Modi, tweet and German Shepherd

There is a lot of controversy brewing over the tweet which supposedly quoted the prime minister of India having said that "My love for Germany goes decades back. When I was a small boy in Gujarat, my only friend was a German Shepherd." While we know the tweet was fake, we should really go into the antecedents of the purported "friend" in question. Does this "friend" deserve to be the prime minister’s friend? Since every dog must have its day, let today be the day of the German Shepherd.

Firstly, because of the tweeting controversy, there may be conspiracy theories doing the rounds that if ANI had not tweeted then it must have been the paw work of a disgruntled German Shepherd. This misconception needs to be nipped in the bud. While birds and politicians are known to tweet, there is no proof that a German Shepherd can do so. They have been known to woof! But never before today was a German Shepherd mistaken for a tweeting dog and for that I did a quick background check on German Shepherds. The canine breed was born in 1899 long before Modi’s youth and since it originated in Germany – it was named the German Shepherd. The full official name is German Shepherd Dog or GSD.

The German Shepherd owes its existence to Captain Max von Stephanitz, of Germany. In 1898, when von Stephanitz retired from the military, he started experimenting with dog breeding. In 1899, von Stephanitz met a wolfish-looking dog at a dog show. He bought the dog and found out that it was called Hektor Linksrhein, he didn’t like the name so he changed it to Horand v Grafeth. This was a name he thought was bombastic enough to justify its character. Captain von Stephanitz then formed a society — the Verein fur deutsche Schaferhunde — to found a breed out of Horand's descendents. The good Captain also decided that the dog's future lay in police work and military service.

Soon the German government began to employ the descendents of Horand v Grafeth in military service. During World War I these dogs served as a Red Cross dog, messenger, rescuer, guard, supply carrier, and sentry. (A definitive proof that a German Shepherd did not tweet the "offensive" tweet – as we all know if you are in the army you can’t tweet and only those who have retired are allowed to do so - ask Gen VK Singh.)

In time a descendent of Horand V Grafeth also became a Hollywood star: Rin Tin Tin, appeared in 26 movies making the German Shepherd popular across the world.

But because of World War I and Germany being the enemy, there was a problem with using the name German – so the American Kennel Club changed the breed's name to the Shepherd Dog and in England the dog was known as the Alsatian Wolf Dog, after the German-French border area of Alsace-Lorraine.

It took the British Kennel Club till 1977 to relent and forgive Germany to change the name from Alsatian back to German Shepherd Dog.

If a young Narendra Modi did have a German Shepherd in his youth, he probably knew it as an Alsatian but he must surely have been impressed by its character. There is a lot that humans and aspiring politicians can learn from such a beast. A well known dog site on the net says: "The character of the German Shepherd Dog is one of self-confidence and nobility. Although a mature German Shepherd will not wear his heart on his sleeve, he should be approachable and outgoing. Strangers may be regarded with some suspicion, but the dog should be neither overly sharp and aggressive nor cringe with fear."

So, let us for a moment suppose, that Narendra Modi’s best friend was a German Shepherd and then that may have been where he picked up the character traits of this famous canine breed.

• Modi is self confident and noble in bearing.

• Modi does not wear his heart on his sleeve. Monogrammed suits, yes, but no heart-on-sleeve business.

• Modi is outgoing. Currently on a tour of three countries with many more lined up for the months ahead.

• Modi regards strangers with suspicion.

• Modi does not cringe in fear.

There was always the saying that a dog is man’s best friend, but that was in the past. Today’s tweeterati swear by the new idiom - that a German Shepherd is a politician’s best friend... after all there is so much to learn from a good dog.