Though I do not completely agree with Mr. Raman on the reason for success of Modi, I think he is close enough to the truth.
Modi was the first person with power (since indian independence) who put his outrage into action (how ever criminal it may be) in a country where inaction is the biggest religion.
The unbelievably inhuman and barbaric killing of train full of people by burning them because they represent a hindu organization is a moment in history that no indian (and particularly hindu) will ever forget. This incident has the same scarring of conscience that Jalian Wala Bagh had before independence.
I am not defending Modi for his complicity in killing hundreds of innocent Muslims following the Godhra carnage. His actions are inexcusible and he needs to be brought to justice.
But what really baffles me (and I am sure a number of other indians like me) is that while an incident like Gujrat muslim killings is brought up for discussion again and again by institutions worldwide and also amazingly becomes basis of policy decisions in other countries, the thousands of hindu (more than 40000) lives lost in Kashmir is treated like a boring statistic.
In a world where killing of hundreds of Hindus and incidents such as the Akshardham Temple killings get lost in footnotes of a history book, Modi is the one and only symbol of protection for a timid hindu. Modi is riding on this symbolism and will continue to do so until hindus are fed up of him or find a better deal.
