Modi jitle tor baper ki?

Wifey says she can’t rejoice at Modi’s victory. Says it’s difficult for her to negate his negatives and harp on the positives (if any!). Wifey always makes me come around to her point of view….is it too much love or is she too smart? But what she said today got me thinking. Is it possible really to compartmentalise? To judge a mass murderer on developmental indices. Modi the Muslim hater and Modi the administrator: Forget the former and highlight the latter? I have been flirting with the idea for a while. If you forget for a minute Godhra and the Muslim cleansing afterwards, you have to agree with some of what his spin doctors say. The man is an able administrator, is not known to be shamelessly corrupt, is bothered about Gujarati ashmita (whatever that is) and is the tallest leader Gujarat has had for sometime. To the majoritarian votebank, he’s the dude. He’s good for Gujarat and so more power to him. But can the pogrom be left unpunished? Can you really forgive a mass murderer because he’s done well in other aspects? Wifey says it depends on who you are. If you are a Muslim, not just in Gujarat but anywhere in India, Modi’s victory will touch a raw nerve, no matter how forward thinking you are. Yes, the Congress is perhaps as bad, so is the Samajwadi party or any political formation that pander to the Muslim votebank. Yes, the Congress’ brand of what Advani calls pseudo-secularism created the political space for the BJP to occupy. Yes, a lot goes in the name of secularism that is outright anti-national. Yet, there is something spine chilling about what Modi did…what he stands for. For all his achievements, the very idea of Modi is a hard knock on the idea of India. It is easy for someone like me, selfish, shallow, short-sighted, too caught up with the idea of a shining India to forget the Modi of 2002, if not forgive him altogether, but for every Muslim and perhaps every Hindu that values the idea of a secular state, Modi will always be what India should never become. So what am I rejoicing for?