Narendra Modi - Why do we need him for India?
Eminent writer-activist Mahasweta Devi, recently praised Gujarat, "I have been to Gujarat many times, especially during the 2002 communal killings. ..I was deeply impressed to see the strong work culture in Gujarat. The city and village roads are well-built, even the remotest villages have electricity and access to drinking water. I was especially impressed with the medical facilities in the panchayats and local-level health centers..." Comparing to the over 30 years of the communist Government rule in West Bengal, she summarizes, "...Not at all like West Bengal where, even now, villages and panchayat areas have hardly any electricity. The government"s so-called "swasthya pariseva" (healthcare service) is totally non-existent."
The recent Nano car episode is further proof of the difference between the governments of the two states.
Writes Prafull Goradia, "What is unique about Mr Modi is his governance by management and administration by objectives. Singapore under legendary Lee Kuan Yew was the pioneer in adopting this concept and conclusively proving its success. .. In Gujarat he has demonstrated a flair for statesmanship. The question is: "Will he make himself available to the rest of the country."
The people of India are disillusioned with its politicians, to say the least. Even after 61 yrs of Independence, a vast section of the population still remains underprivileged, poor and illiterate. Big plans and tall promises are made at every election but are never implemented. Shortsighted policies meant for immediate gain, corruption, nepotism, manipulation of the system for personal benefit, lust for wealth and power and ugly vote bank policies are rampant and usual. Development for the mass is the least of the priorities. Virtues of honesty, integrity, wisdom, morality and nationalism are almost rare.
Even if there are a handful of honest and decent politicians, they either lack the vision or the assertiveness to implement a program or lack the raw nonchalant strength of character required to carry out a plan against odds.
In Narendra Modi, India has a politician with most required qualities to change the tide. It is not any exaggeration to say that, after his experience and experimentation with Gujarat, he probably has the answers to all the problems that the nation is facing today. He is not only the best choice but perhaps the only choice to lead the country.
The so called Gujarat model of development is nothing but the result of hard work of a visionary. There is no reason why it cannot be extended to the rest of India.
The latest worldwide craze of the new US President Barack Obama who perhaps, beside his image and his words, has few other achievements to back him is the latest example of how media can make a person. No such favor can be expected from the hostile Indian media in case of Modi. His every word and every move are scrutinized microscopically to find a fault that can be used against him. Even if the so called Hindutva poster boy demolishes temples for the sake of widening a road, the fake secular media will find fault in him and would fancy a battle and pit him against other Hindu organizations. One can imagine what they would do if he destroys a church or a mosque. It is ironic that the Indian Media which goes gaga over a small icon of Hanuman that reportedly Obama carries with him fails to acknowledge the dedication of Hanumanji that Modi carries in his heart. Thus other than a handful of protagonist it is likely that the Indian media will not support Narendra Modi.
Sure there will be opposition from other sides. Modi is the kind of personality who is bound to have overt or covert enemies. A lot of people will have a lot of undue privileges to lose and they are not expected to accept it willfully. Our self styled secularist, our opportunistic politicians, the folks who manage our national media, the activists who shed crocodile tears for the minorities will all fight till their last breath. A lot of national and possible international interests who would not like to see India to grow fast and become at par with developed nations will defy such a move. Already some are alarmed, "The more Moditva grows, the more its opposite has to be strengthened.. Only the sudden removal of Narendra Modi can stop this."
But what will the Indian people want? We have to realize that collective candlelight based solidarity will not change the fate of our beloved nation. We have to demand the change with conviction. A revolution is required to save the country. We owe it to our past and we owe it to our future. Then there are other questions. Will Mr. Modi agree to step out of Gujarat? Will Mr. Advani be willing to sacrifice his long term dream? Will all the other leaders of BJP and its allies stand behind the person who can take this country and the party to an unprecedented zenith? Will good sense prevail in some of the other people in power today?
Will we, the people of India unite, despite all disagreements, with a single minded goal of taking our country forward and will we be willing to get above all possible reservations about the man and choose the only person who can lead us towards that glory.
"Do we want that change?"
Mr. Modi has been described as a phenomenon of a kind India has not seen for a long time. Born on 17 September 1950 to a middle class OBC family in northern Gujarat, he has a Masters graduate degree in Political Science from Gujarat University. Having an RSS background, he was a student leader of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad and played a prominent role in the anticorruption movement in 1974 in Gujarat. He later joined the BJP in 1987 and became a National secretary of the party in 1995. Later in 2001, he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The biggest challenge which Narendra Modi had to face when he took over as the chief minister was the reconstruction of the earthquake affected areas. Bhuj was a city of rubble. People were living in temporary shelters without basic infrastructure. Earthquake recovery became his first priority. His dynamic vision and quick decisions have put Gujarat Reconstruction Program as one of the best reconstruction programs on the global map and set a benchmark for reconstruction and disaster recovery, not only in India, but also in the entire Asia, for which he achieved global recognition.
He is perceived as an honest, capable man who has taken Gujarat to greater heights of prosperity, since then. He was reelected for the third time in 2007 after a hard fought battle of ballots, in which he single handedly fought not only the Congress lead opposition but also the biased and prejudiced media and his own disgruntled party members.
With a reputation revolving around his incorruptible image and ascetic style of living, he is a workaholic, with a no-nonsense attitude who is unafraid to call a spade a spade. A person who cares less for political correctness and social connections, he is a patriotic karmayogi, whose vision is to make Gujarat at par with developed nations. A proud nationalist, on being asked whether it hurt him that he couldn"t get a US visa, he responded, "I take this as an opportunity. I want my India to be so strong and prosperous that Americans will queue up to come to India. A day will come when Americans will yearn to come to Gujarat."
It is this passion that makes Modi different - a passion for developing Gujarat, a passion to uplift the living standards of its people, a passion to place his Bharatmata back to her days of glory again. And this he tries to do with action and not false promises or gimmicks.
After the Gujarat riot, he has been the target of pathological hatred of the leftist, pseudo-secular, sociopolitical crowd and specially the English media and has been ornamented with numerous chosen abuses like a mass murderer, a dictator, a fascist, a Hitler, an ugly Indian, a maut ka saudagar, but all that has increased his resolve and his determination that he took back to his voters, who returned him stronger and triumphant with their love and respect.
He remained untouched by all the filth and unfazed by all the accusation and lies thrown at him. "Do you think the Centre would have left me like this if they had any proof against me? I have a government that is unfavourable at the Centre and their quietness says it all", He once shot back to an interviewer.
"We have a vibrant media, an active judiciary and global human rights groups working in the country. If there was even the slightest evidence that I had committed a crime, I would have been hanged long since", he said to another.
The Gujarati people have probably found in him what they like to see in any Indian politician - leadership, transparency, accountability, incorruptibility. He is unshakable in his commitments, to the extent of being arrogant, yet humble and down to earth. "I didn"t become CM on 07-10-2001. I have always been CM, I am CM today and shall be CM forever. For me CM means not Chief Minister but Common Man." Many can say but not many can act that way.
There are not many leaders in our country that spends his New Years Day with BSF forces at the border and feels and acts for the simple rights of the soldiers to have access to basic amenities like drinking water, electricity and telecommunications services to talk to their families
It is been hitherto a rare combination in the current Indian sociopolitical scene where one denounce a crime but not the powerful criminal, condemns a terror act but delays punishment of the terrorist, criticizes corruption but fails to indict the corrupt, where a politician is selected because of his popularity, even if it is for a wrong cause or because of his families and contacts and where a significant percentage of politician have pending cases against them on charges as varied as briberies, extortions, rapes and even murders.
No doubt he is endorsed by his party senior, Mr. Advani, "I can think of no other example in Indian politics of a leader who, after being subjected to a malicious and prolonged campaign of vilification, has been able to impress even his critics with his determination, single-minded focus, integrity and a wide array of achievements in a relatively short time"
In a country where most politicians gladly put on the mask of secularism and practice minority appeasement for vote bank politics, Modi stays indifferent, letting his performance, rather than token gimmicks and unsubstantiated claims, speak for itself. "I"m sending every child to school, I"m providing healthcare to every citizen, I"m giving everyone a share of the fruits of development. The Sachar Committee report, you"ll be surprised to learn, says that Muslims in Gujarat are better educated than Hindus. I always address my people as my five-and-a-half crore Gujarati brothers-the entire population of the state."
In a country with 80% Hindu majority, where asserting one"s identity as a Hindu is deemed "unsophisticated" and claiming one"s right as a Hindu is equated with "communalism", Modi infuses a fresh and notable exception. The lies and accusations hurled by the so called perverted, secular elite, to the so called poster - boy of Hindutva has actually helped Hindus, not only in Gujarat but all over India and even the Indian Diaspora abroad, to identify him as an icon, a role model, unwavering to his faith and commitments. For a large part of the Hindu community, he had instilled a sense of pride in a Hindu identity, sadly missing even in post Independent India, because of and pseudo secular politics of religious divide and minority appeasement.
Modi himself claims that he does not believe in communal politics and abhors majority-minority politics. His vision of a model governance is one that is "inclusive" wherein the last person in the chain should derive benefits from it. "I work for five and half crore Gujaratis. I work for their welfare. The talks of majority-minority, has destroyed the country. I strongly oppose minoritysm".
Asked once by the Sachar Committee about what steps his government has taken for Muslims, Modi bluntly replied, "I have done nothing... I have done nothing for the Hindus too... Through river linking, we brought the Narmada River to the Sabarmati. Now am I going to find out which community is drinking how much of this water? That is divisive politics."
Gujarat"s 45 lakh Muslims form just over 9 per cent of the state"s population, according to the 2001 Census. The literacy rate is 73 per cent, higher than the national average of 65 per cent for all citizens. On most other counts, including sex ratio and work participation, they fare better than the national average for all religions. "If pockets are empty, there will be violence. If people are jobless, there will be violence. Now that everyone is getting jobs, why should there be riots," asked Ali Asghar Attarwala, an architect in Jamnagar town.
"Many Muslims are realizing that the only truth is development," said Hatim Modi, a Muslim who works as a defense contractor. "We have been used by others. We won"t ever forget the riots - but the reality is about development."
"Yes, there were communal problems in 2002, but in last five years, there is not a single such incident, our community leaders have now become BJP leaders here.. We have reasons to support BJP and Modi," said A T Attarwala, industrialist and a resident of Sikka, which is a port town, with about 70 per cent Muslim and whose all 19 municipality seats are held by the BJP with 14 of them being Muslim members. "For 40 years we were voting for Congress but no development in our town. They have cheated us .It"s not necessary that Muslims are anti-BJP. We look forward to development which is here all over now in the last five years. We are happy with this government," said Mahmood Musa Sumbhadiya, Chairman, Sikka Municipality.
Just a few days back on Republic day, a large number of Muslims, holding the national tricolour, greeted the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the densely populated Polan Bazaar in Godhra town, an area that was affected in the 2002 riots, attesting once again that the Muslim community has also started to see through the design of fake promises of vote bank politics and are embracing the benefits of Gujarat model of development as well as its architect.
It is poetic justice that the recently concluded fourth Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors" Summit 2009 drew a huge participation from Islamic countries, as well as those which are predominantly Muslim, including Representative of Arab League, Brunei, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Maldives, and Indonesia, much to the ire of Indian Muslim organizations.
The other area where this minority politics are active is in terrorism which is the recent menace that is tearing the country apart. The chain of serial bomb blasts in various cities and finally the numbing experience of the Mumbai massacre, have left the nation speechless. Many feel that our nation"s response has been utterly disappointing. Many would agree with Modi that terrorism is a war on the country, that there should be zero tolerance to terrorism. India needs to respond adequately to terrorism by modernization of its security forces and with appropriate laws. Modi believes, "Only fools can send messages to terrorists. One should take action against them. They should be paid back in the same coin" Acknowledging modern terrorism as a high tech phenomenon, he had asked, "How we are going to fight "high tech" terrorism of 21st century with the help of laws passed in 19th century" Modi"s view that "Terrorism is worse than a war. A terrorist has no rules. A terrorist decides when, how, where and whom to kill. India has lost more people in terror attacks than in its wars" recently found support from a Supreme Court Judge who said, "Those who violate the rights of society and have no respect for human rights are not humans but animals. And people fighting for terrorists are actually supporting "animal rights...It is important to have special laws to deal with terrorists and we need to give enough time to our investigators and prosecutors to prepare the case with strong evidence".
In this context, one can recall how efficiently the Gujarat police handed the recent Ahmedabad blasts and solved it within three weeks. Not only that, Modi immediately conceived a Gujarat Forensic Science University (FSU) that is projected to start functioning from 1st of January, 2010 with a Rs. 38 crore budget in Gandhinagar.
Clearly signs of a person who believes in action rather than pondering with sweet talk.
Narendra Modi and prosperity of Gujarat
Gujarat has always been prosperous compared to the rest of the country thanks to the enterprising traditions of its residents for centuries. Over the last few years, Gujarat has made excellent progress on all fronts and had received various awards. Be it infrastructure building or water distribution, economic freedom or environmental protection, e-Governance or energy conservation, health accessibility or heritage protection and sanitation or software development, the state has made amazing progress in a short time. The agencies conferring these awards include International bodies like the United Nations (Sasakawa Award for outstanding reconstruction work in disaster risk reduction), World Bank (Green Awards for excellence in environment consciousness during post earthquake rehabilitation), UNESCO (Asia Pacific Heritage Award for reconstruction of a Gurudwara damaged during the earthquake) and various Ministries / agencies of Government of India like Ministry of power, Ministry of non-conventional energy services and institutions like India Tech Excellence Foundation (2005, for the most progressive and dynamic state in power sector reforms) and Computer Society of India (and Nihilant Technology Citizen Facilitation Award for the Best e-Governed State).
Gujarat ranks number one in The Economic Freedom Index as per the research conducted by none other than The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Gujarat has only 5% of India"s population and 6% of its geographical area, but its contribution to India in terms of "Value of Output" is 16.10%; in terms of exports it is 16% and in terms of stock market capitalization it is 30%.
Gujarat is one of the most industrialized states of India. Gujarat has a 16.2% share in India"s industrial production whereas the percentage of man-days lost in Gujarat due to labor strife is just 0.52% - the lowest in the country.
Gujarat surpassed the target of 10.2% set by the Planning commission for the 10th five-year plan compared to the average of 8.2% for the entire country, achieving a growth rate of 15% in the first year itself.
Gujarat accounts for 54% of India"s onshore crude oil production; 50% of India"s natural gas production; 46% of India"s installed refining capacity and 60% of India"s total crude oil import facility. Modi"s vision for a need of an institution for energy research and studies lead to the birth of GERMI - Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute.
Gujarat today has one of the best infrastructures in the country comprising of 11 airports, 1 international airport, an extensive rail network and a robust road network of over 74,000 km. A total of 17,763 out of the 18,028 villages (98.53%) of Gujarat are connected with pucca roads (concrete roads), the best in the country.
Gujarat coastline of over 1600 km, the longest in the country, is dotted with 41 ports, which handle over 25% of India"s total cargo.
Not only limited to industry development and productivity, Modi"s Gujarat is able to boast of meeting the basic requirements of its population in terms of education and health accessibility, clean drinking water and electricity. On the education front there have been 11 new universities, 400 new colleges, 1.25 lakh new teachers, 38,000 new schoolrooms and a doubling of seats for technical courses. Campaigns for universal education, emphasis on girl child education, total enrollment and maximum retention of children in the schools has resulted in a massive reduction in the drop out rate at all primary levels. The Gujarat government has set 2010 as the deadline to ensure a 100 per cent enrolment and zero per cent drop out rate.
Thanks to a systematic approach to different health issues like rural and urban health, school health, maternal and child health, mental health, preventable diseases and a wide variety of innovative program with Public-Private Collaborations, Gujarat is now emerging as a global medical tourism destination. The WHO has appreciated Gujarat"s school health program, under which 10 million primary school children are medically examined every year. Another scheme involving private gynecologists in providing services related to safe delivery of pregnant women primarily from socio-economically weaker sections, called the Chiranjeevi Yojana, recently bagged international recognition in the form of Asian Innovation Award at Singapore from Wall Street Journal and the Financial Express and was appreciated in UNICEF"s report " State of World Children 2009.
Water management has been Gujarat"s one of the best success stories. Modi"s mission of "Water for all" has been a revolution. Agriculture sector has been hugely boosted through harnessing of rain water and scientific management of water, interlinking of 21 rivers of the states, linking the villages with a State Wide Water Grid and introduction of Micro-Irrigation Techniques. The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project, making the waters of Narmada river flow all across the state through canals and water transmission lines, due to be completed will further add by providing the benefits of water and electricity up to 500km away from the dam.
A statewide drinking water grid is also being established for providing drinking water to more than 14,000 villages and 154 towns. The result is that earlier about 4,000 villages needed to be provided water through tankers which has now reduced to less than 185.
The Jyoti Gram Yojana to provide 3-phase, 24-hour, uninterrupted power supply to all the 18,065 villages and also to the 9,680 suburbs attached to these villages has been described as the single initiative that has brought a revolutionary change in the life-pattern and economic activities of rural Gujarat, promoting development of small scale industries and generation of additional employment. Implemented in a record time of 30 months, the Jyoti Gram Yojana has enabled Gujarat to become the first state in India to achieve 100% electrification of villages.
On the judiciary front, there are now 22 lakh cases pending against 45 lakh cases in 2005. By 2010, Gujarat"s golden jubilee year, the state aims to achieve zero pendency of cases. Part of this success has been the functioning of 67 Evening Courts, which have enabled the common man to seek justice without wasting his working hours during the day. Similar success has been achieved with the experiments of Lok Adalat (People"s Court) and Nari Adalat (Female Court). In the latter, women groups have organized themselves into informal judicial forums in order to address the grievances and cases of women through consultation and negotiation.
Gujarat ranks first in the country in the implementation of 20 point program for poverty abolition for the last four years in a row. The government has already provided Housing to 46,263 below poverty line families at the cost of Rs. 13672.94 lakhs.
Gujarat is the first state in the country to have made e-Governance functional in all its municipalities and municipal corporations and also the first state to have framed a comprehensive urban health policy. Gujarat is the only state in Asia to have an e-connectivity network in all 590 village councils. Around 207 village community centers have started operations. So far, 13,693 panchayats or village councils have computers and sarpanch and village secretaries are trained to operate computers.
Modi and his government have proved once again the age old proverb, where there is a will there is a way. Imagine all these things happening in the same country where Rajiv Gandhi, as Prime Minister of India, once lamented helplessly that out of every rupee spent for development only 17 per cent actually reached the poor. There has to be some difference and it is this difference of vision, commitment and conviction that distinguishes Modi from other politicians.
When other Chief Ministers accumulate crores of personal wealth as birthday gifts, Modi deposits each and every gift / souvenir received by him in the government treasury (toshakhana) for the cause of girl child education (Kanya Kelavani). He has deposited Rs.287.37 lacs in a period of 5 years and started the movement where people, being touched by his commitment for the cause of female education, instead of felicitating him by gifts or souvenirs have started donating checks for Kanya Kelavani Nidhi. For this benevolent cause, they have voluntarily handed over more than Rs.11 crores to their beloved leader. This only vindicates the fact that when the intentions are noble and the commitment total, support flows from all directions.
Since 2003, every year in scorching summer heat of the month of June, the Chief Minister along with his team travels to remote villages to encourage parents to enroll their children in schools. It is a three day long statewide drive covering all the villages and the urban areas in where an atmosphere of festivity and celebration is created to attract young children who now wait keenly to get themselves enrolled into schools. To ensure higher retention rates, another initiative is Vidyalaxmi scheme, introduced in villages where female literacy rate is lower than 35% and in the urban areas for the girls belonging to the below-poverty-line families, where the Vidyalaxmi bond of Rs. 1000/- is given to girl students who take admission to the 1st std and 8th std, to be received with interest on completion of std 7th and 10th respectively.
The vision, concept and implementation of such programs make Narendra Modi unique. While other politicians think about the next elections, Modi thinks of the next generation.Thus said industrialist Anil Ambani "If Gujarat was a separate country, it would stand in a different league among some of world"s most flourishing and prosperous countries"
It is no wonder that he has been recognized as No.1 Chief Minister by the people, thrice in last five years in India Today - ORG MARG Survey, a unique recognition ever achieved by any CM in the country.
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