The sequence of events are like this; A day after the first phase of polling was held in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at an election meeting, spoke about a former Pakistan army officer allegedly showing undue interest in election and supporting Ahmed Patel for the chief minister’s post. About the dinner meeting at Mani’s house, PM said the “secret talks” were held in the midst of Gujarat poll. The import of the PM’s statement was inescapable: Speaking in the same breath of the Congress, Pakistan and a Muslim candidate for CM, he suggested that they are partners in an unholy alliance, rather anti-national, conspiracy. In one stroke, he labelled his political opponents as unpatriotic.

PM’s exact words are: While there are discussions in Pakistan about making Ahmed Patel CM, Pakistan’s high commissioner, its former foreign minister, former PM Manmohan Singh, former vice-president Hamid Ansari met at Mani Shankar’s house”.

Manmohan Singh reacted sharply to Modi’s statement, demanding PM’s apology to the nation for “canard and falsehood” linking a meeting with Pakistan dignitaries attended by him with the Gujarat elections and a conspiracy against the BJP. Unlike his character—always cool and composed-- the former PM responded strongly to a statement by a high-ranking former Pakistan army officer calling for the elevation of Ahmed Patel, political secretary, to Sonia Gandhi, as the next Gujarat chief minister.

Dr Singh further said “Modi is setting a dangerous precedent by his insatiable desire to tarnish every constitutional office, including that of a former PM and army chief”.

What actually happened at Mani’s dinner? According to those who attended the social event Gujarat election was not discussed at all. “None of those horrible, shameful things of betrayal or treason that PM claims, actually took place at that social event. That is the plain, honest truth”.

“Those of us who attended the dinner talked about a whole lot of things under the sun, including the India-Pakistan relationship”, said a senior, retired diplomat. The guests were by and large lamenting about time past in India’s troubled relations with Pakistan. They were most interested to listen to what Manmohan Singh would say, because he is a rare statesman who made a sincere effort to cut the Gordian knot of India-Pakistan tensions. But the former Prime Minister instead chose to listen. Kasuri himself mostly spoke about the book he wrote in a painstaking effort through four years on India-Pakistan relationship.”

India’s last High Commissioner to Pakistan Raghavan simply reveled in the lavish admiration he got from everyone present at the dinner for the book he authored, The People of Next Door: The Curious History of India-Pakistan Relations.

Says M K Bhadrakumar, a former ambassador, who attended the dinner meeting; “personally speaking I tried to inject some liveliness by casting one eye at time on future—how India-Pakistan relationship is being buffeted increasingly by geopolitics that crept into regional politics. But the conversation stuck to hackneyed themes—voyeuristic at times, and mostly anecdotal. By the way, Kasuri himself makes an outstanding raconteur for a diplomat. It was a perfect evening for someone who wants to write a book on why India-Pakistan relations remain frozen times”.

Bhadrakumar writes: All in all, therefore, it came as a shock to me that India’s Prime Minister raised such a hullabaloo over Aiyer’s dinner. What PM said had absolutely no relation to what transpired at the dinner, which ended early due to Kasuri’s haste to depart for the hotel. The only solid fact in the PM’s fanciful account was that dinner over drinks, endless strings of kebabs and great food lasting three hours. No secrets were traded, there was no trade off in India’s national interest: no one brought instructions from Pakistan; and, most certainly, no one uttered the word ‘Gujarat’ through an entire evening. (IPA Service)