For the past few years the language of secularist outrage has become predictable. Last week, angered by the CPM’s high- handedness in Nandigram, historian Sumit Sarkar showered on West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee the ultimate abusive epithet: he equated him with Narendra Modi.

No Indian public figure in living memory has been subjected to as much vilification as has the chief minister of Gujarat. From being routinely called “fascist” and “mass murderer” to being dubbed a four-letter word by a leading magazine, Modi has been projected as the epitome of ugliness. The anger is centred on his alleged acts of commission and omission during the post-Godhra violence of 2002. According to a parliamentary reply given by the Union minister of state for home affairs on May 11, 2005, a total of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in what has been variously described as a “pogrom”, “genocide” and, by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as another “Holocaust”.

Given the persistence of shrillness, there was an expectation that the matter would have been brought once again to the court of democracy next month. Yet, as the subdued reactions to TV footage of sundry goons bragging about their murderous ways suggest, Gujarat is reluctant to revisit the gory past. Godhra and its fallout was the theme of the December 2002 election, and the political class is anxious to avoid an action replay. Righteous victimhood will at best form a silent sub-text of the campaign.

On the surface, the December poll appears a ‘normal’ election. Despite the towering omnipresence of Modi, the themes at play — personal enmities, governance, caste, local grievances, campaign imagery, etc — hardly mark Gujarat out from other routine celebrations of democracy. At the same time, everyone agrees that the Gujarat verdict will have a profound bearing on future politics. Is the importance being attached to the Gujarat verdict, therefore, merely a consequence of Modi’s involvement? If identity politics isn’t at the heart of this election, is the future of Modi just an academic issue?

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