In the year 2000, Hindus at last came back to power, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was elected Prime Minister of India. Hindus had great hope in him, but Mr Vajpayee, in true Hindu tradition, showed lack of insight, by giving orders to leave Sonia Gandhi alone and driving to Lahore in a ‘peace bus’, while Pakistani President Musharraf was sending his disguised soldiers to take over the Kargil hills. The BJP was also complacent, thinking that the little bit economic progress they brought to India, would be enough to win the next elections. But he Congress was re-elected for ten years and Mrs Gandhi, far from being grateful, mercilessly went all out after the BJP and Narendra Modi. And once more, Hindu power was snatched away.
Then Mr Narendra Modi appeared on the scene: he was a remarkable chief minister of Gujarat, making his state the most prosperous in India, the least corrupt, the greenest and the only one where ministers actually worked for the people – instead of for themselves or their parties. Many did not forgive him for not calling the army immediately after the anti-Muslim riots, triggered by the burning of Hindu pilgrims in the Sabarmati train, but that did not stop him from positioning himself as a prime ministerial candidate.
The Writer*.
More than even Mr Vajpayee, Mr Modi became Prime Minister of India in 2014 on aunited Hindu vote, from the Dalits to the Brahmins. Hindus voted Mr Narendra Modi to power, because he pledged many things that they had been yearning for a long time: a Common Civil Code, the removal of article 370, or the building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. They also liked the fact that Mr Modi was a fiery Hindu, so different from Mr Vajpayee: he called a spade a spade, was not afraid of naming his enemies and was a passionate and eloquent orator. Mr Modi thus became Prime Minister of India with a huge majority, and all Hindus hoped that power had come back to them after 5 centuries, for at least several generations… François Gautier
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*About the writer: François Gautier was political correspondent in South Asia for 10 years for Le Figaro, France’s largest daily. He is now the editor-in-chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l’Inde, published by Les Editions de l’Harmattan (Harmattan.fr). François has written several books on India: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Guru of Joy (Hay House 2009), A History of India as it Happened (Har Anand, New Delhi, 2013), Apprendre à Souffler (Hachette Marabout, 2016). Francois practices basketball, jogging, cycling, tennis & badminton. Follow him on: Facebook/francoisgautierofficial