Authorized’ biography of Narendra Modi says he cleansed Gujarat of riots

Ansari, the tragic face of 2002 Gujarat riots (Courtesy Arko Datta)

By Dileep Thekkethil


BENGALURU: The horrors of the 2002 Gujarat riot has been haunting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in many ways. No matter what he and BJP has tried, the blood stains of thousands who died in vain while he was the chief minister of the state never got completely washed away.
Now, it seems the BJP has adopted a fresh strategy to help Modi beat his critiques – by publishing a biography, with a tag line “authorized”, claiming that Modi transformed riot stricken Gujarat into a riot free state.

Courtesy of PM’s Twitter profile

Kishor Makwana, the author of the biography ‘Modi — Common man’s PM’ said during the book launch in New Delhi on Monday, “Gujarat had been known for riots for the past 300 years. The first riot in Ahmedabad took place as far back as 1713; in the past 35 years there have been 979 riots…..today, Gujarat is fully free from riots.”The so-called authorized biography of Modi was released by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP supremo Amit Shah, who is also a close aide of PM Modi. The publisher during the launch event took the right to call the book “authorized biography”, which was seconded by the two senior leaders of the BJP.
The event also saw the releasing of three more books titled Jyotipunj’, ‘Social Harmony’ and ‘Sakshibhav’ — authored by the prime minister himself.
Rajnath Singh, during his speech, gave Modi the stature of a “common man” who had a solid opening as Prime Minister. Singh also said that he was confident that Modi will get a spectacular final scorecard by the end of five years.
Singh added, “Peaceful coexistence and social harmony are not only ingrained in India but also in NDA. One may ask how these two qualities are in the DNA of NDA. It is proved… Social harmony and peaceful co-existence are our commitment, not our compulsion.”
Long-time close aid of PM Modi and the current BJP chief Amit Shah, who was earlier acquitted from murder charges in the 2002 riots case said Modi’s succession as chief minister of Gujarat was welcomed with mixed reactions as he hadn’t even contested in a panchayat election before.
Shah added, “But the fragrance of good governance he delivered in Gujarat spread across the country within years. So much so, that by 2013 people started seeing him as the only ray of hope.”
The book has quotes from an interview Makwana had with Modi in which he describes the day when Vajpayee called him to reveal his new role as the CM of Gujarat. The authorized biography of Modi has quoted Vajpayee saying, “You (Modi) have grown fat eating Punjabi food. You need to slim down. Go, go from here, vacate Delhi.”
The biography also has also got mentions about some of Modi’s interests such as listening to sad songs and his personal favorite number “Kuch to log kahenge” by Kishore Kumar.
In Modi’s own book, which is a compilation of his diary entries, the PM has narrated the emotional phases that he passed through in a span of 30 years.  Back then Modi was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pracharak and even wrote poetry on Sangh’s decision to send him to the BJP in 1986.