A change of plan

The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership as well as those in the Prime Minister's Office had briefly mulled over a plan to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Melbourne if India reached the final of the cricket World Cup. There was also a view that the PM should even attend the semi-final match between Australia and India in Sydney on March 25. Those who mooted the plan pointed out that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was present at the final of the football World Cup in Brazil in 2014 to cheer her team. Germany had won that match. But all those plans now stand changed, as Modi will attend the funeral of Singapore's first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, on March 29.