Actually, I don't even want to discuss him. Thinking about him and writing about him makes me angry. Not worth it, so early in the morning.
These are hard times.
I began opposing him when he made it clear that he was an anti-Muslim bigot, and I was not alone. Gradually he became more and popular, and won re-election to his own state. Then he became an all-India figure, and an election-winning orator. Finally, his party won a huge majority and formed the government.
All this while, those of us who opposed him kept at our purpose. His support grew from the hitherto uncommitted, or from those who harboured resentment of Muslims and had not shown it, having been told over decades that it was anti-social and uncivilised.
Then, after he formed the government, and started using all the organs of the government against his opponents, our numbers dropped. People felt that they could not risk their jobs, their public reputation, their relations with their kinfolk, with their friends, with their neighbours to oppose him, and that it wasn't worth the trouble, and they fell away, and made excuses and vanished.
There is a turn in the tide now, but things are still grim.
The worst part is that Muslim Indians are losing faith in Hindu Indians, not just the extremists and those threatening them, but those that have backed them all along.
Their question is, what use is your support if our oppression continues?
We have no answer.
I have no answer.