Gujarat not enamoured by poet Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: His acerbic prose on 'Miyan Musharraf ' and 'Italy ki beti' moved the masses across Gujarat and made him their 'hriday samrat' (king of hearts).

But, while Narendra Modi the politician had Gujarat under his spell with his captivating oratory, Modi the poet has remained within sheaves of paper in books that have long gone out of print.

But, the Gujarat CM would rather choose the muse, or so claims his official website — focussing on his literary creativity than his political prowess. The section 'Narendra Modi as a poet-writer' gets a better display than 'Narendra Modi as leader' on the site.

"Narendrabhai Modi often takes time off from the hurly-burly of politics to indulge in his muse — he is an accomplished writer of Gujarati prose and poetry and has several published volumes to his credit. Besides his political and social skills, Shri Narendrabhai Modi is very much liked as a poet and a writer," claims the website.

Even the Gujarat government's official website claims — "His sensitivity to people's needs and the humanitarian in him are portrayed in his writings that vary from poems to essays covering a wide spectrum of socio-cultural issues. His literary passion is best demonstrated by his book 'Sangharsha ma Gujarat.'

The book has been widely read and appreciated." But, there seems to be few takers of the Modi brand of poetry or prose in Gujarat. While poems penned by him are yet to be compiled as an anthology, his prose in Gujarati — 'Sangharsh ma Gujarat', 'Patra swarup Shri Guruji' and 'Setu Bandh' — were published by Sadhana Prakashan.

'Sangharsh ma...', a documentation of events during the Emergency, was reprinted by Image Publication, a well-known publishing house. However, it is out of print at present. "We had reprinted the book to mark the silver jubilee of the event," says Mahesh Dave of Image.

"The print order for 'Sanghrash ma ...' and the other books was not very high. There was not much demand for the book and so never got reprinted," says Vishnu Pandya, who was the editor of RSS' magazine 'Sadhana' when the books were published.

Pandya believes Modi would have done a better job had he chosen the literary field. "But he chose to take the other path," says Pandya, who sources indicate, even helped Modi finish writing the books.

An inquiry at prominent book stores in the city reveal that very few are interested in Modi's works.

"We had 'Sangharsh ma...' on the racks but it did not sell much. At present, we do not have any of the three books written by Modi", says Himanshu Shah, in-charge of the book section at Crossword.

Shah believes that books written by politicians, including former Prime Minister Vajpayee, invariably fail to do good business.

"Vajpayee's works are quality literature, but they do not sell," he says. The sale has been lukewarm even in other stores like Bookshelf.

Litterateurs in Gujarat believe that most of Modi's works are mediocre. "He has a long way to go. Though it's a good attempt, they are not quality literature," says well-known Gujarati author, who did not want to be named.