'Shotgun' fires fresh salvo at Modi

Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha fired a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2, charging him with “wasting” money on hiring a “choreographed crowd” that chanted his name “before, during and after” speeches which lacked “content and depth”.

In a series of stinging tweets, Sinha, who quit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is seeking re-election on a Congress ticket, also accused Modi of “arrogance” and “EVM misuse” and advised him to “go for a real press conference” and take questions from journalists “who cannot be bought and can question you in the larger interest of the nation”.

“Sirji, I still remain your well-wisher despite your Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) misuse and in spite of all your arrogance. My humble suggestion for you at this eleventh hour would be to become straight and go straight. Don’t hire or go for paid channels. Instead go for a real and genuine Press Conference with people who cannot be bought, who can question you in the larger interest of the nation,” he said in a tweet.

“Your addresses right from London were conducted and choreographed, where you abused doctors and had your own conducted questions put by your own paid anchor, well known till recently,” he said in his final tweet of the day, referring to a question-answer session at Westminster compered by Bollywood lyricist Prasoon Joshi, said to be a BJP supporter, wherein Modi’s comment about Indian doctors visiting abroad on tours sponsored by pharma companies had evoked strong condemnation from the medical fraternity back home.