It has been almost 7 years since the massacre in Gujarat. It connotes an atrocity that will not die, a sectarian myth-in-the-making that constitutes a hideous rebuke to India's sectarian self image. And at its epicenter stands a much reviled yet charismatic Gujarati, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, an icon of India’s economic growth and development, and a leading force in the Hindu-chauvinist Bharatiya Janata (Indian People’s) Party, or BJP. He represents a challenge for he is that rare politician who is both incorruptible and efficient. But his role -- and unwillingness to demonstrate any contrition for his role-- has damned him it seems for ever with the intelligensia in India. There are no moderate views on Modi - either he is reviled as the incarnation of evil or as the new face of India.
It is therefore interesting to hear from an objective outside writer what he thinks of Modi in the piece from the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly.
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