Amit Shah flaunts Sri Lanka photo, courts fresh row

KOCHI: When you are in pit don’t dig. Somebody needed to impart this wisdom to BJP president Amit Shah as his attempt to rescue Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the negative fallout of the now infamous Somalia comments has landed him in further embarrassment.   

The cover page picture of Outlook weekly displayed by Mr Shah in Thiruvananthapuram to prove the pitiable status of the tribals in Kerala has no connection with the state itself. An online journal naradanews.com has reported that the picture carried by Outlook was not from Attappadi or Kerala, but it was culled out from a report by the US State Department to Congress named ‘Incidents during the Recent Conflicts in Sri Lanka’ in 2009.

The picture displayed in the cover of the Outlook was on page 64 of the 73-page report. Addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday Mr Shah had displayed the magazine to prove that Mr Modi was not comparing Kerala with Somalia, but was only highlighting the living conditions of the tribal communities in the state.

Mr Shah quoted a slew of media reports, especially of 2013 when several incidents of infant deaths were reported from Attappady, a tribal hamlet, to prove his point. But displaying a deceptive cover picture to prove his point may be his undoing.