Mellow Modi: Myth or making of a new leader?

MODI-FIED BEHAVIOUR: Gujarat CM toned down his demeanor, made no fiery speech after Ahmedabad blasts.

        

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Chief Minister Narendra Modi, vilified as the Nero who fiddled when Gujarat burnt during the 2002 riots, appears to have mellowed down. After the serial blasts in Ahmedabad, he appealed for calm and took quick action to prevent violence.

Modi has termed the blasts as an attack on the nation and a conspiracy against “Mahatma Gandhi’s land”. Compare this to 2002, when at the worst phase of the riots, he allegedly said: “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Within hours of the serial blasts on July 26, Modi’s government asked the Army to conduct a flag march in Ahmedabad to assure citizens and prevent communal violence. Compare this to February 2002 when the first Army troops reached Ahmedabad two days after the Godhra train carnage.

Modi has refrained from using the serial blasts to attack the UPA Government and instead requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited Ahmedabad on Monday, to expedite the presidential assent for the Gujarat Control of Organized Crime Bill pending since June 2004.

Compare his representation to the Prime Minister with BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s statement that the blasts were the UPA Government’s conspiracy to divert attention from the cash-for-votes scandal and win Muslim votes.

Has Modi emerged as a mature leader? Is the Modi of July 2008 different from the Modi of February 2002? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on Face The Nation to Congress MP and spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan, BJP ideologue Sheshadri Chari, Father Cedric Prakash, human rights activist and spokesperson for the Gujarat United Christian Forum for Human Rights.

The different Modis

“If there are no cries of vengeance or retaliation from the chief executive of a state, then it has to be welcomed. I and many other wish that this happened in 2002 and all these last six years,” said Prakash. “Whether this a new Modi I really do not know. I think he would do well if he ensures that one community is not demonised.”

Modi’s restraint doesn’t impress the Congress, said Natarajan. “The nation will need a lot more from Modi to forget what happened in 2002. It is unfortunate to praise him for something which is expected from any Chief Minister. Why praise him for what he should do,” she said.