-ori­gin man! Chan­cel­lor of the Ex­che­quer (Fi­nance Min­is­ter in In­dian terms) Rishi Sunak is lead­ing in front. Sunak is mar­ried to Ak­shata Murty, the daugh­ter of In­fosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.

For Boris John­son, this is the worst cri­sis of his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer. For Naren­dra Modi, those po­lit­i­cal ral­lies amid Covid or the hun­dreds of float­ing dead bod­ies in his beloved Ganges do not even mat­ter.

John­son has said ‘I re­gret my ac­tion, had thought it was a work event.’ Modi has never re­gret­ted any­thing.

An in­quiry is cur­rently on into the par­ties held at Down­ing Street. No one is in­quir­ing into any­thing done by any of Mod­i’s min­is­ters re­lated to Covid.

The In­dian gov­ern­ment has­n’t even or­dered an in­quiry into why states are re­ceiv­ing Covid death claims that are many times more than the of­fi­cial toll. Nei­ther has the Op­po­si­tion de­manded such an in­quiry.

Leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer ac­tu­ally wrote pub­licly: “Boris John­son, your de­flec­tions and dis­trac­tions are ab­surd. Not only did you know about the par­ties in Down­ing Street, but you also at­tended them. Stop ly­ing to the British pub­lic. It’s time to fi­nally come clean.”

Leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer ac­tu­ally wrote pub­licly: “Boris John­son, your de­flec­tions and dis­trac­tions are ab­surd. Not only did you know about the par­ties in Down­ing Street, but you also at­tended them. Stop ly­ing to the British pub­lic. It’s time to fi­nally come clean.”

Modi has been seen in the com­pany of hun­dreds, thou­sands, tens of thou­sands when po­lice in In­dia was can­ing peo­ple for merely walk­ing on the streets. No one has said sim­i­lar words to Modi.

“I have re­gret­fully come to the con­clu­sion that Boris John­son’s po­si­tion is now un­ten­able, that his res­ig­na­tion is the only way to bring this whole un­for­tu­nate episode to an end and I am work­ing with col­leagues to im­press that view on Num­ber 10,” Con­ser­v­a­tive MP Tim Loughton said.

Modi has been seen in the com­pany of hun­dreds, thou­sands, tens of thou­sands when po­lice in In­dia was can­ing peo­ple for merely walk­ing on the streets. No one has said sim­i­lar words to Modi.

No one in the BJP is do­ing any­thing sim­i­lar within the party.

Many Op­po­si­tion lead­ers in Britain have said Boris John­son was be­ing re­garded by the pub­lic as a char­la­tan, a hyp­ocrite, a liar and “stu­pid”. Can any­one from the po­lit­i­cal class dare say that in In­dia?

Modi, who claimed in 2014 that Lord Gane­sha’s head must have been fixed by some plas­tic sur­geon and that Karna was a test tube baby, and later thought hold­ing mas­sive pub­lic ral­lies dur­ing elec­tions when Covid raged was ab­solutely okay, has never been called a char­la­tan, a hyp­ocrite, a liar or stu­pid.

Many Op­po­si­tion lead­ers in Britain have said Boris John­son was be­ing re­garded by the pub­lic as a char­la­tan, a hyp­ocrite, a liar and “stu­pid”. Can any­one from the po­lit­i­cal class dare say that in In­dia?

In­dia is a tol­er­ant coun­try!

Boris John­son party photo cour­tesy: The Guardian. Modi Rally photo cour­tesy: PTI