External Affairs S. Jaishankar on Tuesday said the timings of the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and remarks by controversial Hungarian-American entrepreneur George Soros are not “accidental” but politics at play.

In a free-wheeling interview with news agency ANI, the minister said there is a sudden surge in reports and views such as those by BBC and George Soros showing India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bad light.

The main points:

*Don’t know if election season has started in India, but for sure it has started in London and New York. This is politics at play by those who don’t have the courage to come into the political field.

*Why is suddenly a surge of reports and attention? Were some of these things not happening earlier? You want to make a documentary. Many things happened in Delhi in 1984. Why did we not see a documentary on that?” he asked.

*There will be narratives designed to damage India

*They want to have a Teflon cover saying that I am an NGO, media organisation etc. but they are playing politics.

*The EAM said that the people’s verdict will quell all misconceptions. In a democracy the people’s verdict is the final opinion

*There are certain people who believe that their view supersedes elections. Look, I like you, you win the election-great democracy. I don’t like you winning an election. What are you — ‘electoral autocracy’. That’s reserved for people whom you don’t like to win elections. This is politics.