Ahmedabad:
Photo-ops with the many Muslims who attended his three-day sadhbhavna mission were an important part of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's attempt at an image makeover in preparation for a larger national role.
But the Congress will give Mr Modi no credit. The support of the Muslims who attended Mr Modi's show was a "case of Stockholm Syndrome...where the oppressed praise the oppressor," contended senior Congress leader and law minister Salman Khurshid.
Mr Khurshid said grand show apart, concerns remained about justice being done to the victims of the post-Godhra Gujarat riots of 2002. "The overall responsibility is on Mr Modi," Mr Khurshid said, also asking why Mr Modi's talk of amity and inclusion had come "so late in the day."
The Congress leader was careful to clarify that when he used the sophisticated psychological term, he did not mean to undermine an independent, rational choice to support a political party that any individual might have made. But he found it difficult to buy the fact that so many Muslims were "seemingly happy under Modi," Mr Khurshid said.
Narendra Modi has long been accused of partisan politics and has lived with the blemish of the 2002 Gujarat riots for the last decade. His Sadhbhavna or amity mission was an attempt to underscore that his governance has been inclusive, that Muslims in the state have benefitted from Gujarat's development equally as have the others.
Mr Modi, eye firmly on the Gujarat elections next year and the General Elections in 2014, repeatedly made a point of this over the three days that he sat on fast. "I don't play vote bank politics...I don't discriminate on the basis of religion...I decided I would not run a government to win the next election," he said as he ended his fast yesterday.
But one uncomfortable moment exposed the one big chink in Mr Modi's carefully constructed political armour. A visiting Muslim cleric, among the many who came to the fast, tried to make Mr Modi wear a "skull cap" worn by Muslims. The Gujarat Chief Minister said a visible no. The cleric took offence. "Modi's no to the imam cap is an insult to Muslims and humanity...he is a Ravana," he said. (
Read: Controversy over Modi's alleged refusal to wear skull cap)
The BJP has dismissed this as a non-issue.