Pernicious propaganda masquerading as analysis (Manwatching Mister Modi, Jun 24). That’s what Rukmini Bhaya Nair’s piece amounts to. With pseudo science, she has tried to project Modi as a demagogue, while the fact is that this man communicates—and communicates well—as a leader, whereas, to hear from the Congress leadership, one has to tease out a couple of words from them as they step into their cars.
Bahu Virupaksha, Pondicherry
Most of us see Modi as a no-nonsense, non-corrupt, dynamic person and a bit of a reasonably dictatorial fascist go-getter from his speech and body language. Please, Ms Bhaya Nair, leave him alone. He’s no “patient etherised upon a table”, to borrow Eliot’s words.
Col C.V. Venugopalan, Palakkad
While I’m no fan of Modi and do not think he’ll be prime minister, I despise such one-sided Modi-bashing articles. Why doesn’t Ms Bhaya Nair research the articles published in Outlook for how biased they are? If Modi is popular, it’s because people are frustrated with corrupt politicians who are spineless when it comes to protecting the country’s interests and are terrified of criticising the minorities even when they are at fault. Modi has done nothing but capitalise on these sentiments.
Vishnu, New York
Quite an interesting collection of words, charts and graphs, but what do they add up to and to what purpose?
Charan Rawat, Mumbai
Would you apply some of your psycho-babble to the nation’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra?
Pradip Singh, Stafford, UK
Your analysis of Modi would have made sense only if you’d made a comparable analysis of Sonia or Rahul Gandhi. But that would be blasphemy!
Sanjay Mittal, Delhi
How bombastic can analyses such as Ms Bhaya Nair’s get! Would she venture such an analysis of Sonia Gandhi, for whatever it might be worth?
Kay Shiv, Zuarinagar
With this article, it’s Modi who has exposed the media—its obsession with him has reached manic proportions.
Gayatri, Madrid
Was it just a coincidence that while you had a cover story on the mind of Narendra Modi, your sister publication, Geo, had a feature on Adolf Hitler. The similarities between the two are striking—a gift of oration and an unfailing ability to seize opportunities for self-aggrandisement and hype.
Bhaskar, on e-mail
From running a tea stall to racing for the prime minister’s post, Modi’s journey is no mean achievement. Psychologists may consider him an enigma and his opponents may speak of ‘Namonia’ and ‘Namonitis’, but there’s no denying that lots of people think of him as the strong leader—in the mould of Kemal Ataturk or Lee Kuan Yew--that India needs now. Modi may have a few weaknesses, but, when vested interests, corruption and entrenched interests are eating away at the body politic, he comes across as a saviour. If he goes astray, he should be booted out—no second chance.
M.A. Raipet, Secunderabad
It doesn’t require the services of linguists from IIT Delhi to decipher what’s cooking on Modi’s mind. It’s easy to tell this great living lie. And everyone knows about Godhra, post-Godhra and his outbursts against the minorities.
Dr George Jacob, Kochi
I found it startling that the word ‘Hindu’ was missing from the over 290 pages of text of speeches Modi made in two years. And he’s called a votary of rabid Hindutva. What sort of an irony is that?
Rajiv Chopra, Jammu
