The Bharatiya Janata Party is askance that the Congress does not play to its script.

Smriti Irani is crestfallen that her celebrity candidature has been insulted by being given a nondescript adversary.

It’s another matter that ground reports from Amethi suggest she may find her Congress opponent, Kishori Lal Sharma, more than a handful, as droves of young people can be heard to say openly that they plan to rectify the ‘mistake’ their fellow-constituents made the last time around.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

Modi, whose public articulation gets more and more filmy, is asking Rahul Gandhi why he has run away from Amethi and advising him not to be afraid.

The ever-loyal godi media has been assigned the job of making Gandhi’s decision not to stand from Amethi the mainstay of its programming.

As we watch our anchors imploding, those of us who still retain free spaces in the mind are asking the following of Modi and his party:

And so on and on. Take a look back and forth, and you will find that Modi shows great alacrity of reach only where successes are to be counted, but always – not almost always – runs away from owning or confronting his failures.

How come Modi has still not shown the moral courage to apologise for having stood next to Prajwal Revanna to campaign for this merry man, given that a good samritan from his own party there had disclosed in writing to the BJP brass chapter and verse of Prajwal’s activities?

Why, unlike Rahul Gandhi, does Modi never rise to acknowledge his own errors and doubts?

Which leader seems more afraid of a critical audience or a tough question, Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi?

Speaking of fear, will even one media outlet that is fulminating over Rahul Gandhi’s so-called cop-out in Amethi agree to put some of these posers to Modi?

What might Modi, his party and his media say were Rahul Gandhi to win both Wayanad and Rae Bareli, and were Kishori Lal to do a Raj Narain in Amethi?

Be assured, these are likely things. Watch this space.

Badri Raina taught English at Delhi University.