Who cares about Modi’s marital status?

The Guardian said Mr Modi “told a biographer recently that he actually enjoys loneliness” and has said that because he has no children he is more likely to be a clean politician.

Is it fair to hold Mr Modi accountable for an event in which he was an unwilling participant? It was a marriage arranged for an underage couple between families. Mr Modi’s brother Damodar explained this quite clearly: “What happened 40-50 years ago should be seen in context with the circumstances of a poor and superstitious family.” And this week, Mr Modi’s defender Madhu Kishwar claimed that apparently the marriage wasn’t even consummated. Such openness is to be respected. Former BJP man Mohan Guruswamy said: “Everyone knew he was married but had abandoned the woman. His admission though will open him to scrutiny and (legal) challenge. Half of India will think the worst of him for it... and the other half won’t mind. He will deal with it.”

Personally I do not think there are many Indians who will see Mr Modi’s plight unsympathetically. The Congress was rude, with spokesman Rashid Alvi saying: “If he can’t take care of his wife, how can he take care of the country?”

The fact is that one reason that Mr Modi is riding high in the opinion polls is that many people accept his statement that he doesn’t have anyone to promote nepotism. Even his immediate family, his brothers and their relatives, have not benefited from Mr Modi’s ascent to power. When I was working for a Gujarati newspaper in Ahmedabad years ago, this story first came up. I had the reporters verify it and produce a photograph of the woman. I ran the story on the front page but the response from readers to this was quite tepid. They didn’t care about it at all.

I don’t think the response from people in the rest of India will be very different from the response of the Gujaratis.

It is a non-story and it should be buried. Aakar Patel is a writer

and columnist