MODIAs I have already said that I am not a political person so I don't understand it too much and I will not be taking the side of any political party. I just like a few individuals in this political scene and one of them is certainly Narendra Modi. He is one person about whom I felt it was absolutely necessary to write about to create awareness because I have seen that most of the people specially outside Gujarat have a certain negative image about him. It is because they have only one way of knowing about him and that is through media and from what I have seen, even a blind person can tell that the media is always against him, no matter what. I am not saying that he is the best or flawless person but because it has been onesided so far from media and overall, thus here I will focus on the other half and concentrate only on the positive side of him to balance or even things out. So please don't write to me accusing me of taking his side or some other arguments as I have already mentioned my purpose clearly. However I will do this with valid points and honest opinion.
Now I will not go into his past or his background but focus more on some important events and milestones in time.
THE RIOTS-
No discussion can happen on Mr. Modi without talking about the Gujarat riots of 2002 for which Modi has been the villian in everyone's eyes. Communal riots are not new to Gujarat or even India and this wasn't the largest in history either, with more extensive and prolonged violence with higher death tolls happened in 1969 and 1985 under the rule of Congress Government and even the cause of Gujarat riots is conveniently downplayed or misrepresented. It wasn't a few stones thrown at a procession or some petty quarrel but a terrible Godhra carnage where bogies of Sabarmati Express were set on fire!
Certain facts do stand out, even from accounts in the English media, not particularly known to be generous to Narendra Modi :
a) The Congress Union Minister of State for Home, ShriPrakash Jaiswal, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, said 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed - hardly consistent with a Muslim genocide. And the figures in Delhi massacres in 1984 were:
Sikhs: 2733 killed in Delhi alone. as per Ahuja Committee, which submitted the report in August 1987
b) The
entire police force of 70,000 was deployed in Gujarat on 27th Feb in apprehension of riots, police fired more than 4000 rounds, "
shoot-at-sight" orders in Godhra, 827 preventive arrests, immediate deployment of
Rapid Action Force and
CRPF hardly agrees with the accusation of a deliberately inactive police force.
c) As early as 5th March 2002, out of the
98 relief/refugee camps set up in Gujarat,
85 were for the Muslims and 13 were for the Hindus and as on 25 April, out of 1 lakh 40 thousand refugees, 1 lakh were Muslims and 40 thousand were Hindus which is not consistent with the unilateral Muslim sufferings that has been portrayed.
NARENDRA MODI - THE PERSONHis biggest challenge when he took over as the C.M was the reconstruction of the earthquake affected areas. Bhuj was a city of rubble with people 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 on global map and
set a benchmark for reconstruction and disaster recovery, not only in India, but also in 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 re-elected for the third time in 2007, after a hard fought battle of ballots where 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 whose vision is to make Gujarat at par with developed nations.
QUOTESOn being asked whether it hurt him not getting 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."
Perhaps the best compliment comes from
Mr. Anil Dhirubhai Ambani- " If Gujarat was a separate country, it would stand in a different league among some of world's most flourishing and prosperous countries."Modi remains untouched and unfazed by all the filth and accusations. "
Do you think the Centre would have left me like this if they had any proof against me? I have a Goverment that is unfavourable at the Centre and their quietness says it all." He once shot back at 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.
Mr. Advani said, " 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."
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."
ACHIEVEMENTS - Honestly speaking, the achievements are so many that if I list down all of them, you will get bored even just going through them. But still here are a few achievements:
- In the past few years, Gujarat has made excellent progress and received various awards for
infrastructure building, water distribution, economic freedom, environmental protection, e-Governance, energy conservation, health accessibility, heritage protection, sanitation, software development. The agencies conferring these awards include International Bodies like
The United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, various ministries/agencies of Government of India etc.
-Gujarat ranks
number 1 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 Geographical area but its contribution to India in terms of "
Value of Output"is 16.10%-Gujarat is
one of the most Industrialized states of India with 16.2 % share in India's Industrial production and percentage of man-days lost due to labor strife is 0.52% lowest in country
-Gujarat surpassed the target of 10.2 % set by Planning Commission for 10th Five year plan compared to the average of 8.2% for entire country, achieving
growth rate of 15% in 1st 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,
60% of India's total
crude oil import facility
-Gujarat today has
one of the best infrastructures in the country comprising of 11 airports, 1 international airport, extensive rail network and a robust road network of over 74,000 km. A total of 17, 763 out of 18,028 villages (98.53 %) are connected with pucca (concrete) roads, the best in the country.
-Gujarat
coastline of over 1600 kms , longest in the country, is dotted with 41 ports, which handle over 25% of India's total cargo.
-On Education front, there have been 11 new Universities, 400 new colleges, 1.25 lakhs new teachers, 38,000 new school rooms and the Government has set a deadline of 2010 to ensure a 100% enrolment and 0% drop out rate at primary level.
-Gujarat is now an emerging Global Medical Tourism destination.
WHO has appreciated Gujarat's school health program and the Chiranjeevi program bagged International recognition and was appreciated in
UNICEF's report.
-Modi's mission of "
Water for All" has been a revolution. There has been interlinking of 21 rivers of the state, state wide Water Grid.
- The Jyoti-Gram Yojana to provide 3-phase, 24-hour, uninterrupted power supply to all villages has enabled Gujarat to become the first state in India to achieve
100% electrification of villages.
-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 for the cause of "
Girl Child Education" and has deposited Rs 287.37 lacs in a period of 5 years. Touched by this, people have directly started donating and have given more than Rs. 11 crores for this.
The ever increasing list of his public supporters and admirers now include in addition to above 3 mentioned- Mukesh Ambani, Kumarmangalam Birla, Politicians from completely different ideology CPM Muslim MP from Kerala Mr. Abdullakutti and Trinamool Congress leader Ms. Mamta Banerjee
