Narendra Modi: A Profile

Narendra Modi, the 57-year-old chief minister of Gujarat, grew up in the small town of Vadnagar in a middle-class Hindu family. He received a Master's in political science from Gujarat University. As a member of the Hindu supremacist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he was a student activist of the RSS’s political wing, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the late eighties Modi, who worked as a RSS propagandist, was made the General Secretary of the Gujarat chapter of the BJP. His proximity to the RSS bosses, his organization skills and his dedication to Hindu supremacist ideology led to his meteoric rise to power. He took over as the chief minister of Gujarat in October 2001. His personal website describes him as “ a powerful orator, an avid reader and an original thinker.” Many more paragraphs describe the economic achievements of Gujarat and growth in foreign investment in the state under his leadership. The slogan, “Vibrant Gujarat” runs across the homepage along with eleven photographs of Modi in different outfits.

What is missing from his website is any mention of the February 2002 riots. Modi did nothing to stop the militant Hindu mobs from burning Muslim houses and businesses or murdering the Muslim citizens of Gujarat. Police officers repeatedly told Muslims seeking protection from mobs that they had no orders to help them, and simply watched the carnage. Many secular activists in India and Human Rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Modi’s complicity in the violence. After the riots, his party workers continued with a campaign to threaten Muslims with further attacks if they testified before federal investigating agencies. A BJP legislator close to Modi offered 250,000 Indian rupees to Zaheera Sheikh, a Muslim woman who was an eyewitness to mass murder in Gujarat. Around six months after the riots, which killed more than 1,000 Gujarati Muslims and turned thousands homeless, Gujarat had elections for the state legislature. Modi lead an aggressive and brazen anti-Muslim campaign, equating every Muslim with terrorism. Modi and the BJP were re-elected, with the greatest gains in the areas worst affected in the riots. Modi’s website mentions his re-election as “his administrative acumen, clear vision, and integrity brought him a landslide victory in the general elections held in December 2002 and he was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the second term.”

Barely any perpetrators of the 2002 violence have been prosecuted. Muslims continue to live fear in Gujarat, reduced to bare lives, with no protection and no de-facto rights of citizenship. Yet Modi continues to enjoy immense support from the Hindu right in India and the right-wing sections of the Indian diaspora in the United States. After the State department denied him a visa to the States in 2002, the Hindu right-wing group which had invited to speak at the Madison Square Garden telecast his speech through satellite and around 4,000 people turned up to listen to him. On narendramodi.org, half of the blurbs under “Public Opinion” are from US-based Gujaratis. Two such posts read:

Pujya Naredrabhai,

It's not enough in words to express the respect we have for you & how proud we feel when we hear about the growth, prosperity & development in Gujarat. It is the fortune of the state to have you as our Chief Minister & we have lot more hopes from you. May God Bless you & help you for fulfil your vision & reforms. Jai Hind

Devang Brahmbhatt, Edison, NJ 08817

respected sir,

i listening your speech in mumbai .i really u deserve a chief of gujarat...sir you are great person....i lived in usa but i have lots respect for you sir....good luck to my gujarat.

raju, milwukee

Posted by Lizzie 6:06 PM

Labels: Basharat, Modi, profile

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