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Way back in 1930 Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the cover of American news magazine TIME dated March 31st. The caption read: ‘Saint Gandhi.’
In
1947, the year which saw the Britishers quit India and the country
suffer the traumatic events that accompanied partition, the January 27
issue of the same magazine bore on its cover a picture of Sardar Patel
with the caption ‘India’s Vallabhabhai Patel.’
This
year, this U.S. periodical reputed to be the world’s largest circulated
news weekly carried on the cover of its issue dated March 26- Gujarat’s
Narendra Bhai Modi. The caption given to the cover is: Modi Means Business.
Some Indian dailies reported the story with the heading: “After Gandhi and Patel, Modi third Gujarati on Time cover.”
An
excellent photograph of Narendra Modi relaxing in his lawns has been
displayed on full two pages preceding the 2-page write-up on the BJP
leader.
The write-up by Jyoti Thottam notes at the very outset :
“Narendra
Modi has defied humble origins to become the powerful leader of booming
Gujarat state.” Jyoti Thottam then goes on to give her analysis of why
Indians “both love and loathe him.”
She however sums up her comments by quoting Tridip Suhrad, social scientist and expert on Gujarat who says “the future belongs to him.”
Jyoti Thottam writes: His
(Modi’s) ability to get things done is in stark contrast to the
Congress-led central government in New Delhi. “If you look at the rest
of the country, Who’s in charge is a big issue, if at all anybody’s in
charge,” says Sebastian Morris, a professor of economics at the Indian
Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. “The difference here is that
somebody’s in charge, whatever he may do.” In a recent opinion poll by
the magazine India Today, 24% of those surveyed thought Modi should be
the next Prime Minister; Rahul Gandhi polled 17%.
****
I recall that in August, 2008 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, during an official visit to India, called at my residence. Apart
from discussions on issues like Indo-U.S. relations and the global war
against terrorism etc. I raised with her the issue of denial of U.S.
visa to Narendra Bhai Modi. I said to her: “This may be the first time
that an elected Chief Minister of a state in the world’s largest and
most vibrant democracy has been denied a visa. What really surprised all
of us here was that the denial of visa had been announced by Washington
without Modi having sought it. “I have not even applied for a visa,
Modi has informed me,” I told Ms. Condoleezza.
She
looked at the officials accompanying her, “Is that true?”, she asked.
The officials confirmed this, and added that the report was based on an
official reply given to a letter from a senator.
The
irony is that while the U.S. Government has refused a visa to Modi, a
report prepared by a think tank of the U.S. Congress has in a 100 page
report assigned very high marks to Modi for his governance.
This
Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a bipartisan and independent
research wing of the U.S. Congress which compiles reports of interest to
U.S. lawmakers.
This
Report says: “Perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and
impressive development is found in Gujarat (population 60 million),
where controversial Chief Minister Narendra Modi has streamlined
economic processes, removing red tape and curtailing corruption in ways
that have made the state a key driver of national economic growth.”
L.K. Advani
New Delhi
25 March, 2012
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