Narendra Modi, future PM

Too many journalists have proved guilty of projecting wishful thinking as analysis. Despite widespread media criticism, Narendra Modi won a landslide victory in Gujarat. Many journalists are now trying to explain lamely why they were wrong, and some hope he will be tamed or diminished in his second term.
I see things differently. I see Narendra Modi as a future Prime Minister of India, possibly even the next one. The prospect does not fill me with joy, but analysis is not about joyfulness. Just look around for young politicians who can move the masses, who can be more than regional leaders and make a national impact. I see no new faces, in or outside the BJP, to match Modi.Atal Behari Vajpayee is in poor health, and some believe LK Advani will soon take over from him, maybe in the next general elections in 2004. But Vajpayee might not step down. He might outlive Advani: there is little difference in their ages. Nobody can say who will pass away first.
By contrast, at 52 Narendra Modi is has many decades ahead of him. After his Gujarat victory he is obviously the star vote-getter of the party, leaving far behind older aspirants like Murali Manohar Joshi. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat may have some rival claims, but is an aged gentleman that has been kicked upstairs already. Besides, Shekhawat constantly needed help from others to form coalition governments. By contrast Modi won with a crushing two-thirds majority in Gujarat. You may hate him, but you cannot deny his vote-getting power.
Expect Modi to be a leading campaigner for the BJP in coming elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and expect the BJP to win. Drought and fiscal bankruptcy caused by the Pay Commission award have made Congress governments in these two states very vulnerable anyway. Expect this weakness to be exacerbated by communalism, spearheaded by Modi.
The BJP no longer has to incite communal riots to inflame passions. Jehadi elements are doing it anyway, and handing over public sentiment on a platter to the BJP. Witnesse temple attacks in Jammu and Akshadharm. Expect more such attacks, and not on temples alone. Expect each attack to strengthen the BJP and weaken its rivals.A paradigm shift has taken place in Indian elections. The old aphorism, that all politics is local, now rings hollow.
International Islamic militancy, with or without Pakistani support, has suddenly become a major issue, whether secularists like it or not. Nobody knows who the temple attackers in Gujarat and Jammu were. A half-competent police would have stunned the militants with some device, captured them alive, and used interrogation to unearth the underlying plot. But our incompetent police killed them. The BJP claims they were Pakistani agents, and this is widely believed.
I have no doubt that the temple attacks greatly aided Modi's victory in Gujarat, just as the Pakistani attack on Kargil ensured Vajpayee's victory in the general election of 1999. In India, the quality of governance is so indifferent that incumbent governments tend to be voted out. But when a major security threat arises, when the state seems under attack by foreign forces, the incumbent is suddenly in a strong position to rally support provided it sends out an appropriately jingoistic message. The BJP is fully capable of this. The Congress is not. The Marxists are not. And so secular forces are losing out, while communal ones are gaining credibility. International Islamic militancy has taken root in our neighbourhood. The Taliban may have been ousted in Afghanistan, yet the city of Khost is being bombarded by al-Qaeda forces located in the autonomous tribal regions of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
President Musharraf has lined up behind the USA, but Pakistan contains strong pockets of support for jehadi groups. Al-Qaeda is believed to have a major operation going in Karachi. Islamic militants have bombed churches and killed foreign businessmen, diplomats and local politicians. President Musharraf is trying to hunt with the hounds and run with the hares. He seeks to crush al-Qaeda and other extremists who want to assassinate him, yet he wishes to feed the militancy in Kashmir.I do not know who will win the internal struggle in Pakistan. But clearly the struggle will be long and bloody. Which means that we can expect constant new jehadi attacks on Indian temples and state institutions. Every time that happens, Narendra Modi will begin to look a prophet and crusader, and secular forces will find it difficult to gain the initiative. That is why I view him as a future Prime Minister.
Let me not exaggerate. India is a large, complex land with many social and economic problems that have nothing to do with militancy or Pakistan. Many of these other issues will dominate from time to time, which is why I do not expect the BJP to have a monopoly of power at the Centre or the states. Others will win from time to time. But unquestionably the jehadi phenomenon has created a bright future for the BJP, and for Narendra Modi.

Gujarat Inc loves Modi's liquor policy

AHMEDABAD: The Congress election ads for the Gujarat polls have declared him as "Panch karodpatiyon na mukhya-mantri", or a CM of multi-millionaires. But, among the other, why the business community in Gujarat is with Chief Minister Narendra Modi is that he is seen as a person who would further relax prohibition in Gujarat.

Given the way he has relaxed the dry laws for SEZs and also allowing group permits for business conferences, Modi is seen as a chief minister who, if returned to power, would further remove this hypocrisy around prohibition in Gujarat.

This image does not go down well in Modi’s scheme of things, now that he is out to woo women who would rather have stricter dry laws in Gujarat. From the point of view of Gujarat Inc, which is central to Modi’s development plank, they would like to do business the way the world does business. And business is done in the more developed part of the world over golf and cocktails.

The golf bit has been worked out by the developers themselves and numerous golf courses are now coming up in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Gujarat. The cocktail bit requires fixing and Modi is seen as the right person for the job to relax it at least for the ‘creamy layer’, if not for the masses. On this subject, Shankersinh Vaghela, during whose regime a large number of liquor shops were opened, does match Modi’s wave-length.

Congress leaders are afraid of exploiting the anti-prohibition of Modi against him because they will be confronted with the question on why liquor laws are so liberal in states ruled by the party associated so closely with Gandhi, in whose name prohibition still exists in Gujarat.

Also coming in the way is Rahul Gandhi’s reported criticism of the hypocrisy in oath taken for entering the party that the new Congressman will never take alcohol and always wear khadi.

At the recent CWC meeting, he drew attention to three pre-requisites for becoming a Congress member — abstinence from alcohol, commitment to always wearing khadi and always subscribing to the Congress paper, Sandesh.

Rahul turned to the gathering of senior leaders and is learned to have asked how many Congressmen really observed this pledge, and if they didn’t, whether it should be held against them. “Gandhiji told us to never tell a lie and yet many among us begin our innings in Congress with a lie,” he is learned to have said.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Gujarat's growth at a glance.

The common man and now the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, in his second term, is riding a massive mandate, delivering promises and fulfilling aspirations.

His dynamism, foresight and commitment to new age governance and reforms coupled with a strong political resolve has seen Gujarat emerge as the #1 state in the country - the Petro-capital of the Nation and the Business State of India.

As the CM of Gujarat, Narendra Modi has a number of achievements under his belt, some of which are...

Gujarat Green Revolution Company started with Rs. 1500 crores, ushering in a revolution in water conservation and increase in farming area. Rs. 239 crores have been spent in the last three years under the water shed program.

Housing provided to 46,263 Below Poverty Line families at the cost of Rs. 13672.94 lakhs.

To ensure that no girl child remains illiterate, three lakh students have been enrolled under Kanya Kelavani Rath Yatra and Praveshotsav Abhiyaan.

Rs. 94,357 crores of industrial investment, the highest in the country.

With gas reserves of Rs. 2 lakh crores, in the Krishna-Godavari basin, Gujarat has become the Petrocapital of the nation.

Gujarat has touched the benchmark of 15% growth rate.

2200 kilometres of gas grid - longest in the country.

100% electricity in rural areas only in Gujarat; revolution in rural
economy - 12000 villages covered under Jyotigram Yojna.

Gujarat was awarded the prestigious 'UN Sasakawa' award for outstanding work in the field of disaster management and risk reduction.
Gujarat was awarded Gold and Silver shields for outstanding performance in the energy sector by the Central Government.

The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has adjudged Gujarat as the best governed state.
7,316 kms of rural road network, the best in the country.

For the second successive time, Gujarat’s Narendra Modi was voted as India’s No. 1 CM in an AC Nielson – ORG MARG survey.

Narendra Modi Biography, Narendra Bhai's Profile

Narendra Modi

Chief Minister, Gujarat

Narendra Modi was born on 17th September 1950 in a small town of Vadnagar in Mehsana district in North Gujarat in India.

Narendra Modi completed his schooling in Vadnagar and did his masters degree in Political Science from Gujarat University. Even as a boy he was interested in social services. During the Indo-Pak war in early sixties, he went to help the soldiers in transit in railway stations. In 1967 he offered voluntary services to the people affected in Narmada Tapti floods. He continued serving the victims of major disasters in various parts of the country in his student and adult life.

Narendra Modi's abilities and leadership qualities were seen in the early days of his student life when he became the student leader of Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (All India Students Council). He played a prominent role in the anticorruption movement in 1974 in Gujarat.

He entered politics in 1987 by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Within a year, he was elevated to the level of General Secretary of the Gujarat unit of the party. In 1995 he was made the National Secretary of the party in-charge of five major states in India – a rare distinction. He traveled extensively through out the world, which helped him to develop a global perspective.

After carving a niche for himself in the national politics as a master strategist, he took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on 7th October 2001.

Narendra Modi, who is ever capable of turning an adversity into an opportunity made use of his inexperience to start afresh, on a clean slate without the burden of the past. His beginner mind was a blessing in disguise for him to learn things without any bias and without the need to unlearn the dead past. Though he was a wandering type of Sangh Pracharak he had a wealth of national and international exposure with him. Immediately after the swearing in ceremony he swung into action. His administrative acumen, clear vision and integrity brought him a landslide victory in the general elections held in December 2002 and he was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the second term on 22nd December 2002.

The biggest challenge which Narendra Modi had to face when he took over as the Chief Minster 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 Programme as one of the best reconstruction programmes on the global map and set a benchmark for reconstruction and disaster recovery, not only in India, but also in the entire Asia. Earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation in Gujarat achieved global recognition.

Narendra Modi as soon as he took over as the Chief Minister focused quickly on integrated overall development. Along with industrial growth and economic development, he also focused on rural development, improvement in education, education of girl child, development of the deprived, agricultural development, science and technology and disaster management. Gujarat had always focused on industrial growth, but Narendra Modi made an attempt to correct the imbalance in development by focusing appropriately on social sectors, integrating social and economic growth. He put Gujarat on the road to integrated development with a special focus on five sectors namely – education, water, energy, human resources and safety & security.

Narendra Modi quickly shifted the gear from government centered administration to people centered administration. People's participation became the foundation of all development programs. Efficient application of information technology for governance, focus on agriculture, human resources development, delivery of health services, rural development and thrust on post disaster recovery has made Gujarat emerge as the leader among the Indian states in spite of a series of disasters.

Attention and priority given by Narendra Modi to education as compared to any other past Chief Minister of the state is also noteworthy. His realization that no amount of economic, industrial or commercial resurgence can be sustained on a long-term basis without the foundation of proper academic and professional education has made him re-work the whole system of education in Gujarat state. Successive annual campaigns for enrolment of all children in schools, with a special focus on enrolment of the girl child have brought lakhs of children back to school, who otherwise would have been left out. The concern of the Narendra Modi for education of the girl child is reflected in the fact that he has specially created a fund called “Kanya Kelavani Nidhi”. Now it is a well-known fact that all the gifts received by Narendra Modi are auctioned and the funds are credited to this account.

Narendra Modi has been constantly innovating for improving the efficiency and productivity in various sectors. One such innovative step is the decision to involve private sector for development of huge wastelands. Another innovative step is celebration of traditional festivals, and covert them into events of major tourist attraction. In a mobile world in order to make citizens really mobile, roaming ration cards and roaming school cards have been introduced. Provision of soil health cards to the farmers is another innovation to help farmers improve the land quality and ultimately agricultural productivity. “Sujalam Sufalam” scheme launched to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat is another innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilization.

Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's meet is an innovative bi-annual submit organized by Narendra Modi to attract investment from rest of the country and abroad. Narendra Modi in his five years of rule has ensured all round development of Gujarat in all areas including agriculture, rural development, education and industrial development. His vision is to make Gujarat emerge as the leader, not only in the Indian sub-continent, but also in the entire Asia to compete with Japan, Taiwan, and China.

Narendra Modi looks beyond the immediate gratification for the purpose of getting votes. The programmes such as Krushi Mahotsav, River Grid, Chiranjeevi & Matru Vandana schemes, schemes for reduction in infant mortality rate, Beti Bachavo campaign (save the girl child), Jyotigram, Karmayogi Abhiyan etc. aim at multi-dimensional development of Gujarat in the long-term. The vision, concept and implementation of such programmes make Narendra Modi rise as a statesman, who thinks of the next generation in the backdrop of politicians who think about the next elections.

UN Sasakawa Award for disaster reduction, CAPAM award for innovation in governance, UNESCO award, CSI award for e-governance, No.1 state in industrial investment (MOUs), No.1 among major health care services, availability and utility of infrastructure, Indiatech award in power sector etc. is an indicative list of what Gujarat achieved under the able Chief Ministership of Narendra Modi. The very fact that Narendra Modi has been ranked as the number one Chief Minister by the public for the second consecutive year speaks volumes about his achievements.

Narendra Modi is a powerful orator – avid reader and an original thinker. Apart from numerous articles and Essays, he also has authored three books.