Post date: Jul 12, 2013 12:25:34 PM
Narendra Modi is the most polarising politician in India, evoking visceral reactions across the political spectrum. Critics call him an extremist and a dictator, while supporters believe that Modi could lift India's economy out of the doldrums and make India an Asian superpower.
AHMEDABAD, GUJARAT, INDIA (ANI) - Narendra Modi is the most polarising politician in India, evoking visceral reactions across the political spectrum. Critics call him an extremist and a dictator, while supporters believe that Modi could lift India's economy out of the doldrums and make India an Asian superpower.
There is almost a paradox in the way Modi is envisaged in circles both within and outside India. For nearly a decade there was an unofficial EU boycott of the 62-year-old politician, who had just won his third straight term as chief minister of the state of Gujarat.The boycott stemmed from 2002 riots in Gujarat in which Hindu mobs killed at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. Human rights groups and political rivals have long alleged that Modi, a Hindu and a dominant force in the Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allowed or even actively encouraged the attacks.Modi has always vehemently denied the charge and a Supreme Court inquiry could find no evidence to prosecute him.
In the decade since, Modi has remade himself as a business-savvy, investor-friendly administrator, a charismatic leader who has presided over a booming economy and lured major foreign and Indian companies to invest in his sprawling coastal state, famed for its spirit of entrepreneurship and as the birthplace ofMahatma Gandhi.
As Modi has grown in political importance - he is now the head of the main opposition BJP's campaign to win back power in a general election due by next May, and widely expected to become their prime ministerial candidate -- foreign envoys have begun to cautiously woo him. At the same time, many worry that a public appearance with him may serve as a kind of endorsement.
Modi's ability to remake himself is central to understanding the man, even if he rejects any suggestion he has changed his image. Sitting in his sparsely decorated office in a heavily guarded compound in the Gujarati capital Gandhinagar, he puts his hand on his chest to emphasize the point he is about to make:
"I'm nationalist. I'm patriotic. Nothing is wrong. I'm a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So, I'm a Hindu nationalist so yes, you can say I'm a Hindu nationalist because I am a born Hindu, I'm patriotic, so nothing is wrong in it. As far as progressive, development oriented, workaholic, whatever they say, this is what they see. So there's no contradiction between the two," he said during a rare interview in late June.
The interview with Modi along with interviews with advisers and aides paint a picture of a workaholic loner who has few friends and relies on a very small circle of colleagues and loyal officials.
At times in his interview, conducted mostly in Hindi, Modi appeared tense, though not defensive. He chose his words carefully, especially when talking about his role in the 2002 riots.
He dismissed concerns about his style of management.
"People have a right to be critical. We are a democratic country. Everyone has their own view. I would feel guilty if I did something wrong. Frustration comes when you think "I got caught. I was stealing and I got caught." That's not (what happened in) my case," he said.
The son of a tea-stall owner, Modi's journey into politics started young. As a teenager he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a voluntary right-wing group that serves as the ideological incubator for "Hindutva", a hardline brand of Hindu nationalism, and the philosophical parent of the BJP. Early on he was a "pracharak" or propagandist, living a monkish life and evangelising from village to village to win new recruits. That experience taught him "your life should be disciplined," he said, and that "what work you get, do it well."
Modi joined the BJP in 1987. With a reputation as an efficient organizer, he rose through the ranks, although his self-promotion and naked ambition earned him enemies along the way, according to various biographies.
On February. 27, 2002, a fire aboard a train in the eastern Gujarat district of Godhrakilled 59 Hindu pilgrims. While there are still questions today over how the fire started, residents blamed the blaze on local Muslims, which triggered a wave of violence in which Hindu mobs attacked predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods.India is a Hindu-majority nation, with Muslims making up about 13 percent of the population or 138 million people, according to the 2001 census, the latest available data on India's religious makeup.
The Indian government later put the death toll at more than 1,000; human rights activists estimate double that number or more died. Activists and relatives of the riot victims accused Modi and his government of giving Hindu rioters a free hand. New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a 2002 report "We Have No Orders to Save You" that at best police had been "passive observers, and at worse they acted in concert with murderous mobs".
In 2011, a Gujarati court convicted 31 Muslims for the initial attack on the train. Gynaecologist Maya Kodnani, who became Modi's women and child development minister in 2007, was sentenced to 28 years last August for handing out swords to rioters and exhorting them to attack Muslims.
Modi has always rebuffed demands for an apology. He insists that he did all that he could to stop the violence.
A special investigation team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Modi and others in the violence said in a 541-page report in 2012 it could find no evidence to prosecute the chief minister.
Most importantly, it cleared him of the most damaging allegation: that he had told senior officials to allow Hindu mobs to vent their anger on Muslims.
Asked if he regretted the violence, Modi compared his feelings to the occupant of a car involved in an accident.
"If someone else is driving a car and we're sitting behind, and if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is. If I'm a chief minister or not, I'm a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad,"Modi added.
At a recent lunch with EU diplomats Modi was pointedly asked for reassurance that the bloodshed of 2002 would not be repeated. For years after the riots, EU ambassadors in New Delhi had largely kept their distance from Modi, although the EU never formally took a decision to ostracize him.
His reply on a repeat of the riots: there has been no communal violence in Gujaratsince 2002, unlike in other parts of India.
In the aftermath of the riots, Modi went to work on improving his reputation.
Modi has built a reputation as an incorruptible and efficient technocrat who has electrified Gujarat's 18,000 villages - the state is the only one in India with a near 24/7 power supply - and slashed red tape to attract companies like Ford, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors.
During Modi's 10 years as chief minister, Gujarat has grown an average of 10 percent a year. The state ranked fifth out of 15 major states in 2010/2011 in terms of per capita income. Modi boasts that Gujarat is the "engine of India's economic growth".
Opponents and some economists point out that Gujarat has a long tradition of entrepreneurship and that the state was doing well economically even before Moditook charge.
Other states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu andDelhi , attracted more foreign investment than Gujarat between 2009 and 2012, according to India's central bank.
But they don't have Modi and his sales pitch. Economic success is important, he seems to realise. But so is telling that story again and again. As chief minister, he has embraced modern technology in a way no other Indian leader has.
He is active on Facebook and YouTube and has 1.8 million followers on Twitter, though aides say that number will have to grow substantially for it to have any impact in an election. During his re-election campaign last December, Modi used 3-D projection technology to appear simultaneously at 53 events -- a Guinness world record.
He appears impeccably dressed, either in suits or stylish tailor-made kurtas, a knee-length Indian shirt, rimless glasses and a neatly trimmed white beard.
Modi says he rises at about 5 a.m. every day to do yoga and to meditate. He says he reads the news for 15 minutes via his Twitter feed on his iPad. He has not taken a holiday in 12 years, he said, while walking Reuters around the garden outside his office.
According to his biographers, Modi lives alone and has little contact with his mother, four brothers or sister. Unlike most Indian politicians, the retinue of bureaucrats around him is small.
One key to the way he has transformed his image is "Vibrant Gujarat", a project he launched in 2003. The biennial event is aimed at attracting investment to his state.
But it is also, say some of those involved in the project, a propaganda exercise aimed at erasing the black stain of the 2002 riots and marketing Gujarat, and therefore Modi, to the rest of India and the world.
The event started small but is now marketed as a kind of mini-Davos with Japanand Canada as partner countries. At the 2013 summit, 121 countries attended, according to the Gujarat government.
In one memorable moment, Modi, India's richest businessmen and diplomats fromJapan, Canada and Britain, among others, raised hands together as a packed auditorium cheered. It was a powerful image, signaling Modi's acceptance by major foreign powers and business leaders. Anil Ambani, head of India's third-largest telecommunications company called him a "lord of men".
Gujarat's government has invested heavily in roads, ports, agriculture and power, creating visible signs of progress in stark contrast to other parts of India. Projects that can take months or even years to be cleared in other parts of India can be approved in days and weeks in Gujarat.
But as Modi moves closer to becoming his party's presumptive candidate for prime minister, his model of economic development is coming under greater scrutiny by both opponents and the Indian media.
The biggest criticism is that he is too pro-business and that the poor and minority communities, especially Muslims, have been left behind.
"It is a nightmare for the whole peace loving people, if a man like Modi is aspiring and his party is pushing him for the top job," said Shakeel Ahmad, chairman of theIslamic Relief Committee in Gujarat, sitting in his office in one of the poorer parts ofAhmedabad, Gujarat's largest city.
India's Planning Commission, which sets five-year economic plans for the country, has expressed concern about Gujarat's performance on a number of social indicators, such as malnutrition, maternal mortality, access to health, education for girls and minorities, and water, and says the state should be doing a better job on these issues given the size of its economy.
Modi says he is tackling these issues. He has proposed spending 42 percent of his 2013/2014 state budget on education, nutrition, healthcare and other social welfare programs - the Planning Commission has said it would like him to spend more - but complains that efforts to redress the imbalances are hampered by a lack of reliable data.
But many people, especially Muslims of Gujarat, contradict his claims of a fair and equitable administration.
"The stamp of Mr. Modi is that wherever he goes, he avoids Muslims, either it is a harmony fast, where members of all religions are invited or any place else, he won't give preference to Muslims. Yes, there are some exceptions like those in his party, the BJP, he accepts them, but I say this, there is no progress for the Muslim community here," said Nazir Pathan, a local muslim.
Modi will now take his mantra of good governance and economic development on the road as he criss-crosses the country to try to convince voters to return his party to power for the first time in 10 years. But his path to the prime minister's red sandstone office in the old British imperial district of Delhi is littered with obstacles.
Ask the Gujarat strongman about his ambitions of leading the Indian government, he says: "My life's philosophy is and what I follow is: I never dream of becoming anything. I dream of doing something."
Modi's image has also been helped by the missteps of the ruling Congress party.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has struggled through a series of corruption scandals. Economic growth is at a decade low.
Political analyst R. Rajagopal said: "Bureaucracy wants him, diplomats want him, industries want him, FICCI, Associate Chamber of Commerce and CII, they all want him because deliverance. The other aspect, what I would see in Narendra Modi is the central government is not functional, dysfunctional, atleast one chief minister is delivering goods that is why the entire country, the bureaucracy they go in for Narendra Modi."
Pollsters expect a closely fought election between the BJP and the Congress party and the emergence of regional parties as king-makers.
If the BJP musters enough votes it may struggle to find willing partners to form a coalition government with such a divisive figure at its head. But Indian elections are known to throw up surprises, and Modi has already galvanized the election race.