Going gets tough for Narendra Modi

'BJP in Mask Modi' has a cocky Congress chuckling. Barely has the parliament session got underway that the Congress is hurling the "are you with Modi's party?" query at 'secular' rivals. The debate on price rise apart, it is clear that the main opposition will stay away from the saffron stands. Sushma Swaraj belied the party's fears in public when she told reporters that the arrest of Amit Shah on the eve of the monsoon session was a Congress strategy to divide the opposition. The Left's stand — that while the misuse of the CBI by the centre is a concern, the Sohrabuddin case was different — confirms the BJP's fears. With Modi at the forefront of the debate, anti-Congress outfits would be wary of being tainted by association.

Fake encounters are not new or unheard of in India. They're de rigueur in the rough and tumble of Indian crime and lawenforcement . What is new, however, is that no other encounter has carried the potential to impact politics like this one promises to, evident from the way both the Congress and BJP central leaderships have jumped into the fray.