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Modi in PM’s race

Kashmir Times. Dated: 7/28/2013 10:00:55 PM

Dear Editor,
It now seems clear why Narendra Modi has been the preferred choice of the RSS and the BJP for the prime ministerial race in 2014. Modi has already pandered to the interests of the business class lobby with his development mantra but that does not wash off his stains of Gujarat 2002 and his recent statements add more to the informed opinion that there is no bid to do so either. At one level, the party would woo in business lobby and the burgeoning middle class enamoured by Modi’s development facet, on the other it is trying to revive its Hindutva base. Modi’s analogy of a puppy being crushed under the wheels of a car with killing of thousands of people in Gujarat riots may have evoked fear of polarisation in minds of regional players like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Janata Dal United who have joined the fight against Modi. And it may also have helped UPA to take advantage of the situation. So did his remarks like Congress adopting a cover of secularism like a ‘Burqa’. The calculations of RSS and Modi are very clear. The attempt to soft pedal Hindutva has failed and they are ready to flaunt their Hindu credentials in the hope that it would bring the majority community back into their camp in large numbers. That is what explains Modi’s recent pre-meditated statements including the one that, “I am a Hindu nationalist”. The saffron brigade hopes that on the issues like Ayodhya temple, Common Civil code and abolition of Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir they would be able to revive their fortunes in crucial state of U.P and improve their position in Hindi heartland in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It remains to be seen how gullible the Indian voters can be and how deep are the communal fissures in the Indian body politic.
—Mudassir-ul-Haq, Residency Road, Jammu.