Gujarat, HP, MP- Election 2007 - 3

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http://www.indianexpress.com/story/250352.html
National Interest Modi versus Modi
Shekhar GuptaPosted online: Saturday, December 15, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print EmailIt is not BJP vs the Congress, or Modi vs Soniaben. Narendra Modi’s own voters will decide whether to re-elect or defeat him

Narendra Modi’s supporters — and you still find lots and lots of them in Gujarat — would like you to believe that he is more than just invincible. Invincibility, in any case, is something for mere humans to value. It is not that relevant when you talk of their leader. You talk, instead, of his super-human qualities. He has transformed Gujarat, he has restored not just Gujarati, but even Hindu and, finally, Indian pride. He has brought 24-hour, three-phase power and Narmada water to each home. He is an orator par excellence, a worthy successor to Atalji in that department (though nobody ever accused the grand old man of the BJP of being a rabble rouser). He can hold a crowd — albeit of believers — in thrall. A gaggle of women representing three generations of Gujaratis occupying the row behind mine at his rally in Shihore compete, and ultimately translate his lines for me in chorus as I lean back to understand the nuances of his stunning 70-minute sermon. And as applause greets one of his most loaded — and coded — lines insinuating that it was the Muslims who were mostly responsible for lawlessness (“your women no longer have to fear some Aalia, Maalia, Kamaalia”), one of them chirps in, in a sort of fried in the groundnut oil Gujarati inflexion that stresses the consonants and shortens the vowels: “He is a supperman, himman (superman, he-man).” You hear more of the same from his followers, mainly the young and the women, as you go along. Sure enough, one of his campaign’s latest boasts is about his “56-inch chest”.