Narendra Modi on hectic campaign tour for panchayat polls

The BJP after its huge victory in the six municipal corporations in the state, is once again solely depending on chief minister Narendra Modi to help it sail through the panchayat polls scheduled on October 21.

In the last five days, Modi has addressed 19 meetings in north and central Gujarat. His campaign schedule covers most of the 24 districts which are going to the polls. Of the 24, Congress rules in only 6 district panchayats.

Modi is not only focusing on the issue of development but also talking about Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Sohrabuddin fake encounter case and corruption in the Commonwealth Games. Sources said ever since the party high command decided to keep Modi out of campaign for Bihar polls, the chief minister is keeping himself busy with the state elections.

Sources said during the municipal corporation elections, he addressed not less then three meetings daily between October 1 to October 9.

At his public meetings in Dohad, Godhra, Dabhoi, Vyara and other places in central and south Gujarat, Modi focused on issues related to misuse of central funds among others. He also talks of anti-farmer policy of the central government which is forcing farmers to commit suicide in other parts of the country.

Modi has addressed meetings in north Gujarat, central Gujarat, Saurashtra and south Gujarat. He also makes reference to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement that "When the centre sends Re 1 for a village, only 10 paise actually reaches the grass root."

In his campaign he also talks about the injustice being meted to the state in terms of revenue sharing. He says, "central government collects a revenue of Rs 50,000 crore from Gujarat, which is tax payers’ money and not the property of Congress government. However, when it comes to sharing of this money, the centre allocates funds as if it was doing some favour to the state."

Follow Guj path to road reform: World Bank (WB)

A latest World Bank (WB) study says exemplary reforms in Gujarat’s highway sector should be replicated by Indian states to establish an "enabling framework" for creating "efficient governance".

Titled "Good Governance in Highway Sector: Learning from Gujarat", the 60-page, yet-to-be-published report is based on the implementation of the World Bankfunded Gujarat State Highway Project (GSHP) during the 2001-07 period. The project was implemented by the state roads and buildings ((R&B) department.

Identifying private sector involvement as a crucial factor in shaping the reforms, the bank points out how the R&B department, under principal secretary SS Rathore, a technocrat, switched "from the role of provider to manager of road infrastructure".

This enabled the department to embrace a whole-of-network approach to planning and management of road network development and maintenance, and to take a more integrated approach in the budgeting and funding process, the study says.

As a result, GSHP "was implemented with a significant cost reduction (about 23%)", even as improving "the network to meet the rapidly growing transport demand in the state".

The bank stresses that: "The GSHP had the unique distinction of no contract disputes, a rarity among highway development projects in India", even as it set best practices in "developing and managing a very comprehensive asset management system, state-of-the-art quality assurance framework and a very comprehensive training and capacity building programme".

Noting that the current planned road network size in Gujarat of 74,111 km is among the highest in terms of network density per sq km in India, the report says, it is also "among the best managed networks".

Investment in new roads in Gujarat increased six times compared to the pre-reforms times, with the state paying more attention to maintenance "than any other state". It spent $884, 15% more than the second highest spending state, Kerala. As a result, the maintenance backlog has been reduced from 10,000 km to 5,000 km, including the 1,800 km reduction spurred by the GSHP.

"Gujarat is one of the first states to develop a strategic or core road network by applying the 80/20 rule, i.e. 80% of the traffic is carried by 20% of the road network," says the report. First formulated during the GSHP, the concept was used during the development later, the bank says. However, it adds that the concept may go a long way in implementing the chief minister’s "vision" of travelling by road in the state between any two locations within six to seven hours at 80 km per hour.

Think big to give city unique national image: Narendra Modi to new councilors

Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged the new elected members of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to think big in order to give the city a unique national image in the near future.

Inaugurating a three-day induction programme at the Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration, Modi said that instead of worrying about their fate in the next election, they should chart out development plans with clarity of vision. Lack of clarity would only inspire the administration to misuse the situation, he added.

For example, they could go for a “zero-slum city” programme, he said, adding that only a selfless attitude of ensuring public satisfaction, and not welfare of self, will guarantee a hands-down victory in the next elections.

Calling the 192 councillors “team Ahmedabad”, he said they all must think and work in perfect harmony and win over hearts of people cutting across party lines. He told the councillors to visit wards of their counterparts to learn things worth emulating instead of comparing perks of power with others.

He suggested to form a body of intellectuals who could hold monthly meetings with the mayor to deliberate upon new ideas for the betterment of the city, “which cannot afford intellectual poverty”.

Mayor Asit Vora and Anvil Baijal, former secretary (urban development), Government of India, were among those present at the programmers.

Gujarat Elections : Modi’s big day: BJP sweeps municipal elections

Ruling BJP has swept the polls to six municipal corporations in Gujarat retaining power with two-thirds majority in all but one of them, in a big victory for Chief Minister Narendra Modi who put all his might behind the civic election campaign.

Besides Ahmedabad, the BJP won the civic polls in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar with a two-thirds majority. The party, which decimated the Congress, got a simple majority in Jamnagar.

Savouring the win, Modi profusely thanked the people of Gujarat for reposing faith in the party.

He said BJP bagged 80 per cent of the votes in almost all the places with the remaining being accounted for all the other parties and Independents put together.

The poll victories came just a few weeks after the BJP won Kachlal in Anand district in a bye-election, bagging the assembly constituency – a Congress bastion – for the first time in the history of the state.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani congratulated Modi for the spectacular showing for the party and noted that the Congress has been wiped out.

On-line voting was introduced for the first time in the civic polls.

Over 2,100 candidates were in fray for more than 558 seats for elections in six municipal corporations in Gujarat.

Ruling BJP as well as Opposition Congress had campaigned extensively and had also roped in national leaders for the polls.

The BJP had won all the six municipal corporations in the last elections held in 2005

It had made the arrest of Amit Shah, close aide of Modi, by CBI in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, as one of the main issues, as all its national leaders alleged that the arrest amounted to misuse of CBI by the Congress and asked people to give its mandate through the ballot papers.

During the campaign, Modi also took a swipe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the tardy pace of preparations for the ongoing Commonwealth games in Delhi.

Congress on the other hand had focussed more on local issues saying that the corporation polls were about civic amenities and highlighted assistance given to the state under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission for development of infrastructure in cities.

In Ahmedabad, the BJP has so far won 129 of the 156 seats declared with results for remaining 33 seats yet to be announced.

The saffron party notched 95 of the 114 seats in Surat while it bagged 61 of the 75 in Vadodara.

The Rajkot Municipal Corporation where BJP won 58 seats in the 69-member house was the only civic body where it could not get a two-third majority.

The Congress bagged the remaining 11 seats and improved its tally by one from 10 it had won in the 2005 elections. Among the winners were Mayor Sandhyaben Vyas of BJP.

Modi had campaigned extensively in Rajkot addressing three public rallies in the last week of campaigning.

Accepting defeat, local Congress leaders said they had expected a good show in the RMC polls by the party as it had wrested the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat from the BJP after many years during the 2008 parliamentary polls.

BJP retained its two-third majority in the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), bagging 41 out of the 51 seats with Congress winning the rest.

BJP, which had won 39 seats in the 2005 BMC elections, improved its tally by two, while the Congress saw its seat strength reduce from 12 to 10.

The ruling party had emerged as a clear favourite in Bhavnagar due to infighting and absence of strong local leaders in the Congress.

Elections to the BMC were held two months earlier than scheduled, as the BJP decided to go for the polls along with the other five other municipal corporations in the state on October 10.

BJP retained a clear majority in the Jamnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC) pocketing 35 seats out of 57.

Opposition Congress won 16 seats, while Independents (3), NCP(1), BSP (1), and SP (1) bagged the remaining seats.

"We were hoping to do well in the corporation elections following consecutive wins from the Jamnagar Lok Sabha constituency," Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry said after the defeat.

The party needs to analyse this result, he added.

Why India needs Narendra Modi?

Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.

And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. But it was industry that was equally close to his heart.

It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.

I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.

After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!

Vibrant Gujarat’11 planned with with Modi’s BIG 2020 in mind

One of the most industrialized states of the Indian sub-continent, Gujarat has always been at the forefront of Indian life. The state means business in every way. Gujarat ranks among the top five states in terms of industrial development, contribution to national GDP and per capita income.It has made a significant contribution to the nation’s prosperity and development, and in making India a leading industrial nation by creating a policy framework to support sustainable industrial growth.

http://www.thenarendramodi.info/wp-content/narendra-mmodi-vibrant-gujarat.jpgGujarat is perhaps the first state in the country to start organizing Global Investors’ Summit to attract investment and promote trade in a structured way. Now, other states have also started following the path shown by the Gujarat and organize Investors’ Summit in their respective States. So far, Gujarat has organized four Summit successfully and attracted investment proposals of approximately $370 billion. The 5th Vibrant Gujarat Summit is scheduled to take place on January 12–13, 2011 at the Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, State capital. This year, Vibrant Gujarat Summit – 2011 aims to facilitate investment alliances for participating countries and will be the premier platform in India to identify and leverage business opportunities in this key global market. This time, Japan and Canada are partner countries for Global Summit.

Gujarat has proven it grips to attract investors in the State. Gujarat produces about 60 percent of India’s petrochemicals and more than 50 percent chemical products. It is also a leading and emerging player in renewable energy generation with the second largest wind energy potential in the country, the bulk of the remains to be tapped.

The focus areas of forthcoming of Vibrant Gujarat Summit would be chemical and petrochemicals, engineering and auto, environmental technology, financial services, agro and food processing, gems and jewellery, green energy, healthcare, knowledge sector, mines and mineral, textiles, oil, gas and power, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, ports, ship building and related industries, SIR, SEZs, industrial parks, logistic parks, tourism, urban development and business in water sector.

Gujarat stands on firmer ground, with a solid platform for growth that consist clean principals for transparency and work ethics combining with modern infrastructure. Gujarat’s economy is set to grow at high growth rate offers an attractive and stable environment for businesses to make long term plans. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi always says, “There is no red-tapism in my state, only red carpets. The peace and cordial atmosphere prevailing here attracts capital investors towards Gujarat.”

Series of reforms under the visionary leadership of Modi helped improving competitiveness of Gujarat’s economy and the business environment in general. Gujarat initiative as global investment promotion event started in 2003 has over the years emerged as a truly global business promotion and knowledge networking platform. A stable government, proactive governance, pragmatic policies and friendly environment boost investment in the State.

In the month of June 2010, Gujarat CM also released BIG–Blueprint for Infrastructure in Gujarat – 2020. Gujarat is emerging as a globally preferred place in live and to do business.

The BIG–2020 will make Gujarat’s infrastructure the pride of its citizens and a benchmark for the nation. People living in the farthest corners of Gujarat would have access to safe and affordable drinking water, electricity, sturdy roads and telecom services. Substantial investments will be made in securing energy, maximizing growth opportunities, enhancing connectivity, managing growing urbanisation, providing water for all and ensuring higher quality of life through employment generation, health care and education. This high investment in infrastructure will sustain high economic growth over the decade. All the three sectors of the economy will register sound growth with industries and services growing in double digits and the agriculture sector recording consistent and stable growth. The ultimate goal of BIG–2020 is to create robust social, industrial and physical infrastructure network ensuring accelerated inclusive and sustainable growth. Rapid and balanced GSDP growth on the one hand and investments in social services and upgradation of health, education and other critical services on the other would ensure this objective is achieved.

This integrated infrastructure investment plan will ensure high investments in infrastructure, increase productivity, expand the industries and services sector and hence propel Gujarat’s per capita income into the league of top fifty countries of the world while making it globally preferred place to live in and do business.