Narendra Modi as PM will deeply destabilise India: Amitav Ghosh

Another leading intellectual from India joined the anti-Narendra Modi chorus today, commenting that if the Gujarat CM was to be elevated to the position of the country’s Prime Minister, he will have a severely de-stabilizing effect on it. Speaking to _CNN IBN’_s deputy editor Sagarika Ghose, internationally acclaimed writer Amitav Ghosh said that it is difficult to erase Gujarat riots from the memory.

Asked if the surge in Hindu nationalism worries him, Ghosh said that he found the trend greatly unsettling. “The way Hinduism is projected, it is completely different from what I understood of the religion in practice when I was growing up. The worst part is, they have turned faith into politics.”

He added that what happened in Gujarat was horrifying and he, along with the rest of the world, watched in shock as so many people were murdered in cold blood.

“Whether or not Narendra Modi should be held responsible for the carnage is for the courts to decide. However, when this happened, he was the chief minister of the state. The riots happened under his watch and he failed to stop them,” he added. “For someone with that past, occupying such a high position in the country will be deeply destabilising.”