Narendra Modi's long haul

Narendra Modi's long haul

OLD-FASHIONED caste seems to be making a comeback against new-fangled Hindutva on Gujarat's retrograde political stage. By appealing along caste lines, newly-appointed Congress(I) president Shankarsinh Vaghela has called the wily Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister Narendra Modi's bluff. Even in communally polarised Gujarat, caste ties seem to be stronger than communal biases, judging by the response to Vaghela's rallies in the past month.

Vaghela's aggressive caste mobilisation scared the BJP. It was forced to postpone its much-touted Gujarat Gaurav Yatra once again. The threat of a violent face-off with Vaghela's supporters in Phagvel village made Modi run for cover. The BJP was asking for trouble when it decided to flag off its Gujarat Gaurav Yatra from the Bhattiji Maharaj temple in Phagvel village on September 3. Phagvel lies in Vaghela's Lok Sabha constituency in Kheda district. Moreover, the village is dominated by the aggressive Kshatriya community, which forms the backbone of Vaghela's mass base.

By challenging Vaghela on his own turf, the BJP got more than it bargained for. Vaghela used Kshatriya caste loyalties in Phagvel to sabotage the BJP yatra. His supporters, organised under the banner of the Bhattiji Sena, invited him for a parallel religious meeting in the temple on the same day as the Gaurav Yatra was planned. Kshatriyas threatened that they would not allow the BJP elements to enter the temple. Platoons of the police were posted on the roads leading up to the village. Trouble seemed inevitable. Rather than face a hostile crowd, Modi preferred to cancel the event. Vaghela's mission to railroad the yatra had succeeded.

This was just the start of a dirty election campaign in Gujarat. The BJP is aggressively playing on communal sentiments. But Vaghela, a former BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader, is out to beat Modi at his own game. While his strongest appeal is to caste ties, he is not allowing the BJP to monopolise Hindu rhetoric either. His mass base is the strongest among Kshatriyas, a community in the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category. Kshatriyas form around 20 per cent of the State's population. Although Modi is from the Ghachi community, also an OBC, he does not have a mass following amongst OBCs.

Vaghela is also playing on the traditional rivalry between Kshatriyas and Patels, the dominant castes in Gujarat. Patels, who support the BJP, form 20 per cent of Gujarat's population. Most Patels are loyal to former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who is currently at loggerheads with Modi and reluctant to campaign with him. Vaghela is capitalising on this discord. "Kshatriyas are actually a political caste," says Achyut Yagnik, a social activist. "Rajputs (who comprise 5 per cent of the population) aligned themselves with the Kolis (an OBC which forms around 20 per cent) in order to counter the rise of Patels. They formed the Kshatriya Mahasabha in 1942. This led to the spread of Kshatriya consciousness." When Vaghela was with the BJP, he mobilised Kshatriya support for the party. Now he is reclaiming their loyalty for the Congress(I).

This time, too, the Congress(I) is trying to use its KHAM formula (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim). This strategy proved very successful for the Congress(I) during the 1980 and 1985 elections. Since then, the BJP has managed to gain ground in Adivasi areas and amongst urban Dalits. Together, KHAM communities form a large chunk of the population. Muslims constitute around 9 per cent, Adivasis 15 per cent and Dalits 7 per cent.

Vaghela is also challenging the BJP at its own game by playing the Hindu card. He has garnered the support of religious leaders like the Jain muni Acharya Mahapragya who wrote to the Chief Minister asking him to call off his Gaurav Yatra to prevent further violence in the State. When the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya recently praised Vaghela for remaining a 'patriot' and a 'swayamsevak' and for making 'shrewd moves', it came as a slap in the face for the BJP. Moreover, the Panchajanya article also praised Modi's main rivals within the BJP - former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and former Minister Haren Pandya. Vaghela is also using the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's traditional anti-cow slaughter slogans in his rallies. He is determined not to let Hindutva become the BJP's trademark. In his war against the BJP, Vaghela is managing to stonewall Modi at every step. His tactics are as aggressive as those of the BJP, and his rhetoric as caustic.

"Do they take pride in not being able to save the Ram sevaks at Godhra when they took votes in the name of Ram?" asked Vaghela at the meeting in Paghvel. That was a sarcastic reference to the BJP's attempts to highlight the Godhra incident during its election campaign.

The BJP has been on an advertising spree over the past weeks. Besides touting Modi as the best Chief Minister in the country, it is stoking Hindu insecurities. Across Ahmedabad the BJP has put up banners displaying a photograph of the Sabarmati Express burning, with the slogan: "Who is for us?" The 'Gujarat Gaurav Samiti' published advertisements that said: "Who is the Election Commission for? The minority. Who is the National Human Rights Commission for? The minority. Who is the Minorities Commission for? The minority. Who is for us?"

The BJP has also been using festivals to flex its Hindutva muscle. It was the Jagannath Rath Yatra in July. The Shobha Yatra was taken out on Janmashtami day, August 31. After that came the Ganesh festival. The Shobha Yatra, organised mainly by Sangh Parivar members in Rajkot, Modi's constituency, had the "Fight against Terrorism" as its theme. Several floats and exhibits had replicas of the Sabarmati Express burning. But there was no mention of those among the Sangh Parivar who orchestrated the killing of more than 1,000 persons after the Godhra incident.

Hindutva leaders now seem to be facing the backlash for their state-supported carnage. The Delhi police claim to have uncovered a plot to assassinate Modi and VHP president Praveen Togadia. On September 29, three youths, reportedly from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba, were arrested in Delhi. Later, two persons were nabbed in Ahmedabad.

The BJP has suffered setbacks on several other fronts. The Supreme Court dashed Modi's hopes for early elections. The court said that no elections would be possible until October 2 (see separate story). It would take until then for the Supreme Court to decide on the government's appeal against the Election Commission's order on elections in Gujarat. The BJP is worried that as the communal fever dies down, it will lose votes.

These fears have been corroborated by a recent survey conducted for the BJP by a Delhi-based market research company. It found that Modi's popularity has slipped since a similar poll was carried out in April. The Congress(I) is gaining ground, according to the survey. While in April the poll predicted that the BJP would win 118 of the 182 Assembly seats, the number slid to 96 in August. Contrary to the current political discourse, the main issues for the voters were employment, inflation and basic amenities, rather than Hindutva.

But the Sangh Parivar remains unrepentant. VHP international working president Ashok Singhal described Gujarat as a "successful experiment" and warned that it would be repeated all over India. At a recent meeting in Amritsar, Singhal jubilantly described how entire villages had been "emptied of Islam", and how whole communities of Muslims ran to refugee camps. This was a victory for Hindu society, he said, a first for the religion. "People say I praise Gujarat. Yes I do," Singhal said.

Yet, the communal campaign has not managed to deflect attention from the BJP's governance failures. Even in Phagvel, village residents spoke of the BJP government's neglect. "The Gujarat Gaurav Yatra isn't a matter of pride. In the last five years, the BJP hasn't done anything that it should be proud of. They haven't ever come here. Our panchayat hasn't got any development funds," said Rathod Dayabhai Abheshi, the Congress(I) sarpanch of Phagvel. Overnight, Abheshi became the most famous sarpanch in Gujarat as the national media hovered around Phagvel. Prominent politicians, including Modi, called on him, in an effort to win him over.

With Gujarat's economy on the downslide, basic survival issues are still the most important for voters. The entire State is classified as 'water-scarce'. The recent drought has worsened the situation. But the government has not yet started relief. Unemployment and insecure employment has become widespread as small-scale industries face financial ruin. Hikes in electricity rates have deepened the agricultural crisis. For the first time in Gujarat, around 25 farmers committed suicide in the last year in Sanand, Ahmedabad (rural) district alone (The Indian Express, August 14, 2002). In Ahmedabad, at least 10 suicides have been reported amongst families ruined after the carnage. "Modi is totally ignoring people's basic problems. Anyone listening to him would think that Gujaratis have nothing to do but attend yatras and religious festivals," remarks Martin Macwan, a Dalit activist.

The BJP's selective amnesia applies also to riot victims. It has chosen to overlook the misery of the 1.5 lakh people who were displaced by the riots.

After closing several relief camps and forcing people to leave, the government has doled out pathetic sums as compensation to rebuild homes. Some people are still rebuilding their houses with the help of charitable agencies. Others still have not been able to return to their homes or their jobs. In Ahmedabad alone, there are around 10,000 people still in relief camps, estimates Fr. Victor Moses of Citizen's Initiative, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the camps. There are hundreds of others in rural camps in Sabarkantha and Dahod districts that are shut officially but from where refugees have not left. "Refugees still feel insecure and uncertain. At a time when efforts should be made to heal the wounds, the elections are bringing out all the hate and mud-slinging," says Fr. Moses.

In the political race for the Hindu heart, Gujarat's real problems have been kept on the back burner. Moreover, Vaghela's divisive caste politics is likely to make the dominant castes even more empowered and aggressive. With such strong posturing going on, it is unclear how both the parties will get to mobilise the poorest sections of Gujarat's society, who also constitute a large vote bank. These parties are likely to face the brunt of the social discord that such politics is bound to generate. If only politicians would wake up sleepy towns like Phagvel for more constructive purposes, rather than for pujas and brawls!

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."

Glare on Narendra Modi aide’s meet

Glare on Narendra Modi aide’s meet

Narendra Modi Ahmedabad, April 15: Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi’s home minister Amit Shah had last month asked industrialist Gautam Adani to bid for an Ahmedabad IPL team, Shah confirmed today hours after the Kochi franchise claimed to be the victim of a Modi-Modi nexus. Shah’s statement came amid widespread suspicion that Lalit Modi was out to get the Kochi franchise disqualified so that Ahmedabad could have its own IPL team — a dream nurtured by Narendra Modi ever since he became Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) president. Shah had met Adani (along with Lalit Modi) in the Motera stadium in his capacity as GCA vice-president. Adani announced his decision to bid for an Ahmedabad team the day after the meeting, which took place sometime before the aborted March 9 IPL auction that was followed by a successfully hosted one on March 21. Kochi franchise spokesperson Satyajit Gaikwad today alleged that Lalit Modi was targeting his team under pressure from Narendra Modi and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. Both Narendra Modi and Raje are in the BJP, and Lalit Modi was very close to Raje when she was in power. “Vasundhara and Narendra Modi may have put pressure on Lalit (Modi) to bring a team to Ahmedabad. There is politics involved,” Gaekwad said. Shah dismissed the allegation, blaming it “on a clever ploy by our political rivals to link Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi”. But if the Kochi franchise is disqualified, Shah was asked, would he want its promoters to shift their base to Ahmedabad? “It is a hypothetical question which I will not like to answer,” the minister replied. He was asked whether some promoters of the Kochi IPL team had met Narendra Modi. The allusion was to reports that some of these promoters — many of them with links to Gujarat — had offered to pull their money out of the Kochi team and invest in an Ahmedabad team. “I’m not aware of any such meeting,” Shah said. Vipul Shah, the Mumbai-based real estate developer who holds a 35 per cent stake in the Kochi team, too denied the allegation. “It is all media speculation, nothing else. No substance,” he said, ruling out withdrawing from the Kochi franchise and adding that he had not met Narendra Modi on this issue. Gaikwad had earlier said: “We were told that we won’t be allowed to work. The Adani group and Narendra Modi had a stake in the Ahmedabad IPL bid. After we won the bid, our investors spoke to (former BCCI chief) Sharad Pawar and asked him which city to choose. He said, ‘You can take your pick’, so we decided to take Kochi.” Former GCA president Narhari Amin, a Congress leader, confirmed that “both Modis were very keen” to get an IPL team for Ahmedabad. “But they failed. Primarily because both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are novices in this game,” he said. Amin added that if they had sought his advice, he would have told them to draft a few more industrial houses and raise the bidding amount by a few hundred crores.

Narendra Modi 2.०

Narendra Modi 2.०


When I walked into Milind Toravane's office, he was assuring three French dairy company representatives that he would address their startup worries. "I will make sure we take care of your problems," said the district collector of the eastern Gujarat town of Godhra. "Let's fix a deadline." Mu

ch was unusual about this conversation. First, it was occurring at Toravane's office at 4 pm on a Sunday. Second, the officer was forcing a deadline on himself. Third, there were no bribes, no favours (I checked).

I was in Godhra, a sulphurous town of 180,000, in the run-up to the verdict of the burning of the Sabarmati Express nine years ago. I dropped by to see Toravane because I heard he had overhauled the public distribution system (PDS), the network of shops that distributes cheap, subsidised grain to the poor. Since PDS reform interests me, Toravane told me how he used technology to destroy a transporter-storekeeper nexus and save the district about R3 crore every month.

This was impressive, but since the people transporting and selling PDS grain were closely involved with politicians, how did Toravane handle political pressure? "No MLA or minister ever calls me, ever," said Toravane.

It's Gujarat's chief minister, the much-lauded and much-hated Narendra Modi, who has set in place an atmosphere in which Toravane flourishes. Much has been written about Modi's emerging avatar: how he creates this responsive bureaucracy, how he courts India's business leaders (and vice versa), how he elicits promises of investments in excess of $400 billion, how he leads his state to a GDP growth of 11%, how it's time to put the past behind and look to the future.

Modi, his numerous supporters insist, is India's future. The argument: India has seen many bloody riots, Gujarat is no different. If India has to move on and prosper, we must not harp on the past. We hear everyone wants to move on, Hindus and Muslims.

Indeed, in Ahmedabad last week, the Dawoodi Bohras, a Gujarati-speaking Muslim sect of businessmen, invited Modi as chief guest to their annual meeting. Some Muslims I spoke to, including families of those accused of the Godhra train burning, acknowledged that even if respect and justice eluded them, the administration worked and peace reigned.

Godhra knows how debilitating frequent violence can be. Nearly half the townsfolk are poor Muslims, descendants mainly of the Mughals for whom the town was - as it's now for the Indian Railways - a north-south stopover. Riots were common to Godhra as far back as 1932-34, when Morarji Desai, India's former prime minister, was the additional district collector. During 1981-82, Godhra was under a year-long curfew, after riots sparked by the murder of four female school teachers.

With so many riots, the town has seen no lasting peace or progress. Today, Godhra is chiefly known for its supply of train drivers to the Indian Railways and its supply of dandiyas, the colourful wooden sticks, to the Hindu festival of the same name (the sticks are almost entirely made by Muslims).

The larger district beyond Godhra town, the Panchmahals, further reflects the Gujarat left out of 'Vibrant Gujarat' slogans. Large tribal populations have human-development indices on par with the worst in India; they coexist with General Motors's largest plant in India. A series of recent reports points to Gujarat's low standing on hunger and status of minorities. The Indian Express recently reported how many Muslim-owned businesses were adopting Hindu names. I have never seen Hindus and Muslims as segregated and separate as they are in Gujarat.

The state's hunger levels are on par with impoverished Orissa and Bihar. "Gujarat is an illuminating example in terms of faster economic growth, but in terms of human development, it presents a sorry spectacle," writes Indira Dutta, an Ahmedabad economics lecturer in a paper 'Education and Human Development in Gujarat'. While the Tata's Nano foray in Sanand was a well-executed project, some of Modi's big-business drive is steamrolling local concerns and jobs, as in coastal Mundra, where the Adani Group and the Gujarat government were this month issued notices by the Gujarat High Court for illegally taking over 231 acres of village land. Group owner Gautam Adani, the seventh richest Indian on the Forbes list of billionaires and the only Gujarati, is close to Modi.

It's too soon for the effects of Modi's administration to be as widespread as he would like us to imagine. Even before Modi, Gujarat was second only to Maharashtra in industrial output. That position has not changed. But Modi has packaged Gujarat and himself in a way the corrupt, bumbling Congress administration in Maharashtra never could.

A Gujarati magazine editor told me how Modi personally reviews all images shot for his publicity posters, sometimes asking for reshoots, and how he is very particular about what he wears. The editor endorsed Modi's go-getting approach, with a rider - whether officer, MLA or minister, it's hard to disagree with him, which is why Toravane receives no inconvenient phone calls.

Modi's biggest handicap remains his inability to apologise or deliver justice for the riots. No right-thinking Indian can forget a pogrom against any community, but especially not against a minority. India can't and must not forget the 1,200, mostly Muslim, victims of 2002, as it can't and must not forget the 59 Hindus whose horrific deaths sparked the subsequent carnage, as it can't and must not forget the 2,700, mostly Sikh, victims of 1984. The memories of these outrages fade but can't be forgotten.

In his recent book, Convenient Action: Gujarat's Response to Challenges of Climate Change, the Gujarat chief minister quotes Mahatma Gandhi: "One must care about a world one will not see." Modi must ponder those words.

Narendra Modi to get Canadian, US visa soon

Swati Chaturvedi

New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is likely to get a Canadian visa followed shortly by the much denied and coveted US visa, diplomatic sources at the highest level revealed to Zee News.

This comes in the wake of a billion dollar partnership which Gujarat, growing at the rate of 12 percent, has struck with US companies.

When contacted by Zee News, an official spokesman of the CM's office said, ''At this moment we have nothing to say on the matter.”

Overseas Indians and several business groups in the USA and Canada have been lobbying with the US State Department that it makes no sense to deny visa to Narendra Modi.

It seems that their efforts have borne fruit. Another group, The Overseas Friends of the BJP, have also been making efforts to secure the visa for Modi.

Modi’s office, however, did not offer any comments when asked about the CM's travel plans.

The Congress party has been using the denial of the US visa for a long time as a stick to beat Modi with.