Washinton Post, India :
As priests chanted and smeared vermilion on Narendra Modi’s forehead, the opposition leader prayed that India would make him its next prime minister.
Modi came to this Hindu holy city late last year to worship at a site that has been contested by Hindus and Muslims for centuries. Just yards from where he stood, a two-story wall of metal bars separated the historic temple from a mosque.
India’s complex politician:?Narendra Modi could rule the world’s largest democracy, but he is also the country’s most divisive figure.
The mood is tense in the eastern city of Donetsk as militants ignore an ultimatum and widen their hold.
Modi has been a polarizing figure in India for years. Now his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has surged in the polls as a discontented electorate has embraced his message of economic growth and corruption-free government. Voters have begun to cast their ballots in national elections, which will continue in stages until May 12.
But many Indians, particularly the estimated 14 percent who are Muslim, are deeply suspicious of Modi because of riots in his home state of Gujarat just over a decade ago, in which Hindu mobs killed more than 1,000 people.
Critics charge that Modi, a Hindu nationalist and the state’s political leader, did little to stop the carnage.
Muslims fear that if Modi becomes prime minister, he will drive a wedge as steely as the barrier in Varanasi between religious groups in India, a predominantly Hindu but officially secular democracy.
Abdul Matin, a Muslim who owns a textile business, said he worries that Modi wants a government that will promote Hindu ideology. “He doesn’t believe in a secular state,” Matin said.
On a recent broiling day, mosquitoes were swarming around the college students and tourists on Varanasi’s famous “ghats” – stone steps that lead to the Ganges. The river is considered sacred by Hindus, and thousands of pilgrims come for a ritual dip each year. Smoke rose from funeral pyres along the river as bodies of Hindus were cremated.
