Word: gujarat
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Narendra Modi embodies the incongruities of Indian politics. The three-term Chief Minister of Gujarat has made his state perhaps the most prosperous in a country already tapped for greater and greater growth. Gujarat has been enjoying growth rates of 10% or more (compared with India's range of 8% to 9%), with some of the largest businesses in the country operating in its territory, providing the average Gujarati a mean income significantly higher than the national average. A tough administrator, Modi is, from all appearances, incorruptible; he lives modestly, even ascetically, choosing to be celibate to devote his energies...
...many Indians, Modi is evil. They say he has transformed Gujarat, the state that produced Mohandas Gandhi, into a tautly polarized polity. In 2002, it witnessed a six-week riot, the worst in the country's history, leaving more than 1,800 people dead, mostly Muslims. Modi has refused to apologize for the massacres. He continues to be as capable of delivering fiery Hindu-nationalist speeches as he is in delivering essential public services to his people; he has has ruthlessly exploited religious divisions to attain and hang on to power. With this combination of prosperity gospel and virulent religion...
...Monday, the court ruled on a petition filed by Jakia Nasim Ahesan, the widow of Ehsan Jafri, a legislator belonging to the Congress Party who was killed along with 38 people by a mob at his home in Ahmadabad, Gujarat's largest city. Ahesan accused Modi and 62 others of hatching a "well-executed and sinister criminal conspiracy" to effect a "deliberate and intentional failure" of the state government to protect the life and property of its citizens. Says New Delhi-based political analyst Amulya Ganguli: "Modi tried his best to scuttle the investigation - some 2,000 cases were closed...
...pollsters believe that one of the incidents that worked to the BJP's advantage was Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi's speech at a 2007 rally in which she referred to Modi as a maut ka saudagar - a merchant of death. Riding on outrage, Modi won re-election in Gujarat for a third term as Chief Minister. "Gujarat is one state that has been very touchy about Modi and anything written or spoken about him," says Mumbai-based poll analyst Jai Mrug, adding that Gandhi's remark rejuvenated the Hindu vote in the state in favor...
...protect its seats in Modi's Gujarat, according to Mrug. The party fully expects to win very comfortably there. "But the BJP would certainly try and make use of his charisma and his newfound status as a martyr in states that have not yet gone to the polls and where no leader of Modi's stature has yet appeared," Mrug says. These include Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, among others. (Read about how India's young voters may change the country...