Narendra Modi seeks moderate image with fast

Pro-business BJP leader Narendra Modi, who some think could be India's next prime minister, began a "harmony" fast on Saturday to soften his image that was hurt by the Gujarat riots that claimed hundreds of mostly Muslim victims nearly a decade ago.

Seizing the moment after the Supreme Court referred to a lower court a case in which he was accused of complicity in the 2002 violence, the Gujarat chief minister is using a three-day fast to depict himself as a moderate.

"My three-day fast is not against anyone," Modi, wearing a white turban, told supporters as he entered an air-conditioned hall in Ahmedabad, where he will conduct his fast.

"It is for peace and communal harmony. Through my fast, I want to reach out to more people," he said, flanked by senior members of the BJP, in comments broadcast live on national television.

Hundreds of supporters sang hymns as he entered the hall.

Modi, who celebrated his 61st birthday on Saturday, said a booming economy showed Gujarat had recovered from the riots that killed more than 1,000 people and was now peaceful.

After leading Gujarat for the past decade, there has been speculation Modi might be about to play a greater role in national politics.

The BJP moved ahead of the ruling Congress party in two polls last month as support for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government has withered because of high food prices and a series of corruption scandals.

Modi cut bureaucracy to help turn Gujarat into a motor of India's growth. But his reputation as a hardliner who let rioters rampage dogs him.

"Why did Modi not, for example, reach out to the riot-affected families still awaiting justice," said journalist Barkha Dutt, in a column in the Hindustan Times.

"Could this fast not be accompanied by gentle remorse instead of proud assertiveness?" asked Dutt.

Witnesses at the time said state police were absent during the worst of the violence, fuelling suspicion that Modi condoned the attacks on Muslims in retaliation for the deaths of a dozen Hindu pilgrims in a train fire.

In a rare sign of contrition, the notoriously self-assured Modi wrote an open letter on the eve of the fast opposing religious and caste divisions.

"I am grateful to all those who pointed out my genuine mistakes during last 10 years," he wrote.

India has a tradition of fasting for political ends. It was famously used by Gujarat's most famous son, Mahatma Gandhi, against British colonial rule. More recently, activist Anna Hazare, 74, galvanized middle-class anger over graft with a 13-day hunger strike.

Modi is a major proponent of an ideology, shared by the BJP, that emphasises the traditional Hindu nature of India.

The party governed from 1998-2004 after rising to prominence on a wave of Hindu nationalism after the destruction of the Babri Masjid.