RajivSpeak

A few days back, I happened to have an informal chat with a senior Congress leader. Belonging to Gujarat, this leader has made his way to the high command, going pretty close to party president Sonia Gandhi, which he more often than not nauseatingly proclaims, not unusual for a Congressman. Yet, I found something uncommon in him. I have known him before he decided to join politics more than a decade ago. At that time, he was more of a human rights activist, running an organisation in a backward Gujarat region which fought for the sake of a neglected section. I would enjoy visiting the far-flung areas under his influence talking with workers trained by him. One may dispute his approach and ways, but his unflinching commitment to the cause of the poor seemed impressive. I always thought, this leader's decision to enter politics was wrong, as he would have to make odd compromises. Yet, he would brush aside my suggestion as "failure to understand certain advantages of politics....

Ever heard of a proposed location called Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT)? If you haven’t, you are either ignorant or you have actually missed out on grabbing a real opportunity. At least this is the conclusion one should draw after perusing through an authoritative presentation on the dream project of Gujarat’s No 1, chief minister Narendra Modi, dished out by his powerful propaganda machine. Believe it or not, this high-level presentation on the proposed state-sponsored GIFT project declares that “85 per cent of Gujarat’s residents want to relocate to GIFT.” Interestingly, the presentation is quiet on which “Gujarat’s residents” it is talking about, where the survey was made, and by whom. As if this isn’t enough, it insists, “While only 24 per cent of non-residents (sic!) are willing to shift to Gujarat as a state, the percentage almost doubles (45 per cent) when it comes to shifting to GIFT.” Again, no sources have been quoted. If you do not know what GIFT is about, the...

It was a Sunday. On June 25, 2005, Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi called an urgent press conference to announce the "biggest ever gas find in India", valuing at around Rs 2 lakh crore. Quietly sitting at my residence, I had to rush to Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA), Ahmedabad, which is Gujarat's counterpart of Indian Institute of Public Admnistration (IIPA), Delhi. It was raining rather heavily, and my daughter had to virtually sail through the flooded city to reach Satellite Road to drop me at SPIPA. Modi announced that premier state PSU Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) had "discovered" 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, "more than the total gas find of India", at KG basin off Andhra coast. All of Modi's ministers were called on the occasion to listen to him. I interacted with several of them at the high tea that followed. They unanimously called it "Modi's great feat". I remember, how...

Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi once again, on May 5, harped on federalism theme, his favorite for the last several months. Speaking at the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in Delhi, he repeated what he had said previously at least on dozen occasions -- that there are “well defined and constitutionally mandated” centre-state relations, that there are “disturbing trends” which reveal the Centre’s “autocratic mindset” seeking to undermine “all canons of federalism.” He cited several instances, including proposed enactments to Railway Protection Act and Border Security Force Act, saying the Centre was behaving like the “viceroys of the yore.” While Modi’s reflections on federalism mirrors today’s political reality when centrifugal forces become stronger every day, it is amusing that they come from a leader who is a known centralizer in Gujarat. Take, for instance, the Cabinet he heads. Modi is not just Gujarat’s chief minister. As someone who matters in Sachivalaya put to ...

This bit of prediction by a key government official, who has been associated with Gujarat’s powerful Narmada establishment, struck me. The prediction concerned what is supposed to be the lifeline of Gujarat. This official said, there is “enough possibility” that chief minister Narendra Modi will use Narmada to win the forthcoming Gujarat state assembly elections scheduled for December, may be successfully. Dishing out figures, he said, thanks to good rainfall, the total “utilizable flow of Narmada water for Gujarat” this year would be 12 million acre feet (MAF) of water, as against 7 MAF a year ago. So far, 5 MAF has been used, and another 7 MAF will be available till June, or the onset of monsoon, which the farmers can easily use at will. This is equal to the total availability of Narmada waters last year, 7 MAF. The plus side for Modi is, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), responsible to supply water to the farmers, as of today is not allowed to charge a penny from the far...

There was a time when Gujarat government would take pride in initiating ways to get out of economic activity. I distinctly remember how former state finance secretary KV Bhanujan, at the turn of the last century, would prolifically tell me how it was important for the state to shrink its role in running the economy and why it should concentrate increasingly on social sector, which had long been forgotten, becoming the chief reason for the state’s poor human development index (HDI). Word would ring very strong in the corridors of power that it wasn’t the role of the state to run enterprises, and they should be either disinvested or sold to the private sector. To prove, officials would quote Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, and say market economy, strong social sector and strong democracy were complimentary, not contradictory. Though the idea of getting out of economic activity wasn’t new for Gujarat, soon after assuming power, in October 2001, chief minister Narendra Modi announced it would ...

It was an informal chat perhaps in his office, if I remember correctly, with a group of local scribes. Chief minister Narendra Modi had firmly established himself in saddle after taking over reins of power in October 2001. Unusually informal, Modi would then talk straight, without mincing words. Gujarat riots hadn’t yet taken place. A short discussion ensued on Hindu-Muslim relations. I ask him what he had to say of communal segregation in Ahmedabad. Wasn’t it dangerous that Hindus and Muslims had no interaction, especially after post-Babri 1993 riots? They didn’t know each other at all. Wouldn’t it breed an atmosphere of suspicion? Modi was unimpressed. “What’s so unusual about it?”, he wondered. “Don’t Catholics and Protestants live separately in Northern Ireland? They have separate life styles and values. Community living is an international phenomenon, and one should recognize it as such.” A decade has passed, and segregation has further solidified. After the 2002 riots, it has geo...