He is the most contentious figure in
modern Indian politics - likened by his many enemies to Adolf Hitler, Slobodan
Milosevic and Pol Pot.
Narendra Modi, 52, the chief
minister of India's western state of Gujarat, was catapulted to reputation last
year after presiding over India's worst communal riots for a decade.
The main charge: that his police
force simply watched as Hindu mobs in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's historic main city,
and in immediate towns and villages, burned out entire Muslim communities and debased
mosques. The riots left 100,000 people homeless, severely damaged India's
credentials as a secular social equality, and were described - correctly - as
genocide.
They also led to a major diplomatic
rift between Britain and India after a report by the British high commission in
New Delhi blamed India's BJP-led coalition government.
Writing in the Guardian, a group of
south Asian scholars said Mr Modi should be indicted for his
"culpable" role in the killings, and called on the British government
to declare him persona non grata. Lawyers for the three dead Britons explored
ways of prosecute him.
The chief minister, however, was impenitent.
The strategy worked. In state elections last December Mr Modi won an astonishing
majority - and praise from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India's mature BJP prime
minister, who had briefly considered sacking his difficult responsibility.
Many now believe that Mr Modi's
brand of chauvinist anti-Muslim politics, known in India as Modi-tva, will see
the BJP win a historic second term in India's general elections next year.
But the riots appear to have done
permanent damage to Hindu-Muslim relations in India, a country with 140 million
Muslims. None of the Hindu rioters who took part in last year's killings have
been brought to justice, largely because Mr Modi's government has constantly disturbed
attempts to prosecute the guilty.
Earlier this summer India's high
court threw out a case against 21 people accused of burning 14 Muslims to death
at a bakery in Vadodra. India's national human rights commission has appealed
against the ruling after it emerged that all of the witnesses for the hearing
had been terrorized into silence. Mr Modi is contesting the appeal.
An MA graduate who can speak confident
English but who prefers to declaim in Gujarati or Hindi as he did in London
last night, Mr Modi is technically savvy, and usually answers his own email. He
is single, and a vegetarian.
His decision to fly to Britain
suggests he is preparing to launch himself on the national Indian stage, with
some pundits tipping him as a future Indian prime minister.
If he ever makes it, then India's
tradition of secular social equality, which has been under threat for some
time, will have been replaced by impressive much darker.
