Was the price of a pinstripe suit the reason behind the downfall of the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the Delhi elections? It was one of the questions brought up in the British daily The Telegraph.
"Just as he seemed unassailable and heading to yet another state election victory in Delhi, the emperor donned new clothes which cast him in an entirely different and unflattering light..." the report said.
"His choice of a (Rs 10 lakh) dark Bandhgala Nehru jacket pinstriped with gold lines of his own full name suddenly traded his carefully-crafted image of a selfless leader who had sacrificed his personal life for India's betterment to a self-aggrandising and insecure megalomaniac who needs the reassurance of his own name woven into his fabric," it added, reports The Economic Times.
And the British daily was not the only one to express its astonishment at BJP's debacle in the recently-concluded polls held in the national capital.
"Fresh from the diplomatic high of a successful summit meeting with President Obama, Prime Minister Modi has been brought down to earth by domestic politics," an article in the New York Times said.
"The election won't affect Modi's hold on the prime minister's office and the federal government. But it will increase the enormous pressure to deliver on his economic policies and governance," it added.
According to The Guardian's south Asia correspondent Jason Burke, "India's political elite has been left reeling after a radical anti-corruption, anti-establishment party led by a self-confessed anarchist swept to power in the capital of the world's biggest democracy..."
"In recent months, a series of incidents involving hardline rightwing groups that are part of the same broad political and cultural family as the BJP have raised concerns," he wrote, adding, "Some analysts said the defeat in Delhi indicated a need for the party to reach beyond its core Hindu nationalist constituency. Others called the defeat a huge personal blow for Modi."
The media houses in Pakistan were not to be left behind. The Dawn wrote, "AAP has returned with a bang. One that could in fact become 'the big bang' of the 21st century politics of India... AAP has decimated Congress, the old guard that dominated the politics of this vast country... For the entire past century, and in the same blow... Brought down the rightist BJP from the high horse of the 'Modi wave'."
