I remember reading one of these essays that compared India with China. And it was mentioned that India struggled to get democratic setup for centuries. Even though democratic setup is making us slower than China by a couple of percentage points annually, it is still worth to be slower because our forefathers have fought for hundreds of years to provide us a democratic, secular state.
The same logic applies here as well. Is it really worth to risk our secular and democratic values to achieve 1-2% higher GDP growth rate?
A tainted leader may get us higher GDP, however there is a risk of alienating a significant portion of our society. A simple question to ask is how is the distribution of BJP legislators in Gujarat? If almost all of them belong to only one sect, religion or community, then we have our answer.
The present day example of Syria may be an extreme comparison. However, it is still a relevant example of how a country can get divided by not taking all the ethnic groups together by the governing authority.

Dear Gurcharan Dassji,
Let me introduce myself as your ardent fan. I have read your fantastic book on the struggle to resolve Dharma, more than once, and recommend it to my other colleagues as the most comprehensive and erudite attempt at resolving moral dilemmas.

The impulse that pierced through my reluctance to communicate was your following statement about Modi: " After all, it happened under his watch, and he is responsible". The first part that it happened under his watch is correct, but not the latter part about his being responsible for the holocaust. I will urge you kindly read Madhu Kishwar's 'Modinama' to learn what all Modi did during the three days of Katle-aam. Modi may have his reasons for not publicly expressing remorse, but that can be understood, if one understands how mercilessly the media hounds him.

Warm regards.

I dont think the choice will be as simple as that. On one hand we've got herculean tasks at hand, and on the other the Hercules himself is not a paragon of virtue. But one thing that will decide the future is neither Modi nor Congress. It is the 'mango people'. We often forget that even when we were a nascent democracy in the 70's, we had the guts to slam the door on an effective but tyrannical leader. If we had the guts then, we will have the guts now. So let's take the plunge. Lets give someone else a chance for once.

In the last Gujarat Elections, BJP did not field a single Muslim candidate. BJP said Modi does not differentiate but chooses efficient persons. Then came a story of 24 Muslims being elected to a local council on BJP ticket. BJP pointed to this as an example of his secular credential. The leader of the group was interviewd by NDTV Newsand here is waht he had to say - I persuaded the Muslims to join Modi, because I saw that our region was getting no finacial aid nor any development and the infrastructure was crumbling. But once we jined Modi, it was as if the entire coffers of Gujarat were opened for us and we had companies opening plants and all the money we wanted for development and it has'nt stopped - so I leave it to the readers to judge the "GOOD GOVERNANCE" or is it blackmail? If you want further evidence check his peace yatra, when he refused to accept a ceremonial Cap from a Muslim or a Cape but did that from other societies. I suppose this is being secular? Currently the Supreme Court is investigating 2 encounter killings where Modi's assistants are indicted for murder. There are 119 such encounters where muslims were farmed from Andhra and Rajasthan and Gujarat police officers shot them and the excuse was that they were planning to kill Modi. The police were competing to have the greater number of kills so that they could get credit and promotions. This was a remark made by NDTV news when investigating. All the above can be accessed from India's NDTV news and as reported by them. So reading this I can hardly support Modi no matter how efficient a governance he has - starngely it has been always 1 person act not a collective governance - all reports have stated Modi as the point man for conducting business not a land office or business centre. Incidently Hitler, Stalin and many such horrible people were also efficient administrators and should we praise them or model ourselves on them? No No No.

Dear Readers,
Just imagine, your friend is going abroad to study and your child has all capability but you cant send because of high rupee depreciation, you simply cannot afford; at end of month you and your spouse keep on wondering were we have spend our money and how to tackle other expenses, because your income is increasing in single digit but inflation is increasing in double digit; everyday you fear if India is next Greece…..this is indeed a horrible situation which indeed can arise if CAD deficit, inflation, rupee depreciation are not tackled and growth is not achieved.
So now my question is, why not choose a person who can handle this. So that we can get a better living and give a better living to our next generation. Excepted, Mr.Modi have a dark background, but he has been elective three times consecutively with majority. This simply means, that even Muslim’s are voting for him. At end of the day, be it Hindu or Muslim or anyone, each one of us want growth.
And let me tell you that other than 2001, no communal riot has taken place since then in Gujarat.
If we look at all candidates from all the parties, no one is clean chit, we are in situation where we have to choose between bad and worse. So why not choose someone who doesn’t only speaks but proves his every action.