Sunday, January 23, 2011

Waiting for "The Modi's India"

  On my way back from office, and just got down from the office bus. Headed straight to a small tea shop by the road side. Had a tea, and picked up a Kurkure packet. The packet was so dusty, asked the guy to give me a different one. "All packets are like this", said the guy. I told him you could have at least cleaned it once before keeping for selling to which he replied angrily: " These bastards are relaying the platforms for the last 2 years. Things become dusty in just a matter of minutes". He went on adding "You are talking as if you are coming straight from America. The road projects only starts, never gets over. These politicians are all for money. Nobody cares a shit for the people using these platforms". Typical words heard from an Indian. I said in  a jest, wait for sometime, looks like this Karnataka government can fall anytime. "So what? Nothing changes." he said, and added something more which took me by surprise: "There is only one good politician in the country and it is Narendra Modi".

   It is very rare for a common man to know more about a state level politician belonging to a different state. However, it is an exception in case of Modi. Winning election after election has made him to be recognized as  a national personality. It is true the post-Godhra riots will always be a blot on Mod's image. The irony is the media brings Modi to the news channels always in relation with the Nanavati commission and SIT related to Godhra, however there is a silently unwatched or less talked about side of Modi, a statesmen who encourages development of the state to the core. India needs a Gujarat summit to realize the state is slowly becoming the economic superpower of India.

   “Modi lambi race ka ghoda hai” is what Anil Ambani said, quoting his late father Dhirubai Ambani's view on Modi, during the Gujrat Vibrant Summit last year. With the last Lok Sabha election results, the picture was very clear: Modi is to stay as the top man of Gujarat for a few more terms, if not for decades. Things are happening in Gujarat so faster, it has now caught the eye of the nation. Take for instance the business tycoons across the globe who were queued up for this year's Gujarat Vibrant summit which attracted investments worth 450 billion dollars. There are already talks that Gujarat is going to be the economic power house of India accounting for almost one third of India's GDP. The election results have given the trust to the corporates, Modi's state development mantra has given the confidence, add it to the corruption free government, making it a paradise for the people of Gujarat and the corporates across to choose Gujarat as a destination.

  Everything is subjected to Inflation, and so is corruption. It simply does not make sense these days if the corruption amounts are in tens or hundreds of crores, and hence scams like 2G in lakhs of crores. Fair enough. The words 'Politics' and 'Corruption' go hand in hand in India.   This successful government in Gujarat seems not to have any sort of corruption, but my understanding of Indian bureaucracy does not allow me to believe so. I asked one of my Gujju friends, is corruption ok or too much in Gujarat? He said, "Corruption, in Gujarat? Forget it. If Narendra Modi comes to know any minister  in his government is corrupt, we don't need any CBI or CID. Modi will see him off".(My friend used a better word than 'see' while telling me, can't put the same here for obvious reasons.)

  There is an old saying: "A good governance is possible only when there is a constructive opposition".  The demonstration of this phrase can only be understood from Gujarat. Let me to take you back to the Nano story. The whole nation watched helplessly when our Didi ousted Tata from Bengal. Several states proposed to offer land to Tata. Tata's chose Gujarat. Modi's approval and the entire project formalities got over in a record span of 3 days. The project was expected to give direct employment to around 50,000 people, the worth of the project being around Rs.20,000 crore. Modi converted what looked like Bengal's loss into Gujarat's gain in no time. Attribute this to Modi seizing the opportunity with his thinking or Tata's trusting Gujarat.

  Hard to digest the fact that a project of such a magnitude can see its way through in 3 days.  Spare a thought for the opposition party, the Congress. Any opposition in a state will pounce on opportunities like this by creating all kinds of doubts in the minds of the people, but not the Gujarat congress. In fact, it is the state congress which convinced the central congress stating this project is for the welfare of the Gujarat people and it should go ahead. Just a wild dream: How will India be if every opposition party is like this!! Sorry for being so wild. Compare for a moment the Gujarat scenario to the opposition parties of some bigger Indian states say Karnataka, where the opposition is hell bent on bringing the government at any available opportunity, Andhra- where everyday a new party becomes popular in the name of Telangana, 6 main stream parties as of now, Maharashtra - it's not about the 3 main opposition parties, the ruling coalition itself has always had issues amongst themselves virtually leaving the state in the same position where it was 10 years back.

  I believe a lot in single party government which in today's world looks like an out-dated phrase. Not a reality any longer. Coalition is always a bane for the state or the nation. Gujarat is blessed to have this. A state can do wonders when the government is single party. It can do even more when the central government is also of the same party. Keep in mind most of the Modi period had Congress at the Centre. I wonder how Gujarat will be when the BJP government is at the centre. Modi's charisma wins the people's heart, his works wins people's trust, the day when the BJP top brass bury their differences, Modi will be the top man of India. In Indian politics, BJP has been the choice at the state level in many states, congress at the centre because BJP has good state level leaders, Congress has amazing central leaders. The day BJP projects Narendra Modi as their prime minister candidate, the equations will start changing. Eagerly waiting for that Modi's India which is a corruption-free and is going to be all about development, development and only development.

  I hope whatever we are seeing today in Gujarat is a rough draft. The fair copy will be implemented across the nation when Narendra Modi becomes India's top man. Gone are the post-Godhra days when people felt "Thank God, our state is not like Gujarat". Welcome to this Modi era where now the same people feel "Why is our state not like Gujarat?"

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5 comments:

  1. Truly said Guru, very nice and well written article indeed.

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  2. Very well written. Good job! :)

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  3. I embrace your views completely. But I doubt Modi will ever become prime minister of india. Let me be somewhat selfish, let Narendra Modi stay in Gujarat because once he leaves Gujarat he will be of nowhere because he and gujarat both will suffer.

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  4. Do agree with many points that you try to bring up, very convincingly.
    However some comments.
    Gujarat is NOT a corruption free state. Might be lesser than other states of India.
    I agree that Modi is a visionary, but with this success he has also become egoist, its a normal human behavior when you see success after a success.
    Hence I would wish that after 5 years or so he gets a decent set-back, which I believe would be his motivation as well.
    But yes todays Gujarat has improved drastically within last 6-7 years.
    And to add to it, municipal corporation of Surat is the only municipal corporation which has built multiple (7-8) bridges WITHOUT taking any loan and is still a profitable unit. Thats I believe called EXECUTION.
    Which is what we are missing in India as a whole.
    Waiting to see some more from you GPR.

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  5. Thanks Deepak, Sandy.

    Bhavesh..i agree that gujarat might suffer if Modi is not there..but if at all Modi does not become PM, its not because of congress, its only becuase of BJP.. only time will tell whether he will become PM or not :) keeping my fingers crossed.

    Rushi..thanks for your points..but i dont agree that Modi is egoistic..just a couple of days back had a chat with my uncle, who is a big hotelier in chennai, who got a chance to attend one of Modi's conferences..he had lot of wonderful things to tell about him..will write about those in a separate article..

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