In Tamil Nadu, a clash of visions

Marathammal ran out of breath walking barefoot in the blazing afternoon sun. The elderly Kurumba woman sat down on the steps outside a row of shops, about 100 metres from a large public ground in Mettupalayam where the Bharatiya Janata Party had organised an election meeting on April 10.

In her hand, Marathammal clutched a VIP pass. Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked out from it.

What does she think of Modi, we asked. “I don’t know anything about him,” she said. “But I have seen him on TV.”

Why had she come to the meeting, we asked. “The people in my village asked me to get into the bus so I did,” she said.