The Hindu Business Line : `Why I'll vote for Narendra Modi'

"I HAVE been a BJP supporter for years and this time, more than ever, I and thousands of Hindus like me will vote for the BJP. We will do so mainly because we are terrified of Islamic terrorism and we feel that only Mr Narendra Modi can help us and prevent Gujarat from going the way of Kashmir. We are afraid that if Congress comes to power, it will only do again what it has always done... woo the Muslims and help them."

This is what Mr Rameshbhai B. Shah, a senior advocate in the Gujarat High Court, has to say about his vote, hardly a week before the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

As he waxes eloquent on how and why "every sensible Hindu in the towns and villages of Gujarat will vote for the BJP", you try to tell him, rather weakly, about the latest opinion polls indicating that the Congress-I is closing in on the BJP in Gujarat.

But he dismisses opinion polls with a flourish. "Oh, opinion polls are always purchased and can be tailor-made according to the ideology of the people conducting the polls. Believe me, no Gujarati, literate, illiterate or semi-literate, is going to tell any pollster how he/she is going to vote on the polling day. So I have no faith in these polls. I am certain that the BJP will get anywhere between 130 to 140 seats." But Mr Shah adds that it is common knowledge that the Muslims of Gujarat are going to vote, "in one solid block, for the Congress-I. In fact, I have reliable information that they have declared a fatwah that all the Muslims should turn up in large numbers at the polling booths and finish casting their votes before noon. They expect trouble on the polling day in the later hours, and have said that the Muslim votes should be secure in the ballot boxes by noon." But he is concerned about the Hindus who are in Government service. "Of late, their tendency is to keep away from voting in elections, saying that whoever comes to power, it does not make much difference to them, because their jobs are secure. But unfortunately, they do not realise that every Hindu vote is precious."

On the communal riots and growing polarisation between Gujarat's Hindus and Muslims taking a toll on the State's economy and people's livelihood, he says that the economic problems of Gujarat as a "legacy of Congress's corrupt and rotten rule. At the moment terrorism is our biggest problem."

This advocate is confident that the next BJP Government will be able to keep "Muslims under control. First of all, hardly two to three per cent of Gujarati Muslims belong to the jehadi category. Gujarati Muslims are not interested in terrorism. It is the Muslims who have come from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh who are indulging in terrorist activities in Gujarat. The Gujarat (textile) mills were destroyed by these Muslims."

About the banking scam having destroyed people's lifetime savings locked up in co-operative banks, and the banners in several housing colonies, inhabited by Hindus, asking politicians not to come seeking their votes unless they come armed with their lost money, Mr Shah says, "The BJP is not responsible for this scam. Barring one or two stray cases, it is the Congressmen who have looted people's money."

But he is confident that the setback to Gujarat's economy will be short-lived. "Gujaratis will eventually find a way to take this State back to the road of rapid industrial development. The average Gujarati is essentially a businessman and he will eventually find a way to raise financial resources." But while people like Mr Shah have made up their minds to stick by the BJP, there are people like Mr Nirav Patel and his wife Rupa, traditional BJP supporters, who now have reservations about what the BJP has done to Gujarat.

Waiting at the Chennai airport on Thursday afternoon to board the Jet Airways flight to Ahmedabad, Mr Patel, an MBA who runs a chemical factory in Ahmedabad, admits they are wondering whom to vote for. "I certainly want to vote because that is a right I get only once in five years. But my problem is should I once again vote for the BJP. Mr Modi's clear intention to build his next five-year Government on the Godhra incident and the communal riots, which followed it, is horrible. This is certainly not a decent strategy and it hurts our sensibility." But on the other hand, he adds, people like him are frightened of the "growing Islamic terrorist activities. We have no problem with the Muslim community, but we certainly have a problem with Islamic terrorists."

His wife Rupa adds, "Today, our education tells us that we have no business to look at a person as a Hindu or a Muslim. But deep within me, I also know that my family's safety is of the utmost importance and I should vote for the person who can give me personal safety. That comes first." The couple are certain about one thing... that Mr Modi is the only leader who can stop "Islamic terrorism from flourishing." But they do not agree with Mr Advani's daring Pakistan for a war.

"Oh no, we do not need a war. Pakistan is a nuclear power and a war with it can destroy us economically," says Ms Rupa.

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`Why I'll vote for Narendra Modi'