• by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (new delhi)
• Monday, January 19, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Two of India’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen have raised a political storm by jarring public endorsements of controversial leader Narendra Modi as the world’s largest democracy’s next prime minister.

Modi, chief minister of industrialised, western Gujarat state belongs to the right-wing, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He hit international headlines in 2002 for presiding over an anti-Muslim pogrom that left at least 1,000 people dead and 200,000 others homeless.

For his role in the Gujarat atrocities Modi has been denied entry into the United States and to the European Union. But he went on to win a third term as chief minister in December 2007, riding on the strength of the economic reforms he effected in his state.

Modi is now being pitted by a section of the BJP as the man who can lead the party to victory against the ruling, Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in elections scheduled for April-May.

Endorsing his candidature are Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, heads of two of India’s largest telecommunications companies. Their statements at the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit’, earlier this month, have infuriated the Congress and troubled sections of the BJP which are loyal to its tallest leader Lal Kishen Advani.

'Chief Minister Modi is known as a CEO, but he is actually not a CEO, because he is not running a company or a sector. He is running a state and can also run the nation,’’ said Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti group at the conference in Ahmedabad, that was attended by businessmen and dignitaries from 40 countries who pledged investments worth 250 billion US dollars in Gujarat.

Though Modi has since been hailed by a section of India’s business elite as the poster-person of an economically strong India, he is regarded by his political opponents as an authoritarian ruler, and even a ‘fascist’ who failed to contain the 2002 communal riots.

Brilliant oratory and a strong belief in Hindu nationalism have given Modi a tight grip over the administration of Gujarat, in particular its economic functions. Gujarat has had a long tradition of entrepreneurship and in recent years, has outstripped other states for growth.

In an interview with IPS, Ashis Nandy, an eminent sociologist and intellectual, said: 'Industrialists love organised societies. Throughout history, whenever there has been spectacular economic development, this has been associated with colonialism and/or authoritarianism.'

He added: 'Industrialists want to deal with one person who is in control or at best, a small group. They are not comfortable with complex, heterogeneous societies where they have to negotiate through transparent, democratic processes.'

More than a decade ago, when Modi was less known, Nandy had described him as a 'textbook fascist' after a meeting with him.

Nandy had to pay a price. Recently, an obscure non-government organisation was granted permission by the Gujarat government to lodge a case of criminal defamation against him for claiming that Gujarat’s middle classes were supportive of Modi’s 'hate politics' in a newspaper article. Nandy had to seek a Supreme Court stay against his arrest.

The show of support for Modi by luminaries of India Inc., however, is not the first endorsement of its kind.

Ratan Tata, the head of the giant Tata group, abandoned his plans to headquarter his Nano car factory in Singur, West Bengal, choosing a location near Ahmedabad instead. Tata attributed his project’s rapid development to Modi’s drive. It took him two days to secure property and obtain other approvals, against the interminable waits that are legend in India.

In 2005, Laveesh Bhandari, director at Indicus Analytics, an independent economic research firm based in New Delhi, co-authored a research paper that declared Gujarat as the leader among India’s 28 states in terms of 'economic freedom'.

Bhandari told IPS that 'Gujarat under Narendra Modi has been most proactive in using its infrastructure, the advantages of its geographical location and its human capital in attracting investments. I am, therefore, not surprised that leading industrialists are heaping praise on his capabilities.’’

India’s ruling Congress party was, however, outraged at the outpouring of support for Modi. Party spokesman Manish Tewari accused Modi of implementing only 22 percent of the agreed investments, though the latter claimed to have implemented 63.5 percent of the projects for which memoranda of understanding had been signed.

Tewari did not stop there. He lashed out at Modi comparing him to the German fascist dictator Adolf Hitler. He told journalists: 'In 1933, German capitalists were attracted to a fascist dictator [Adolf Hitler] ...Modi’s edifice rests on the bodies of innocent people.'

Out of 226 senior Indian business executives recently polled by the newspaper ‘Hindustan Times’ and the research firm, C-fore, 14 percent viewed Modi as the best candidate for prime minister, leaving him fourth on the list. Current Prime Minister was ranked first with 25 percent of the votes, followed by Advani at second position with 23 percent votes.

On Friday, union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela (a former chief minister of Gujarat) claimed that Modi’s contention that the economy of Gujarat was most buoyant had more hype than substance. Vaghela argued that many of the promised projects would never materialise.

In an attempt to counter media speculation about whether Modi would challenge Advani’s position in the BJP, the chief minister himself stated: 'After the development works we have undertaken in Gujarat, Delhi now recognises that a BJP government can come to power at the Centre after the upcoming elections. Our leader L. K. Advani will be the prime minister and under his leadership even the country will witness rapid growth like in Gujarat.'

Abani Roy, member of parliament (MP) and leader of the left-wing Revolutionary Socialist Party, said that although industrialists finance the election campaigns of many politicians, India has been - and will always be - a democracy where the will of the people would prevail. 'A few businessmen will not be able to influence who becomes the prime minister of India,' he said.

Meanwhile, another Left party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has suspended one of its MPs for praising the 'Modi model of development'.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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