Would Modi save India or wreck it?

摘要

Even five years ago it would have been inconceivable; but, with a general election due by next May, Narendra Modi is the front-runner to become India's next prime minister. The long-serving chief minister of Gujarat has always had a core of passionate supporters for his mix of economic efficiency and hardline Hindu nationalism, and because he gets things done, an increasing number of voters see him as the saviour of India's struggling economy (see page 24). But Indian politics has no more divisive figure. A terrible blot hangs over his reputation since an orgy of violence in his state in 2002 left overi,ooo dead, most of them Muslims. Do his qualities outweigh that huge stain?