Writing on NaMo: Deification or demonization

Tempers and voices flared at a discussion titled: Writing on NaMo: Deification or demonization, at the Times LitFest on Monday. Academic Madhu Kishwar and TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai took opposing positions in a debate that centred largely on the Modi’s post-Godhra politics.
Kishwar claimed Modi was far more vilified than deserved even after the SIT report had exonerated him.“I’ve studied his speeches; there wasn’t one divisive word in them,” she said. Sardesai refuted, recalling Modi’s Muslim-targeting jibe ‘Hum Paanch, Humare Pachees’.
Sardesai, who’s known Modi from his mid-20s as a journalist covering the Rath Yatra, observed: “Readers like to see politicians in black and white. But Modi, like all complex characters, is shaded in grey, his private and public lives are diametrically different, he believes the problem with public opinion lies in the public’s inability to see him as a divided figure. Modi — a hero/villain is polarization we should avoid.” Analyse him without ideological lenses.
“He’s (Modi) deeply insecure, prone to petty vendettas and will use anyone to suit his purpose,” claimed Sardesai, who in 1998 kept a monthly lunch date with Modi at Andhra Bhavan (where Sardesai footed the bill).
Unable to speak English, Modi had declined to appear on Sardesai’s The Big Fight, but promised him he’d one day speak the language better than the journalist. “He wants to be socially accepted by the English-speaking media,” Sardesai added.
Kishwar, who doesn’t know the PM personally, said the dubious ancestry of the Modi hate-brigade compelled her to revisit the post-riot Muslim settlements of Gujarat to investigate if the charges levelled against him held water.
In those riots, 262 Hindus and 863 Muslims were killed. During the Sikh riots 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone, and not a single Hindu casualty, she pointed out, questioning allegations of abetted genocide against the former Gujarat CM. “What I saw was so different from the narrative I’d heard,” she said.
Kingshuk Nag, author of NaMo Story didn’t think Modi was demonized. “He’s cast himself in the anti-establishment mode, being anti-Nehruvian, anti-Western press. If he’s demonized, it’s because he wants it,” he said illustrating Modi’s public/private dichotomy with examples on how the politician would abuse the media in public, and privately apologise to them.