India’s Modi duels with his predecessor amid local election

NEW DELHI – India is witnessing the unusual spectacle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi locked in a bitter verbal duel with his predecessor and accusing the opposition of holding secret meetings with officials from archrival Pakistan to impact local elections.

Modi, who swept to power in 2014 national polls, threw the first punch over the weekend when he alluded to “secret meetings” at a dinner at a senior Congress party leader’s home to allege that Pakistan was somehow meddling in the ongoing elections in his home state of Gujarat.

The unsubstantiated claims prompted a sharply worded response from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a guest at the dinner party and a man known more for awkward silence than angry words.