A man for all seasons

Narendra Modi is the man of the moment in Indian politics. Forever in the headlines with his earthy humour and home spun quips, the forthcoming Gujarat Assembly elections have taken Modimania to a new hysterical level.

A sneeze here, a veiled attack there, a breezy reference to the Gandhi family, all are cannon fodder for a media driven by the Gujarat chief minister, making him easily the most watched politician in the country today.

Narendra ‘bhai’ as he is known to Gujaratis, is no West-educated yuppie in the mold of several Congress wannabes. With a somewhat modest education, he joined the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) in his teens and has continued with the parent organisation since.

As chief minister of Gujarat for more than a decade, this enfant terrible of Indian politics has spent a decade or nearly three terms in office. It may seem like a long period but by no stretch of imagination can it be described as a cake walk.

Modi's legion of powerful critics are a force to reckon with. He has been accused of being a 'mass murderer' by those who see in him a combination of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. He has been charged with sitting through, or worse, being involved in the Godhra riots of 2002, the prelude to an orgy of communal rioting in Gujarat which continues to reverberate even today. Since then, an entire human rights industry has spawned around Modi, backed by unrelenting judicial activism.

The riot focus on this former RSS pracharak has dissolved, just a bit, after the Supreme Court-appointed SIT recently gave Modi a clean chit in the post-Godhra Gulberg massacre case and sought its closure as it found no evidence against him. Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 69 killed in Gulberg in the 2002 massacre.

The Congress too has shifted its criticism to his politics of development, struggling to find attractive ways to strike at his formidable base. At 62, with over a million followers on Twitter, Modi is slowly overcoming his pariah status. The United Kingdom recently sent its High Commissioner to meet him in Ahmedabad and no less than the Americans – avid watchers of the Indian scene as they are – privately believe that he could be India's next prime minister in 2014.

Ahmedabad itself is a riot of colours. There is virtually no road, lane or market which does not have his smiling, bearded visage, looking out from giant hoardings, as if trying to connect with the people. The story is much the same in rest of the state. Despite some naysayers – and there are a few – the Gujarat state Assembly elections are virtually Modi vs the rest.

The day of the interview turned out to be auspicious for the Hindu strongman. The BJP manifesto on Gujarat was released and politically he was breathing easier with unexpected party support from the likes of veteran Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj. The constant power struggle in the BJP has ensured that Modi keep his cards close to his chest. He is, as yet, to bet big on Delhi because Gujarat is in the way.

adityaraj@thesundayindian.com