Narendra Modi: India's saviour, or sectarian with blood on his

Ian Jack - The Guardian , Saturday 19 April 2014 Narendra Modi, leader of India's Bharatiya Janata Party. Photograph: Kevin Frayer

Save a single exception - Typically, an Academic - known to every person of Indian descent ME Within a radi s of half-Mile Wants My ho se !arendra Modi to "e the !ext #rime minister of $ Admittedly, this is not a large sample% IT consists of a few shopkeepers who sell groceries and newspapers in my small part of north &ondon$ !or is it a very "alanced sample% like many small shopkeepers in 'ritain, they have their origins in the state of ( )arat and they are all, I think, *ind "y tradition if not o"servance$ In other words, they share Modi+s lang age, c stoms and religio s identity and, like him, "elieve that entreprene rship and hard work will deliver a "etter f t re$ ,o might well ask, -If people s ch as these won+t s pport Modi, who will.- ' t the striking thing is their certainty and enth siasm$ !ot only are they convinced that Modi will win, they also "elieve his victory will re-energise the Indian economy, root o t the corr ption of politicians and p "lic officials and clarify the co ntry+s p rpose$ I can+t remem"er another politician inspiring s ch "elief among the Indian diaspora/ perhaps Mrs (andhi did d ring India+s tri mph in the 'angladesh war, " t it was never repeated - not "y her or her son, 0a)iv, and certainly not "y 0a)iv+s son, 0ah l$ 0ah l is the latest and perhaps last hope of a !ehr 1 (andhi dynasty that has prod ced three prime ministers/ very few people expect him to "e the fo rth$ *is leadership of the 2ongress party+s campaign has "een rel ctant and inept and, if recent polls are to "e "elieved, the n m"er of 2ongress M#s will have shr nk to a record low when the final votes in India+s general election are co nted next month$

A comparison of the likely loser and winner in the election sho ld gladden the heart of anyone who "elieves in pward social mo"ility$ 0ah l+s ancestry is a mixt re of 3ashmiri 'rahmin, #arsi and Italian/ his family has provided India with political leaders since the 4567s/ he went to elite niversities - *arvard, 2am"ridge/ his mother, Sonia, p lls the strings in the party that appointed him to its hierarchy$ Modi, "y contrast, comes from a low-caste family in a small ( )arati town and left school to help his father r n a tea stall at the local railway station, where he wo ld greet every stopping train with a kettlef l of tea, mixed in the Indian way, and call o t -chai, chai, chai- as he ran along the platform to ting c stom$ *is command of English is poor 8tho gh improving9, which means the power of his rhetoric is largely lost to a world a dience "eyond those who speak *indi$ *e so nds fl ent and forcef l - m ch more so than 0ah l, who, at :;, is 67 years yo nger$ In a co ntry divided "y "oth class and caste, his is a remarka"le story% the chaiwallah who rose to "ecome his state+s chief minister and event ally 8if the predictions come tr e9 the leader of a fifth of the world+s pop lation$ !onetheless, the egalitarian heart isn+t gladdened$ Modi, in the words of his not nsympathetic "iographer, !ilan)an M khopadhyay, is pro"a"ly India+s -most reviled political leader- - not widely reviled, otherwise he+d "e dished "y the voters, " t deeply so among a partic lar class$ <f co rse, religio s minorities, s ch as India+s 4=7 million M slims, might reasona"ly fear him as a *ind nationalist, " t the lo dest rev lsion comes mainly from elsewhere, from the Anglophone intelligentsia who think the politics of religio s identity will wreck India+s fragile harmony as an avowedly sec lar state$ Most of my friends in India come from this class, and who am I, as an o tsider, to do "t that their apprehension is well gro nded. !ot many o tsiders to 'ritain, after all, ever > ite nderstood why Mrs Thatcher was so loathed "y a minority$ 8-What+s yo r pro"lem. She+s t rned yo r co ntry aro nd, hasn+t she.-9 ' t the charge against Modi inspires a m ch deeper distr st and leads, for example, to his opponents comparing him to *itler in his mission of national salvation$ *e is a gen inely polarising fig re% the g lf "etween his s pporters and critics seems n"ridgea"le$ Even at "ook festivals, those generally her"ivoro s events, there have "een "itter rows on and off the platform that eclipse even the arg ments of the miners+ strike$ The central > estion is what Modi as chief minister of ( )arat did or didn+t do in the anti-M slim violence that er pted in his state in ?e"r ary 6776, after a train carrying *ind pilgrims was set a"la@e "y nknown arsonists and aro nd A7 passengers died$ * ndreds of M slims were killed in the riots that followed - estimates range "etween 577 and 6,777 - and the acc sations grew that Modi+s government hadn+t tried hard eno gh to restrain the rioters/ it might even have enco raged them$ An investigation "y India+s s preme co rt cleared him of deli"erately permitting the violence, tho gh an o"servation in co rt "y one of its ) dges - that when women and children were going p in flames, Modi looked away like a modern-day !ero - has cl ng to him ever since$ *e has steadfastly ref sed to disc ss his role in the riots or express regret, and directs any > estioner to the findings in the s preme co rt+s report$

!o compelling evidence has "een fo nd to contradict these findings, " t with Modi+s promotion from a provincial to a national fig re, the > estion has never died away$ A recent tactic "y his s pporters has "een to s ggest that he+s "eing nfairly picked on$ 2omm nal riots are not ni> e to ( )arat, " t the chief ministers of other states have not "een "lamed when pogroms have er pted on their watch$ Most famo sly the the - not a 2hief minister " t a #rime minister - there is the case of 0a)iv (andhi $ After his mother, Indira, was assassinated "y her Sikh g ards in 45=:, mo"s roamed Belhi m rdering Sikhs in revenge$ 'y way of explanation and exc se, 0a)iv said% -When a mighty tree falls, it+s only nat ral that the earth aro nd it shakes a little$As a reporter there at the time, I can attest to some of the shaking that went on$ In a working-class Belhi s " r" called Trilokp ri, for example, a 4,777-strong mo" went on h nting Sikhs for ;7 ho rs, "eating them to the gro nd when they fo nd them and then do sing them with petrol and setting them alight$ A"o t ;C7 Sikhs died there in the two days following Mrs (andhi+s death$ The police didn+t intervene$ When I went soon afterwards, the scorch marks were visi"le on the gro nd and witnesses spoke of how 2ongress activists, incl ding two or three M#s, had gathered the mo" and provoked it "y making fiery speeches and handing o t "oo@e$ *ow m ch did 0a)iv know of this, had he sanctioned it, and did he choose not to en> ire. The > estion of the 2ongress party+s implication in the killings was p rs ed half-heartedly for a time and then forgotten$ Thirty years have passed$0a)iv is dead$ !o"ody has gone to )ail$ #erhaps the same o"livion will one day extend to Modi and the ( )arat riots of 6776$ #rime ministers have to "e worked with, their power acknowledged$ The D3 lifted its 47-year "oycott of him in 6746, followed "y the ED a year later$ The DSA, which has denied Modi a visa since 677C, implied last month that it wo ld welcome him to America -as it has every democratically elected leader of India-$ 'y "ehaving inconveniently, the Indian electorate is forcing Modi+s critics at home and a"road to take stock and read) st$