Narendra Modi saddles up for key role at Centre

In the late 1960s, Narendra Modi used to help his brother run a tea-stall at the Gita Mandir bus stand in Ahmedabad, serving fresh buns and hot cups of tea. Among the regular clients were a bunch of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders who used to animatedly discuss political developments for hours at a stretch. Then in his late teens, the Sangh idealogy left a lasting impression on this youngster who was studying political science at that time.

He quit the tea stall to become a swayamsevak and later a full-time pracharak. Forty years later, Modi is emerging as the most potent brew to come out of the Sangh's stables, with even stalwarts of India Inc fuelling his political ambition to look beyond the boundaries of Gujarat.

There was shock and surprise in January this year when Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, impressed by the fact that the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit had clocked pledges worth $250 billion in these depressed economic conditions, publicly endorsed this "future Prime Minister".

Other second-rung Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who are wary of the growing stature of the Gujarat chief minister, reacted with indignation. Modi was quick to declare that his only focus was to see L K Advani as the next prime minister. But then, many in the BJP see Modi's emergence at the national level as the writing on the wall, given Advani's advancing age and the absence of any other mass leader and master-strategist in their midst, especially after the demise of Pramod Mahajan.

Advani is right in a way. The BJP's PM-candidate is no longer seen as the face of Hindutva, a plank the BJP was forced to shed in order to gain acceptability among allies in an era of coalition politics. At the same time, the BJP is keen to use Modi's exceptional oratorial skills, organisational capacity and image as Hindutva's poster-boy in other states.

That's an image which came with his dubious handling of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and helped Modi to win two successive assembly elections in Gujarat — both with two-thirds majority. But he would like to be seen now as India Inc. sees him — as a man who has put the development of Gujarat on the fast track and has the potential of replicating it across the country.

While he steps up the ante on Islamic terror, conscious efforts have been made to shed the Hindu 'hriday samrat' tag, with a demolition spree against illegal temples in Gandhinagar and the recent appointment of Shabbir Khandwawala as head of Gujarat police.

Narendra Modi saddles up for key role at Centre

In the late 1960s, Narendra Modi used to help his brother run a tea-stall at the Gita Mandir bus stand in Ahmedabad, serving fresh buns and hot cups of tea. Among the regular clients were a bunch of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders who used to animatedly discuss political developments for hours at a stretch. Then in his late teens, the Sangh idealogy left a lasting impression on this youngster who was studying political science at that time.

He quit the tea stall to become a swayamsevak and later a full-time pracharak. Forty years later, Modi is emerging as the most potent brew to come out of the Sangh's stables, with even stalwarts of India Inc fuelling his political ambition to look beyond the boundaries of Gujarat.

There was shock and surprise in January this year when Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, impressed by the fact that the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit had clocked pledges worth $250 billion in these depressed economic conditions, publicly endorsed this "future Prime Minister".

Other second-rung Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who are wary of the growing stature of the Gujarat chief minister, reacted with indignation. Modi was quick to declare that his only focus was to see L K Advani as the next prime minister. But then, many in the BJP see Modi's emergence at the national level as the writing on the wall, given Advani's advancing age and the absence of any other mass leader and master-strategist in their midst, especially after the demise of Pramod Mahajan.

Advani is right in a way. The BJP's PM-candidate is no longer seen as the face of Hindutva, a plank the BJP was forced to shed in order to gain acceptability among allies in an era of coalition politics. At the same time, the BJP is keen to use Modi's exceptional oratorial skills, organisational capacity and image as Hindutva's poster-boy in other states.

That's an image which came with his dubious handling of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and helped Modi to win two successive assembly elections in Gujarat — both with two-thirds majority. But he would like to be seen now as India Inc. sees him — as a man who has put the development of Gujarat on the fast track and has the potential of replicating it across the country.

While he steps up the ante on Islamic terror, conscious efforts have been made to shed the Hindu 'hriday samrat' tag, with a demolition spree against illegal temples in Gandhinagar and the recent appointment of Shabbir Khandwawala as head of Gujarat police.

SIT cuts short key testimony against Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: The first ever legal testimony recorded against Narendra Modi for his alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots was cut short on Tuesday when the witness, DIG Sanjiv Bhatt, was in the middle of his narrative on events preceding the murder of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri at Gulberg Society.

The three officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) recording Bhatt's statement in Gandhinagar under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code went for lunch, according to sources, just when the witness finished talking about the second meeting held by the chief minister with the police on February 28, 2002, the day after the Godhra incident.

But after conferring with the SIT's legal adviser K G Menon for about an hour, the team did not pick up the threads of the narrative from where it had stopped before the break. Instead, the SIT functionaries, Y C Modi, A K Malhotra and Himanshu Shukla, wound up the examination for the day after grilling Bhatt on why he had never before made any of those allegations against Modi.

The whistle-blower said, thanks to the SIT's summons in connection with the Gulberg case, he was for the first time in nine years under a legal obligation to disclose the inside information he had been privy to as an intelligence officer and as a participant in the meetings with Modi before and during the riots.

Before his testimony was came to a halt, Bhatt told SIT he had warned Modi twice on February 28 about the danger to Jafri. The first time was through a phone call at 11.30 am and the second was at a meeting called by Modi at 2 pm, where Modi agreed to call in the Army. Bhatt said that after the meeting Modi asked him to check if Jafri had a record of firing at Hindus.

Narendra Modi must go, says Jaya

chennai/hyderabad: after telugu desam party (tdp) chief chandrababu naidu on wednesday reiterated his demand for the removal of gujarat chief minister narendra modi, tamil nadu chief minister j jayalalithaa too made a similar demand. ''there is no need to advance the assembly elections there. what is needed is a change of government. it is up to to the bjp and the centre to take necessary steps in gujarat,'' jayalalithaa told reporters in chennai. she said parliament had not functioned properly on account of the issue of modi's ouster and it was the centre's duty to put an end to it. ''peace has so far not returned in gujarat and therefore in the interest of the nation, the centre should find an amicable and immediate solution,'' she observed. she refrained from making any comment when asked if she expected any threat to the nda government as the tdp had sought modi's ouster. ''i will prefer to wait and watch,'' she said. she evaded a question on a possible political realignment at the national level after the meeting between samajwadi party chief mulayam singh yadav and congress president sonia gandhi. she termed the issue as hypothetical. jayalalithaa, who has been trying to come close to the nda, had so far been non-committal about gujarat, except for condemning the violence. in fact, she had come down heavily on fellow politicians for not condemning the godhra train killings, wondering why they did not condemn the crime against the majority community while taking a serious view of all crimes against the minority community. given her demand for the ouster of modi and her opposition to allowing ltte spokesperson anton balasingham to stay in india, the aiadmk now seems to be going back to a neutral path. in case of a change of the political scenario at the national level, it would not be difficult for her to decide which side to go. she already enjoys the full support of the congress on the ltte issue and now she is supporting the ouster of modi, something that the congress has been demanding. later, reacting to the happenings in parliament, naidu told reporters in hyderabad that parliament was seized of the issue. asked what he would do since the proceedings of the house were stalled, naidu shot back: ''it is not new. parliament was stalled in the past also for several days on a specific issue and it not unusual for parliament to be deadlocked.''

Call in BJP for Narendra Modi as PM grows louder

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD: First it was Arun Shourie, now it's Arun Jaitley — both of them want Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate after L K Advani. Coming bang in the middle of an election in which Advani is the BJP's candidate for the top job, the search for Advani's successor has set tongues wagging—has the BJP, or a section of the party, already thrown in the towel and is it looking ahead?

Like Shourie, Jaitley made it plain that there is no shift from Advani's projection as the prime ministerial candidate for 2009, but his support for Modi in Vadodara is bound to fuel a debate and controversy, inviting caustic inquiries from the Congress about whether the BJP was hunting for an insurance policy.

Asked about his views on Shourie's comments, Jaitley said, "I, along with other BJP workers, will be very happy if Shourie's wishes would come true." However, he took care to add that "at present, BJP's prime ministerial candidate is Advani". He would be happy, he said, if Modi became the PM after Advani.

Jaitley's claim that BJP workers too would be "very happy" with Modi succeeding Advani would make it appear that the momentum is growing for Modi within the BJP. As a senior bureaucrat reputed to be close to Modi said in Ahmedabad, "Five years is a long time in politics. I think he (Modi) is in a hurry to go to Delhi."

Modi at the helm of the BJP has the potential of changing the party—its "nationalist" character would certainly get burnished, even if its current allies could get a trifle uneasy. Nitish Kumar, for instance, was recently quoted as saying that he would not like to share an election platform with Modi.

The Modi camp seems to have sensed the allies' restiveness. It's said that after the reports appeared, Nitish Kumar called up Advani to say he was misquoted and, if need be, he could talk to Modi. Advani apparently communicated this to Modi and then got back to Nitish to say Modi had not misunderstood the reports.

It's also being pointed out that Modi is mending his fences with the RSS and the Sangh parivar, which were upset by the demolition of 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar, provoking VHP chief Ashok Singhal to call Modi, "Mahmud of Ghazni". On Friday, Singhal clarified that he was only "joking".

Is Narendra Modi a liability for BJP outside Gujarat?

He has looked the part. Steely eyed, unsmiling, an inflexible jaw line. In the world that Narendra Modi inhabits, any sign of weakness could be a fatal error. Any suggestion that he is less than what he appears to be would give his critics - and they are legion - just the flicker of hope that Modi is, after all, vulnerable. And the weak don't last the week in politics.

Modi lives up to the title of the "saffron strongman, " conferred on him by his liberal detractors, with ease. A primary reason for his nonchalance is Gujarat's strong economic indicators, endorsed by business celebrities - recall the confidence with which Ratan Tata chose Gujarat as the new home for his Nano factory. Again, on the ideological front, Modi has been very good at projecting himself as an uncompromising voice on terrorism.

So, when Modi announced his arrival in Patna last week for the BJP national executive with ubiquitous advertisements in local dailies, speaking of Gujarat's generous help to Bihar during the Kosi floods and a file photo of him and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar holding hands in a symbol of unity and friendship, it was not out of line with his studied effort to project a larger-than-life image.

Good for him, but not for Nitish, as it turned out. Nitish angrily promised to return Modi's monetary help, and he even called off a planned dinner for BJP leaders, while branding the advertisements "unethical and uncivilised. "

The intensity of the reaction seems to have taken Modi by surprise. People who interacted with him in the wake of Nitish Kumar's angry outburst found Modi genuinely flummoxed.

But should he have been? With state elections bearing down in a matter of months, this ad blitz was ill-timed. Nitish Kumar has painstakingly wooed a sizable section of "backward" Muslims in Bihar over the years. He has given them job reservation and political empowerment, and has carefully positioned himself as their well-wisher. His obvious effort has been to blunt the Muslim antipathy towards his political partner in the state, the BJP, and neutralise the advantage enjoyed by his "secular" rivals, RJD and LJP leaders Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan.

Modi's self-promotion through these full page ads, beaming while holding aloft Kumar's hand in warm camaraderie, was obviously tearing into this nonthreatening image that Nitish has built for himself amongst Muslims. Modi - an astute politician - would surely have realised this.

Survey shows Narendra Modi in strong position

new delhi: let the opposition and nda allies keep demanding gujarat chief minister narendra modi's ouster. the bjp has reason to stick by him. a survey at the instance of the ministry of home affairs establishes that the bjp will win with a comfortable majority (52 per cent) if assembly polls are held in gujarat in the near future. the survey, conducted on april 3 and 4, was undertaken by officials involving the intelligence units of the state as well as the research and analysis wing of the central government, say sources. while the voting pattern reflects a communal divide in sensitive areas such as vadodara and ahmedabad, which have seen the worst communal flare-ups recently, other areas of south gujarat not affected by the riots see the hindu votes being divided between the congress and the bjp, say the sources. however, for the state as a whole, the bjp would emerge victorious, say the sources. interestingly, it was on april 4 that vajpayee was on a day-long trip to gujarat, where he castigated modi. he told modi in full glare of the media to follow the path of raj dharma and not discrimate among his praja . but during the national executive meeting of the bjp in goa on april 14, vajpayee justified the gujarat riots as a reaction to the godhra attack. while the gujarat unit of the bjp, in general, and modi, in particular, have expressed a keen desire to hold assembly polls soon, two factors have queered the pitch for the bjp. for one, given the volatile situation in gujarat, the election commission may not allow hustings to take place. secondly, one of the key allies of the bjp, the telugu desam party, has taken a tough stand against elections in the state. that is yet another worry for the bjp.