BJP claims Nirav credit for ‘chowkidar’ .... The Opposition has been mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of being a 'chowkidar'

TT, New Delhi, 21 March 2019: The BJP on Wednesday tried to claim credit for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s arrest in London, linking it with the party’s “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign for the general election.

“Chowkidar se bachna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai (It’s not just difficult but impossible to escape the watchman),” law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, tweaking a line from the film Don.

The Opposition has been mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of being a “chowkidar” (watchman) by pointing to the escape from India of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Nirav and his uncle and fellow diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, all wanted for loan defaults.

The BJP feels Nirav’s arrest just ahead of the general election would help the party send out a message that the Modi government would spare none who had broken the law.

But in Varanasi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked: “Is this an achievement? Who let him escape in the first place?”

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah pointed out that it was a British daily that had tracked Nirav down eventually, not the Indian government.

The arrest came on a day the Prime Minister tried to turn his “Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign into a people’s movement by interacting with watchmen across the country.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told ANI: “They (the BJP) had only helped him flee the country, now they are bringing him back. They are bringing him back for the elections, they will send him back after the elections.”