'Narendra Modi is scared of losing'

In 1989, when freedom fighter Iswarbhai Chawda lost an election for the first time in three decades from Borsad region of Gujarat -- it shocked everyone. He was the leading political and social force of the Kshatriya-Rajput community against the prosperous and highly vocal Patels in and around Anand district.

Such was the complete hold of Chawda and his son-in-law and former chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki in some five to six constituencies in Anand that voters would vote for anybody Chawda recommended.

But that was a different time and Chief Minister Narendra Modi [ Images ] was not around in Gujarat politics.

His grandson Bharatsinh Solanki, 54, is all set to fight a battle royale against Modi in the assembly election to be held at the end of the year.

Solanki, as president of the Gujarat Congress, is traveling to every nook and corner of the state to try and re-energise the badly-demoralised organisational structure of the party.

Modi is just two years older than him but many miles ahead in political experience.

Congressmen and secularists in from Gandhinagar to New Delhi [ Images ] are watching if this civil engineer can stop Modi's juggernaut.

Modi is a born politician, while Solanki is a reluctant one.

The senior Solanki was a practitioner of famous KHAM theory of Gujarat which helped Congress monopolise the votes of the Kshatriyas, Dalits, tribals and Muslims. The combination ignored the Patel community who eventually gravitated towards the Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ].

Bharat, whose wife is a Patel, has not been as successful in caste politics as his father. He has been politics since 1992 but after quite a struggle he has been able to shed the image of a village bully. Right now, he is trying to bring together the various factions in the state Congress. But his family legacy of being anti-Patel is making his own appeal doubtful amongst vocal Patel voters who are showing signs of switching sides from the BJP to the Congress. Solanki is showing the desired enthusiasm. But the party, with an eye on the Patel votes, has decided not to project him as a chief ministerial candidate before the polls.

In an interview with Managing Editor Sheela Bhatt, Solanki gives his take on the forthcoming Gujarat polls.

Shall we start with a debate on the Patels? How do you look at the community's political power in Gandhinagar?

In last 100 years, the Patels of Gujarat have grown very fast. Behind it is their entrepreneurship, unity, focus and hard work. Even after Sardar Patel they were lucky to have many leaders who have guided them to succeed in all sectors of life. The Patels are flexible by nature. If they accept you then you can get anything done from them but their displeasure is also difficult to bear. I take this as a positive sign.

Your father practiced the KHAM theory. It was social engineering that won many elections for the Congress. But the Patels got isolated and the Solanki family was considered 'anti-Patel'. It was the Patels' political, economical and social power the helped the BJP to power in Gandhinagar. Today, the same Patel leaders are disenchanted with the BJP and Modi. Their support looks shaken and uncertain.

I think it is your misunderstanding when you say that KHAM was my father's brainchild. It was thought about by Congress leaders like Jeenabhai Darjee and (former finance minister) Sanat Mehta. They got various communities under an umbrella but the common factor was that they were all poor. In essence, poor people were with the Congress and they trusted the Congress. Before Independence, Sardar Patel brought Patels into the Congress fold and they along with Sardar participated in the freedom movement. But a large section of the Patels moved towards the old Congress (known in Gujarat as Sanstha Congress) when the Congress got divided.

In Gujarat, the middle class and upper middle class constituted largely Patidars (Patels), Jains and traders. You are right that the Patels got alienated from Congress at that time. As a result, Chimanbhai Patel and the BJP took advantage. But the reference to context has changed. Patels are leading Gujarat and they, always, walk with time. They are a flexible people. Patels, who once strengthened BJP in a big way, are looking towards Congress, once again, because they feel the Congress will help in globalisation. The Patels are itching to contribute to India's [ Images ] globalisation.

In my first press-conference a journalist asked me do you believe in KHAM theory or not? I said I believe in aam theory. (referring to the common man). We want to carry along with us, the poor and middle class. After my nomination as state president, the maximum number of district presidents in the Congress are Patels. Before my nomination all kinds of ill-founded fears were there but now, they have seen my style and are re-joining the Congress in big numbers.

What could be the reasons of their disenchantment with BJP?

In a society which grows fast, priorities also change fast. They are everywhere in Gujarat; take politics, sports, music, trade or profession. Now, they want to dominate. They want political leadership again. When Keshubhai Patel was removed from the chief ministership some people thought that it had some Hindutva dimension. But when Modi came, the Patels' political participation, economic growth and leadership got reduced. The Patels were neglected.

They thought since Keshubhai Patel was removed by Modi, let us remove Modi. But they are also looking at an alternative. The Patels original home is the Congress; they contributed in making of the Congress in Gujarat.

You have been president for 18 months. How do you review your performance?

The grassroots workers of Congress were disappointed with the party. They wanted hope. We started a training programme for youth. We said we don't want leaders. We want "sathi, mitra, bhai" (companion, friend and brother).

We gave training to Congress workers and made them skilled. We told them about the Congress, its leaders, secularism and its importance. We told them about time management and concepts of team building. We arranged training camps in all big districts and seven cities. Urban and rural areas have different issues on hand, we also took OBC, Dalits, youth and women separately. We used to call doctors, psychiatrists and experts in various fields to tell them about BJP, the United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] government at the Centre, laws and current affairs.

We decided to reach every village of Gujarat. There is not a single village left here where we haven't put the 'Hand' (Congress symbol) mark and Soniaji's picture.

When Modi relaxed the prohibition policy we put graffiti all over Gujarat quoting Gandhiji that "alcohol is an invention of Satan". No need to guess who is Satan today! We quoted Sardar Patel for communal harmony. Unity is a must for peace and prosperity in Gujarat.

Do you really think such training camps can rejuvenate the Congress and get votes?

We have attracted hundreds of young people, gave them uniforms, gave them a code and…

Merely one huge rally by Modi can off set such euphoria…

That's a tale of the past. It's history. You have no idea that how my workers hoot him out in some areas.

Shall we talk about Modi?

Modi is a small man. Let us not talk too much about him.

Many experts and surveys say that he is the most popular leader of Gujarat even now.

You know better about surveys. From villages to cities our surveys tell a different story. His policies and programmes are rejected and getting him nowhere. He is using people's money and people are watching it, quietly.

Is he a popular leader or not?

Not at all. He is a hypocrite. He is showing off. He is putting up posters because he has nothing else to show. Even in media surveys his ratings have plummeted. In Rajkot, he won only by 14,000 votes. He is the weakest CM by that yardstick. The BJP got success in local bodies elections where merely 38 percent voted. Event, Modi tried to disassociate himself by reminding people that this is not an assembly election this is an election for roads and gutters. He was scared of losing.

You have declared a war against his government. What do you think are his weaknesses?

Arrogance. Arrogance means Astaya - untruth. It will be responsible for his fall. He thinks that what he says and believes is the truth. This belief has driven him away from the truth and the people. We are not saying these things. BJP leader Keshubhai Patel is saying it. Real information is not reaching him at all. He is surrounded by chamchas.

Some ten years back we used to hear that 'Madhavsinh's son is a bully'. Do you think your image has changed since then?

Some people may say all sorts of things. I have goodwill of my team and people trust me. In last Lok Sabha election, I got overwhelming response. I agree it is just one constituency out of 26 in Gujarat. I am hopeful that Gujarat will trust me.

Will you agree that Modi's image is of a non-corrupt politician?

He started corruption with the Sujalam Suflam water project. The issue is that Modi indulges in corruption at higher levels and takes huge bribes and doesn't get involved in small amounts.

It is plain to see how he favoured five industrialists and awarded them huge plots of land. The public knows how politicians use industrialists and run political parties. Modi is giving rich people tax concessions, cheap land and water to enhance his image. He has put up hoardings worth crores of rupees. Even, India's prime minister does not have as many hoardings. He wears some fancy dresses, headgear and shawls and then poses for hoardings. The fact is that the chief minister uses money in enhancing his image. He uses it to eliminate his opponents.

Also just wait when we reopen the Haren Pandya case (Pandya was a BJP MLA who was killed in Ahmedabad [ Images ]). Everything was manipulated when it was investigated but the truth will come out one day.

We are also opposing the Godhra trial. After Godhra, the riots followed. The state chief minister was the 'mukhya sutradhar' of the Gujarat riots. Even the truth in the Akshardham [ Images ] massacre will come out after Modi falls.

We were talking about corruption in Modi's government. It was also alleged that two big industrial houses benefited when the Congress was in power in Gujarat.

At that time Gujarat needed employment away from agriculture. Look, how the Congress helped improve growth and income.

Modi can claim that too. Gujarat has a higher growth rate than India.

Read carefully. The growth of Gujarat is only because of petroleum products and agriculture, but it has not created new employment. Modi speaks lies, loudly and repeatedly. So you people are impressed. Modi is running out of confidence. He is following our agenda and copying our programmes.

A large section of Gujarati voters think that the Congress has an in-built tendency to appease Muslims. But during the riots in 2002, Congress leader Amarsinh Chaudhary adopted a soft-Hindutva approach. You are ending up displeasing both the secular and non-secular voters.

The Congress is secular and will remain secular. The Patels are shifting to the Congress to unite Gujaratis. The rejection of Modi will be bigger than rejection of J Jayalalitha or Chandrababu Naidu [ Images ]. People will see the magic of Gujarati voters.

Are you taking any advice from your famous father?

We do not meet quite often. But he always advises me to listen more. We the young people in the Congress are rejuvenating the party. It is a difficult role. After winning election in 1985 we haven't won any election in Gujarat on our own strength. We are rebuilding the Congress culture in Gujarat.

SIT findings ensure Narendra Modi can't shake off riot taint

NEW DELHI: In a serious blow to Narendra Modi's reputation as an able administrator, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has indicted him on over a dozen counts for his alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002.

The confidential report of the SIT, which has been reproduced extensively by Tehelka magazine, has upheld much of the complaint lodged against Modi and his administration by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri who had been killed during the riots.

The SIT submitted its 600-page report to the Supreme Court in May 2010 after it had, among other things, questioned Modi for 10 hours. Its damaging observations against Modi are despite the SIT's admission that several witnesses had declined to testify for what was merely a preliminary enquiry and not a criminal investigation under the law.

Key findings of the inquiry done by former CBI officer A K Malhotra under the supervision of SIT chairman K Raghavan are as follows:

* "The chief minister had tried to water down the seriousness of the situation at Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patia and other places by saying that every action has an equal and opposite reaction," Malhotra reported. "His implied justification of the killings of innocent members of the minority community, read together with an absence of a strong condemnation of the violence that followed Godhra, suggest a partisan stance at a critical juncture when the state had been badly disturbed by communal violence." Raghavan added that Modi's statements were "sweeping and offensive coming as it did from a chief minister, that too at a critical time when Hindu-Muslim tempers were running high."

* The report said that Modi's 'controversial' move to place two senior ministers — Ashok Bhatt and I K Jadeja — in the Ahmedabad city police control room and the Gujarat state police control room during the riots with "no definite charter" fuelled the speculation that they "had been placed to interfere in police work and give wrongful decisions to the field officers."

* The report affirmed that police officers who took a neutral stand during the riots and prevented massacres had been transferred by the Gujarat government to insignificant postings in a highly 'questionable' manner.

* "The Gujarat government has reportedly destroyed the police wireless communication of the period pertaining to the riots," SIT said, adding, "'No records, documentations or minutes of the crucial law and order meetings held by the government during the riots had been preserved."

* The report said Modi displayed a "discriminatory attitude by not visiting the riot-affected areas in Ahmedabad where a large number of Muslims were killed, though he went to Godhra on the same day, travelling almost 300km on a single day."

* According to the report, the Gujarat government did not take any steps to stop the illegal bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on February 28, 2002. On the contrary the BJP had also supported the bandh.

* The SIT report also pointed out that the police administration did not impose curfew in Naroda and Meghani Nagar (Ahmedabad city) until 12 and 2pm respectively on 28.02.02 although the situation had by then severely deteriorated at both those places.

* The SIT discovered that the state police had carried out shoddy investigations in the Naroda Patia and Gulbarg Society massacre cases and deliberately overlooked the cellphone records of Sangh Parivar members and BJP leaders involved in the riots.

* The SIT has also found evidence against the then minister of state for home Gordhan Zadafia (who was reporting directly to Modi) and top police officers such as M K Tandon and P B Gondia for their alleged complicity in the riots.

* SIT confirmed that the government appointed VHP and RSS-affiliated advocates as public prosecutors in sensitive riot cases. The report states: "It appears that the political affiliation of the advocates did weigh with the government for the appointment of public prosecutors."

Ghastly attack'

Ghastly attack'

The panel's 600-page report has been seen by Tehelka magazine and the AFP news agency.

"In spite of the fact that ghastly and violent attacks had taken place on Muslims... the reaction of the government was not the type that would have been expected by anyone," they quote the report as saying.

"His [Mr Modi's] implied justification of the killings of innocent members of the minority community, read together with an absence of a strong condemnation of the violence... suggest a partisan stance at a critical juncture."

The riots left more than 1,000 dead

The report also said that Mr Modi had showed a "discriminatory attitude by not visiting riot-affected areas in Ahmedabad where a large number of Muslims were killed".

The panel is reported to have investigated 32 allegations related to "acts of omission and commission by the state government and its functionaries, including the chief minister".

Only a "few of these alone were in fact substantiated... [and] the substantiated allegations did not throw up material that would justify further action under the law".

Mr Modi, a leading member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to the violence.

Last year Mr Modi appeared before the panel in connection with the murder of a former Congress party MP, Ehsan Jaffrey, who was among dozens of Muslims killed in a residential complex in the state's biggest city, Ahmedabad.

Mr Jaffrey's widow has filed a petition accusing Mr Modi of aiding and abetting his murder, a charge that has been rejected by the chief minister's party.

In the past, the Supreme Court has criticised the government of Gujarat for failing to protect its Muslim citizens.

THE MODI ROAD SHOW

THE MODI ROAD SHOW Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi sets off on his `Gujarat Gaurav Yatra' again. Will the Akshardham sentiment fuel his campaign momentum? DAZED and confused. That is how most Gujaratis felt after two terrorists stormed the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar on September 24, murdering 37 persons and injuring 81. For a State yet to recover fully from recent communal violence, the death of innocent devotees, including of young children, came as a grim reminder that violence could still be sparked off anytime, anywhere. PARAS SHAH Chief Minister Narendra Modi resumes his `Gujarat Gaurav Yatra' on October 5 from a temple in Ambaji. Another tragedy in the cycle of violence that has struck Gujarat. But for the grim reapers of the violence, it was yet another tragedy to twist for the sake of deriving political mileage. Several VIP aircraft took off to Gujarat. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee cut short his visit to the Maldives and flew straight to Gujarat. He was in Gandhinagar within 24 hours of the terrorist attack. But earlier this year, after communal violence broke out in late February, he arrived on the scene 35 days later. Only after more than a thousand people were killed and 1.5 lakh were left homeless. Even Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani reached Gujarat only three days after the torching of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, which killed 59 people and sparked the communal violence. By then, Sangh Parivar mobs had already ravaged the State with attacks on Muslims. But, within three hours of the Akshardham siege, Advani made his way to the temple complex. Both leaders raced to the temple, clambering to claim the Akshardham `victory'. Advani hailed it as "a victory over terrorism for India" soon after National Security Guards commandos ended the siege by killing the two terrorists. He asked the tired commandos to stand up and chant `Bharat Mata ki Jai'. Many in the Bharatiya Janata Party are already doing the victory dance, even before State elections have been announced. But it is a dance over dead bodies. It may be a victory that left 37 people dead and 81 injured. By immediately blaming `the enemy', Pakistan, for the assault on the temple, Advani tried to deflect attention from the fact that it was a revenge attack. Innocent people had died in a suicide strike provoked by the Hindu Right. The militants apparently wanted to avenge the recent state-supported communal terror in Gujarat. The Sangh Parivar had orchestrated these attacks on Muslims following the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra. While revenge is no justification for perpetuating violence, the attack symbolises the deep impact that the Gujarat carnage has had on persecuted Muslim youth. The police had anticipated terrorist attacks to avenge the communal carnage. It had alerted the government as early as in March. At Akshardham, a note found in the pocket of one of the dead militants from the Tehriq-e-Kasas (Movement for Revenge) stated: "This is a gift to Modi and Advani." Yet, Advani immediately accused Pakistan, in an effort to deflect attention from the BJP's hand in inciting the attack. Even before the investigations began, Chief Minister Narendra Modi insisted that the terrorists were from outside the State. The police have reportedly unveiled two separate plots to assassinate Modi. Soon after the Akshardham attack, they arrested Samirkhan Pathan in Rajkot for allegedly planning to kill the Chief Minister. He was reportedly trained by the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist network. Later, three other accomplices were detained. Whether the BJP will gain electorally from Akshardham depends on the extent to which voters may fall for its anti-Pakistan propaganda. The BJP is doing its best to milk the temple attack for all it is worth. The appeal is purely emotional — stoking Hindu insecurity and playing on fears of more terrorist attacks. Modi is being projected as the Hindutva hero. A few months after the communal fervour had died down, Modi was besieged by dissent within the party. The powerful Patels, as a bloc loyal to former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, refused to cooperate with Modi during his electoral campaign. But for now, the dissenters are lying low. The jingoism could be momentary. Some people are already looking farther on. "The party may get more votes after Akshardham, but there may not be an electoral sweep, as anticipated by most of its members," says a BJP insider. "Some voters are upset that Narendra Modi has brought violence to a once-peaceful State. He will now try to project himself as the man fighting terrorism, but he was the one who invited terrorists to Gujarat." The Congress(I) is also using Akshardham to highlight the State government's security lapses and its inability to protect the lives of Gujarat's citizens. But it is being drowned out by the BJP's anti-Pakistan discourse. Sensing that the BJP may gain an edge in cities by playing on fear and insecurity, the Congress(I) is focussing on the countryside and the government's neglect of rural development.

Hearing on Narendra Modi's quizzing by riots panel deferred

Hearing on Narendra Modi's quizzing by riots panel deferred

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e GT Nanavati commission, probing the 2002 riot cases, was on Wednesday deferred till September 7.

Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), an NGO representing the riot victims, approached the commission afresh after the Gujarat High Court direction on July 23.

The high court asked the riot panel to "look into the matter after taking into consideration facts in their record".

When the matter came up for hearing, advocate Tempton Nanavati, representing the state, sought more time.

Justice GT Nanavati, heading the commission, said that it was not fair to delay the hearing for one reason or the other. He said that the state was given enough time to prepare its statement.

The counsel tendered his apologies and said that he had received these instructions at the last moment.

The NGO has requested the commission to call officials of Modi's office Omprakash Singh, Tanmay Mehta and Sanjay Bhavsar, for cross examination in connection with the 2002 riots.