I think Mr. Mehta has hit the nail on the head. I am living in Gujarat now but have lived in many other parts of India also. The entire issue of communalism entered this election after Sonia made her infamous " merchants of death" comment. Till then Modi talked only about development. The media dislikes Modi because he refuses to extend undue favours to them and treats them as common man. The electronic media referred to by Mr. Raman have probably not visited Gujarat in the last few years. The fact remains that Modi has brought development and his regime is clearly the least corrupt of all states in India. If the commeon man prefers him to corrupt alternatives, why does the media find fault with it? Do not forget that Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide in 1984 ( due to his clean image) but lost in 1989 due to corruption related matters. In most places, the choice is between corruption and development. Modi has proved otherwise and has won mainly because of this. The other part of the issue is the question of communalism. Do not forget that Sonia's comment was trigerred by newspaper reports that the Dawoodi Bohras ( a muslim community) was planing to vote for Modi. Several muslims that I know felt that Modi was better than others because he favoured development and ensured peace in the state.
