Shall we dance, Mr Modi? His tattoos for this year's Garba

A woman gets her arm inked with a Narendra Modi tattoo

Ahmedabad: Move over, Shah Rukh Khan. There's a new man in Garba town.

Till last year, young men and women in Ahmedabad flaunted temporary tattoos of Bollywood's rich and famous. This year, not so much.

"What better way than having Narendra Modi's tattoos on Garba revelers? There is a craze amongst the youth for making temporary tattoos and we in our own way are contributing to his popularity," said Jagruti Parmar, a tattoo artist at a parlour in Ahmedabad.

Mr Modi, the 64-year-old chief minister of Gujarat, is running for Prime Minister.  And many in his home state want to do their bit for his campaign in the nine days of Garba - the dance all-nighters that are the highlight of the nine-day Navratra festival.

"Girls want to flaunt their tattoos with their backless cholis (blouses). Apart from general tattoo designs, Narendra Modi tattoos are the latest trend during the Garba," said Shalini Saxena, who got a Modi tattoo on her back.

Mr Modi's young male supporters are getting his face imprinted on their biceps. So for this Garba season, it's all about "NaMo, shall we dance?"

CBI to say Ishrat Jahan was 'innocent college girl' in next chargesheet

New Delhi: The CBI will soon declare that  it has found no evidence of terrorist leanings for 19-year-old  Ishrat Jehan, who was killed by the Gujarat police in 2004 along with three men.

Sources say that in its next chargesheet, to be filed within the next two weeks, the agency will say that Ishrat was "an  innocent college girl", presenting a boldface controversy for chief minister Narendra Modi, who is in the running for Prime Minister.

The BJP has already alleged that the ruling Congress, unable to politically combat Mr Modi's surging popularity, is using the CBI to question his credentials and mar his reputation as the national elections approach.

In its first chargesheet presented in a Gujarat court in July, the CBI accused seven senior policemen of murdering Ishrat and her three male companions  in "cold blood" and of planting an AK-56 at the scene of the shooting to portray the victims as terrorists.

One of those officers, DG Vanzara, who was then Deputy Commissioner of the Amedabad Crime Branch, wrote an explosive letter to Mr Modi from jail recently.

He alleged that Mr Modi's close aide, Amit Shah, who was Home Minister when Ishrat was killed, was aware of the police's actions, but that the cops have now been betrayed by a weak state government.  The senior officer repeated the defense that his team was trying to fight Pakistani terrorists.

The CBI says that Mr Vanazara has refused to cooperate and share more details of the accusations he made in his note against Mr Shah. So far, the CBI has not interrogated Mr Shah, or linked either him or Mr Modi to its investigation.