Weak monsoons and the invisible Narendra Modi

The monsoons are playing truant again and the people and government are worried. The met department had predicted a normal monsoon this year in April. The reality is that rains are deficient by as much as 35% in North West India. In an Alistair Maclean novel (it was Guns of Navarone, if I recollect correctly) the weathermen have been described as the "jokers". Wonder how the Indian met department could go so wrong? Or is it that climate prediction is still uncharted waters? We have a lot to learn in meteorology despite the supercomputers and what not.

During the ongoing hooch tragedy one thing struck me strongly. Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, had almost gone underground. A visit or two to the hospital would have taken the sting out of the Gujarat Congress' accusations of mishandling of matters. Why was Modi nowhere to be seen? Of course he did issue a statement saying this is not the time to politicise matters, but otherwise he is not to be seen or heard on the hooch affair. It shows Modi is not a people's leader. He should have been at the hospitasl, visited the families of the affected and said something like "we will crack down on this whole business". But no. The guy is all mum. May be he is not comfortable going and empathising with the affected people. Ominous. A leader without empathy is bad news for the country. Or may be his strategy is to lie low so that the whole matter blows over quickly. He did the same during the Patan gang rape. It does not show Narendra Modi in a good light.