27 Feb 2007 05:00:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
AHMEDABAD, India, Feb 27 (Reuters) - He was
accused of being a "modern-day Nero"
who sat back while thousands of Muslims were
butchered, but Narendra Modi has not only survived
as chief minister of India's western state of
Gujarat, he has prospered.
Middle-class Hindus in Gujarat have put behind
them the horrific communal riots of 2002, as
they grow richer in a state that has become
a model of economic development and attracted
investment from India's biggest industrialists,
analysts say.
"The middle-class attitude is shorn of
any moral compunction when it comes to the riots,"
said Gagan Sethi, head of the Centre for Social
Justice, a local group fighting for the riot-affected.
"Their apathy has only emboldened Modi."
Human rights groups say some 2,500 people, mostly
Muslims, were beaten or burnt to death in the
western state of Gujarat five years ago, although
officials put the toll at about 1,000.
The riots erupted after a fire broke out on
a train carrying Hindu pilgrims on Feb. 27,
2002, killing 59 people.
India's Supreme Court compared Modi to Roman
Emperor Nero, remembered in popular legend as
playing his lyre while Rome burned. Modi's Hindu-nationalist
government looked elsewhere while innocent people
were burning and was probably deliberating how
to protect the killers, it said in a 2004 judgement.
The United States revoked a visa for Modi the
following year, on the grounds that he was responsible
for severe violations of religious freedom.
But that has not detered some of India's leading
industrialists from courting and praising Modi.
"Industry doesn't concern itself with questions
of political morality or ethics or even justice,"
said Zoya Hasan, an eminent academician and
member of the National Commission on Minorities.
Five years after the riots, and despite a national
outcry, little has been done to catch the culprits,
rights groups say, leaving Muslims in Gujarat
disillusioned, alienated and afraid.
Modi has put himself forward as a champion of
right-wing economics, a popular platform among
a people famous throughout India for their business
acumen, not least in the diamond trade.
"So long as he makes money, his business
flourishes, the middle-class Gujarati Hindu
is happy," said Nisad Ahmed Ansari, a Persian
scholar and politician. "They skirt moral
issues."
BOOMING ECONOMY
Under Modi's leadership, Gujarat has become
one of India's fastest growing states, with
some of its best infrastructure. His government
has turned around several loss-making state-run
companies and boasts impressive rates of job
creation.
Industry says it supports Modi because he helps
them.
"Gujarat today is about good governance,
pro-active bureaucracy, solid infrastructure,"
Pankaj R. Patel, head of the Gujarat Chamber
of Commerce and Industry, told Reuters.
"There is political will to prosper economically."
But all this means little for the state's 5.2
million Muslims, virtually relegated to second-class
citizenship, many of whom pursue either menial
jobs or small businesses from their ghettos.
Modi's success feeds off a history of communal
tension in a state which was invaded and plundered
over the centuries, mostly by Muslims.
"In Modi, middle-class Gujaratis found
a hero who first successfully projected Muslims
as the villains and then assured them protection
from that community," Sethi said.
In the streets of Ahmedabad, the state's main
city, many Hindus say their chief minister has
done them proud.
"Modi-ji says today we can go anywhere
with our heads held high and we don't need to
worry about Muslims. It is true," said
Hitenbhai Patel, an Ahmedabad shop owner.
India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party,
to which Modi belongs, has stood by the chief
minister since the riots, even though its leaders
have described the 2002 violence as a stain
on the country's image.
Modi's office turned down a request for an interview,
but the chief minister has repeatedly said his
only consideration is to promote economic growth
without favouring one section of the community
over another.
"I do nothing for Muslims or for Hindus,"
he told the Times of India this month. "Whatever
I do, I do for 50 million Gujaratis."
