Narendra Modi: The horns of a dilemma?

He's clearly got himself in a fix. And no one but he alone can salvage his tattered image. Just how did a canteen manager become a man who had the power to decide the destiny of a state? Kingshuk Nag documents the life of Narendra Modi:

Even without becoming the Prime Minister, the backward community boy from a village near Visnagar in north Gujarat has come a long way in life. Narendra Modi came to Ahmedabad as a teenager to live with his brother, in the mid-60s.

The brother ran a canteen at the office of the state transport corporation and soon Modi was managing the front office of the joint. Some stories say that he ran away from his village after he was forced to get married.

It's difficult to say whether the story is true or not, but there's certainly a lady in his village who calls herself Mrs Modi. Also, she says that it's her fervent hope that her `husband' will, one day, become the Prime Minister.

An RSS worker called Ambalal Khosthi used to frequent the Modi joint. Khosthi befriended Narendra Modi and invited him to join the organisation. Thus, began a long journey.

The chela may be a prime ministerial aspirant today, but the guru still cycles to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) offices every morning. Khosthi is part of the party's publicity cell.

Modi shot into prominence in the late '80s when the BJP, for the first time, captured the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. For the next few years, Modi, who was an RSS pracharak by then, was given the responsibility of building up the party in Gujarat.

This Modi did, using his networking abilities to the hilt. But success, unfortunately, brought in a degree of arrogance in Modi's style.

The result: a revolt in the party in Gujarat. Modi was then banished to Delhi.

Modi was always a pracharak with a difference. Though a bhakt of Ambe-mata, who even now keeps a nine-day fast during Navaratri, subsisting on only milk and fruit, he has surely been fond of the good things in life.

"He likes good clothes and items of personal grooming. But his food habits are very simple," says friend Girish Dani. Time and again, Modi's name has been linked with women, but correctly or not, one does not know.

The years in Delhi brought a sea of difference in Modi. The man, who occupied the hotseat in Gandhinagar on October 7, was well-heeled, with a lot of well-wishers from the Capital.

Narendra Modi to arrive on Saturday

PANAJI: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Goa on Saturday.

Modi, who has been appointed as the in-charge of Goa for the Lok Sabha elections, will address a meeting of BJP office bearers, MLAs and election committee members on Sunday morning. He will then address the 'Booth Karyakarta Sammelan' in Margao. In the evening, Modi will meet the BJP workers of North Goa at a meeting to be held opposite the Bodgeshwar temple in Mapusa.

"The BJP cadre is very happy and charged for the forthcoming Loksabha elections with Modi's visit to Goa," said BJP state general secretary and spokesperson Govind Parvatkar.

Modi is also in-charge of Maharashtra and Gujarat for the Lok Sabha elections.

Narendra Modi, future PM

Too many journalists have proved guilty of projecting wishful thinking as analysis. Despite widespread media criticism, Narendra Modi won a landslide victory in Gujarat. Many journalists are now trying to explain lamely why they were wrong, and some hope he will be tamed or diminished in his second term.

I see things differently. I see Narendra Modi as a future Prime Minister of India, possibly even the next one. The prospect does not fill me with joy, but analysis is not about joyfulness. Just look around for young politicians who can move the masses, who can be more than regional leaders and make a national impact. I see no new faces, in or outside the BJP, to match Modi.Atal Behari Vajpayee is in poor health, and some believe LK Advani will soon take over from him, maybe in the next general elections in 2004. But Vajpayee might not step down. He might outlive Advani: there is little difference in their ages. Nobody can say who will pass away first.

By contrast, at 52 Narendra Modi is has many decades ahead of him. After his Gujarat victory he is obviously the star vote-getter of the party, leaving far behind older aspirants like Murali Manohar Joshi. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat may have some rival claims, but is an aged gentleman that has been kicked upstairs already. Besides, Shekhawat constantly needed help from others to form coalition governments. By contrast Modi won with a crushing two-thirds majority in Gujarat. You may hate him, but you cannot deny his vote-getting power.

Expect Modi to be a leading campaigner for the BJP in coming elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and expect the BJP to win. Drought and fiscal bankruptcy caused by the Pay Commission award have made Congress governments in these two states very vulnerable anyway. Expect this weakness to be exacerbated by communalism, spearheaded by Modi.

The BJP no longer has to incite communal riots to inflame passions. Jehadi elements are doing it anyway, and handing over public sentiment on a platter to the BJP. Witnesse temple attacks in Jammu and Akshadharm. Expect more such attacks, and not on temples alone. Expect each attack to strengthen the BJP and weaken its rivals.A paradigm shift has taken place in Indian elections. The old aphorism, that all politics is local, now rings hollow.

Even US knows I'm incorruptible: Narendra Modi on WikiLeaks

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday used the latest WikiLeaks disclosures to pat himself on the back, saying "Now even the US knows that I am incorruptible".

Reacting to the recent WikiLeaks disclosures in which a top US consular official described him as a "non-corrupt and efficient administrator", Modi told reporters on the sidelines of an event this proved his credentials.

"WikiLeaks shows two faces - one that of the government of and the other of progressive Gujarat," the chief minister said.

In the latest leaked diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu newspaper, Michael S. Owen, the US consul general in 2006, wrote to the they might have to reassess the Gujarat chief minister, whose visa they revoked due to his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Owen also said that Modi could emerge as the Bharatiya Janata Party's next national leader.

"Modi has successfully branded himself as a non-corrupt, effective administrator, as a facilitator of business in a state with a deep commercial culture, and as a no-nonsense, law-and-order politician who looks after the interests of the Hindu majority.

"Modi's backers in the BJP now hope to convince the party leadership that he can use these positive traits to attract voters throughout India. Some BJP leaders believe, or hope, that voters will forget or forgive Modi's role in the 2002 bloodshed, once they learn to appreciate his other qualities," Owen wrote in his assessment.

Modi said he met Owen in where they discussed Gujarat.

Recalling his meeting with Owen, Modi said: "I looked into his eyes and said, 'do not preach... I am a son of India, I know what human rights violations you have done'. Good that the dialogue has been faithfully reproduced."

The Gujarat chief minister also said he that "government of India should address the issue of American interference" in Indian affairs.