Popular but polarizing: Hear what Indians say about Modi

Varanasi, an ancient city heaving with humanity. If India had a Bible belt, this could be its capital religion woven into the fabric of life here, like the rickshaws weaving in and out of traffic for the Tang of turmeric, human and coriander from the Gola Dinnanat spice market, hundreds of years old, I’m Will. Here I meet a shopkeeper. Nice to meet you, Akash Jez Wall, who’s full of praise for India’s popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What makes him different from others? What he says he has done. When you hear him speak, do you feel like he’s speaking to you and your life? Yeah, Yeah, he. Because he is. He speaks with heart, the heart of a very smart politician. Modi was not born here. He chose to represent this Hindu spiritual center. Leading up to the elections, Modi inaugurated a temple dedicated to Lord Rahm, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities. Built on the site of a Muslim mosque demolished decades ago by Hindu hardliners. Ram Bharat Ki aasta hai, Ram Bharat ka, Azhar hai, Ram Bharat ka. He’s blurring the line between religion and politics. Projecting himself as the head priest, the protector, the creator of a Hindu First Nation, Prime Minister, Modi does something which has not happened before in Indian politics. Among all our prime ministers, he willfully creates a cult of his own personality. Many actually worship Modi himself almost like a living God. But not every Hindu here is a believer. Wish Ram Barnat Mishra is head priest of a prominent local temple and it sits alongside Hinduism’s holiest river, the Ganges. Every day he bathes in these heavily polluted holy waters. He says the environment and also the political climate has drastically deteriorated during Modi’s first decade in power. He’s widely expected to win a third five year term. Have you ever seen this city so divided, so polarized? This is what we call it is not the religious center, It is basically a spiritual center. So this unique fabric fabric has a strained condition now, and we have a fear that this fabric may break. That’s what happened back in 2002 when Modi was chief minister of the Indian western state of Gujarat. Religious riots there killed more than 1000 people, mostly Muslims. And many say Modi is stocking the fires of religious tensions, empowering the Hindu majority and marginalizing the Muslim minority. The first term that came to my mind was scary. Scary. Yeah, it’s scary. I sat down with Sana Sabaz. She was celebrating the end of Ramadan with her family, all of them worrying if this is the end of a secular Indian government and will it mean the end of their religious and civil rights? And where is the freedom of somebody just wearing a skullcap, minding his own business, buying mutton whatever he wants to, and then heading home and then dying on the way? And there are other things she worries about, like high youth unemployment, low wages, widespread poverty, not to mention corruption. But polls still show Modi’s popularity is pushing 80%. Modi’s own path from poverty to politics is part of his appeal for a lot of people here in India. His official biography says he’s the middle son of a Chihuahua, a tea seller, a humble upbringing that he says helps him understand the problems plaguing everyday people. Modi says his programs put more food on their tables. Plus the government hands out cash and cooking gas and they provided water and power and sanitation services. Modi’s also getting a lot of respect abroad. Today, India is strong, capable and self reliant under the Prime minister’s leadership in Modi’s India Majority rules. And he’s expected to win a commanding majority of India’s nearly 1 billion eligible voters, the biggest democratic election in the history of mankind, making Modi one of the most popular and powerful leaders in the world, even if some feel they may be left behind. Will Ripley, CNN, Varanasi, India.