‘Modi’ factor enlivens Indian political scene before elections

Is Narendra Modi inching towards assumption of the most powerful office in India? This is the most talked-about issue in India and beyond, at the present moment. The matter has assumed a particular significance, in view of the next general elections that are scheduled to be held by May, 2014. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named Modi as its key candidate. The ruling Congress, however, has not yet come out with its nominee for that position even though Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the famous Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is widely believed to be its candidate for the coveted post.
Modi is a much talked-about politician in India for his extra-ordinary records in both directions - positive and negative. The chief minister of the industrially advanced western Gujarat state is credited by his party, BJP, for retaining his position at the helm of the state for three consecutive terms. This is a unique feat and is also matchless in the BJP. As such, it is no wonder that he is rated very high by his organisation.
 In fact, Modi is considered as the next prime minister of India by the BJP, although no official announcement has been made in this regard by the party. As the national elections are approaching fast, the party has to project a leader as the likely prime minister. Modi's name has already come for that position. But this has also raised a severe controversy both within the organisation and beyond. Nevertheless, he has not been discarded as a likely head of government in India and the options remain open. However, the BJP is also aware of the adverse reactions from his detractors, should he be chosen by the party as the prime ministerial candidate. The issue has been kept at the backburner, but Modi is otherwise important for the organisation as he is heading a 12-member powerful publicity team of the BJP, keeping in mind the polls that are to take place early next year.
The Gujrat chief minister cuts in both ways as he is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, he is the most successful chief minister of an otherwise relatively more developed Indian state, who has brought back his BJP party to power in succession, despite the organisation not being in a much comfortable position, politically. On the other, he is staunchly criticised - even hated by the secular and progressive forces who consider Modi as a rabidly communal person. He refuses to be seen as a communal, but makes no bones of the fact that he is a proud nationalist Hindu. He and other hardcore politicians in the BJP have advanced the causes of Hinduism to an extent that they are credited by their religious "Gurus" for revival of the Hindu nationalism in India.
Probably, even this stance is not damaging for Modi, who is disliked by his political opponents for his failure to protect the minorities in his Gujarat state in the midst of the worst communal violence in 2002 when more than 2,000 people - mostly the minorities - were brutally killed. As the chief minister of the state, he has even been accused by some sections as having indirectly assisted the elements responsible for carnage of the Muslims. His image has so much been tainted that the chief minister of an important Indian state is not given visa by the United States and some other nations. However, Modi is unruffled and says he did nothing wrong and the courts did not also find him guilty on any criminal ground or count.
His denial notwithstanding, a strong impression exists in many quarters that he might have been behind the killings of the minorities. Modi has further infuriated his critics recently by his comment that he is a born Hindu and is proud of being a religious nationalist. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh immediately slammed the remark, saying the tendency to divide India on religious lines is totally reprehensible. All citizens of the country need to be proud of being the "Indians", he said.
Earlier, a controversy had broken out within the BJP itself when Modi was given a key assignment in the context of the coming national elections. Senior party leader and former BJP president L.K.Advani quit all positions in the party, protesting the decision. He was later persuaded by the party men to withdraw the decision, but he remains opposed to catapulting Modi higher than his present position. This development also affected the BJP-led opposition NDA alliance when one of its key partners - the Janata dal (U) led by Sharad Yadav and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP, charging that persons with "communal" image can not be allowed to steal the limelight.
More recently, the Paschimbanga chief minister Mamata Baneerjee has made it clear that whatever be her form of alliance with other parties in the coming national polls, one thing is certain -- and that is about maintaining no links in promoting Modi as the prime minister. Even the rabidly communal Shiv Sena, a close ally of the BJP, said Narendri Modi should not be projected as the future prime minister since the nation needs leader with a much cleaner image The leftists are always bitter critics of  communal forces and hence their is no question of their extending any support for persons like Modi for the key position of the country.
The odds may be against him. But it is also true that Narendra Modi appears to be the only person, who could guide the party again to the zenith of power .He is efficient and honest, and steered Gujarat for three successive terms to the path of development. Of late, Modi is also keen about shedding his communal image when he says that he is for all religions. But it also true that he wants to thrive on the Hindu nationalism which had, in fact, once helped the BJP come to the centre stage of the Indian politics. Nonetheless, the party developed differences, later on, between the liberals and the hardcore ones on the religious issue with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, also a former deputy prime minister, siding with the liberals. The liberals say that Modi can be good for an Indian state, but not for multi-racial and multi-religious vast India, which needs leaders having impeccable image. But the hardliners insist that he is the right person to confront the ruling Congress and other political opponents in the next balloting. Now, after the BJP has named him as it's nominee, Advani and others are also supporting him.
Meanwhile, a recent comment by senior Congress leader and finance minister P. Chidambram has raised some furore within the Congress party when he said Modi has succeeded in uniting his fractious BJP before election although the minister severely criticized Modi. The remark seems to have favoured Modi and Chidambram is facing criticism from his own party, which says, Modi has divided the BJP and would do the same to India if he becomes its prime minister.  
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