Tomorrow, or already today in some places, Modi will officially become prime minister in India, and with that the Rubicon will have been crossed. Nothing will ever be able to undo that leap into darkness and that will without salvage become condemned in history for all times to come. Not that there were any doubts about the emphatic magnitude of the victory; it is that categorical dominance that poked a dogmatic finger at the nation that had its genesis in idealistic principles based on universal inclusiveness and egalitarian principles of justice. The person who in his not so distant past displayed all the symptoms of a parochial behavior with complete disregard for the lives of minorities will assume power in a nation that once revered Gandhi. Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, the man who murdered Gandhi used be member of the rabid Hindu organization that nurtured Modi. His much trumpeted development in the state he ruled stopped at boundaries of the Muslim ghettos of Ahmadabad with members of that community actively denied residences in Hindu areas through intimidation. Who could have fancied apartheid in the land of Gandhi in twenty first century without causing an outrage and anguish? The fact there were no protests, no outrages and no condemnations, makes it easier to understand saffron sweep in the country. Ironically, the same day as he was declared as winner of elections, the supreme court of India released three persons charged in a so called terrorist attack. The court admonished the home minister of the state for 'not applying his mind' and that home minister was none other than Modi. Three innocents lost eleven years of their lives and those of their kins. The word is Modi ever since his win has morphed into a moderate. A true moderate would have apologized to those three hapless poors whose life is shattered or would ask Zakia Jafri for her forgiveness. Even if he wanted to be a moderate from this day on, will his constituency of bigots let him?
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