But, his critics charge, all his talk of development and reform is simply the figleaf for a lifelong commitment to a divisive Hindu-nationalist agenda.
I think it was used as a veil for embarrassment, almost without a doubt, but I think it was more likely to have been incompetence rather than deliberate dissembling.
In fact, the city fathers had a garland of 28 gilded copper leaves made to protect David's modesty, and in later years he wore a fig leaf as in this photo from the 1860s shows.
If you keep using her as a cloak for your stupid stuff, you're going to keep doing stupid stuff because it gives you permission to do anything if you call on the nobility of taking care of special needs.