Bharatiya Janata Party has chosen Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujrat as their official candidate for Prime Minister in the upcoming elections. It is interesting book review to read about Narendra Modi, a controversial figure in Indian politics.( F. Sheikh)

Some excerpts;

The physician sat in the corner of his office in Ahmedabad, a map of India’s western state of Gujarat on one side, a map of the human nervous system on the other, his hip leaning against the drawer that I spent weeks trying to convince him to open.

After agreeing to a list of conditions—I could not take any photographs, I could not remove anything from his office—he agreed to show me the drawer’s contents. It was a six-inch stack of letters between two longtime pen pals, the physician and a young man named Narendra Modi, the current chief minister of Gujarat and the official candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest next year’s elections for India’s prime minister. I took out my digital recorder and began reading each letter aloud. A few days before I boarded my return flight to California, the physician called me to his office.

“Zahir bhai,” he said. It was unusual for him to address me this way—he is in his 60s, twice my age, and “bhai” means brother in Hindi and is used most often with someone older.

“Zahir bhai,” he repeated. “I am very sorry. You cannot use my name in your piece.”

I was not surprised; very few in Gujarat are willing to use their real name when asked about Modi. I told him I would be happy to change his name.

“No, you cannot use my name or my letters or my story. I have three children. Modi will ruin their lives if people know my views on him.”

I pleaded with him to reconsider but he would not budge.

“You do not have children. You do not know what it is like to live in Gujarat. You will return to America eventually. Please, you must understand.”

Unfortunately, I do understand.”

“Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on September 17, 1950 in Vadnagar, then a part of the Bombay state that later split into two, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Modi’s father was a tea vendor, his mother a homemaker, and Modi spent much of his childhood working alongside his father. But it was not a happy childhood, he tells Mukhopadhyay: “I had a lot of pain because I grew up in a village where there was no electricity and in my childhood we used to face a lot of hardships because of this.”

Modi showed a fondness for the Hindu right wing group the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a child. The RSS was started in 1925 as a Hindu nationalist movement and reached infamy in 1948 when one of its members, Nathuram Godse, assassinated Gandhi. It was declared a terrorist group immediately after by the Indian government and banned for two years. But today it remains as strong—and hardline—as ever.

There are an estimated 40,000 RSS camps, or shakhas, across the country where Hindu men and young boys gather each morning to chant slogans and perform a series of exercises, often using a long stick. In the landmark report on the 2002 Gujarat riots, “We Have No Orders to Save You,” Human Rights Watch said it was the RSS that was responsible for passing out lists of Muslim-owned business and homes to mobs at the start of the violence.” Click Link to Read Full article;

http://www.bostonreview.net/world/zahir-janmohamed-narendra-modi-india-gujarat-man-who-refuses-wear-green?utm_source=Newsletter+July+2%2C+2013&utm_campaign=Newsletter+July+2&utm_medium=email

Both Islamists and liberals are the losers and both played their part in this sad saga. After getting elected as President, Mr. Morsi acted as a dictator, violated minority rights, unilaterally imposed Muslim Brotherhood agenda and broke every democratic norm. He was incompetent and short-sighted.

The opposition mainly composed of liberals and secularists never accepted the free democratic election results and used all the energies to undermine the democratic process. They asked for military intervention and forgot that all the previous dictators came from military. They had no patience to wait for the next elections and they were as short-sighted as Islamists.

Samer Shehata, Associate professor of International Studies at University Of Oklahoma writes:

“  Fair elections have improved the Brotherhood’s campaign skills. But it hasn’t fully committed to pluralism or to equal rights for minorities. It participates in democracy, but doesn’t want to share power.

Many in the opposition, on the other hand, believe fiercely in minority rights, personal freedoms, civil liberties and electoral coalition-building — as long as the elections keep Islamists out of power. In other words, they are liberal without being democrats; they are clamoring fervently for Mr. Morsi’s ouster and want the military to intervene. But they have proved themselves woefully unequipped to organize voters. Though my heart is with their democratic goals, I must admit that their commitment to democratic principles runs skin deep.”

I agree with Wequar Sahib’s comments in on the meetings that religion and state affairs should not mix. But the fact is that in Muslim countries Islamists just cannot be wished away. They only can be defeated in democratic process and they thrive in chaos. Islamists win elections because they are more organized and committed. The answer by the liberals and secularist should be to organize and convince the public that they can manage and run the country and will not undermine the personal freedoms of religion. Undermining the democratic process is self-defeating. In Pakistan , despite the religious extremism, the moderate political parties, Muslim League-N and PPP, are very organized and always beat Islamists in fair elections.

Samer Shehata writes in the same article;

“Still, integrating Islamists is essential if Egypt is to have stable, democratic politics. Movements like the Brotherhood are a core constituency in Egyptian society; democracy requires their inclusion. If the millions in the streets want the Brotherhood out of power, they must learn to organize and campaign effectively, and vote them out.

That would be the best way to establish liberal democracy in Egypt. Removing Mr. Morsi through a military coup supported by the secular and liberal opposition could well be the worst.”

F.Sheikh