All must benefit from state’s best practices: Modi

All must benefit from state’s best practices: Modi

Chief Minister Narendra Modi today stressed the need to evolve a model work culture of best practices in good governance for public services, initiating a group discussion on 18 topics on the third day of the 7th Chintan Shibir at Mehsana.

Collectors, district development officers and municipal commissioners took part in each group discussion, followed by a question-answer session after the presentation on best practices. Emphasis was on agriculture and township services in the state’s golden jubilee year.

Modi said that best administrative practices and successful experiments employed by the Gujarat government should be modelled to extend the benefits to the people of the entire nation, and experts should deliberate on it and sketch a model to actualise it.

The chief minister was speaking on the third day of the Chintan Shibir, at which he joined the discussion initiated by Dr Ajay Kumar.

Muslims and Modi

Muslims and Modi

Deoband VC’s attempt to bridge the divide made little sense

POINT OF VIEW BY RIYAZ AHMAD

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Last week Deoband vice chancellor Maulana Ghulam Muhammed Vastanvi praised the functioning of the government of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. He also called on Muslims in Gujarat to forget the 2003 Pogrom and move on. His remarks heaved a big rock into the otherwise quiet pond of Deoband seminary with many clerics and students alike expressing a strong disapproval of the VC's opinion. Across the country, predominant Muslim opinion looked at the VC's praise with disbelief, seeing it as betrayal from a person who effectively happens to be their top religious leader. Vastanvi soon offered to resign and now his fate will be decided by the Deoband Shura which is scheduled to meet on February 23.
The VC's observations about Modi have also generated a massive media buzz with opinion bitterly split between the Maulana's right to say what he did and the sharp criticism of his attempt to exonerate Modi. Media, on its own, has watched at the development with a certain degree of affected impartiality and amusement, letting this crucial introspective turn in the Muslim understanding of Gujarat riots play itself out. The debate only became more interesting as Vastanvi added his own observations to it. Even though, he subsequently retracted his alleged praise of Modi, he didn't step back from his admiration of the economic progress in Gujarat during Modi's tenure and his earlier acknowledgement that minority Muslim community there was also its beneficiary.
The debate has since wound down without resolving anything. Vastanvi continues to be safe in his job. It, however, did offer a rare glimpse into the Indian Muslim mindset, their fears, apprehensions and grievances, marked by a conspicuous absence of hope.
One of the debaters on TV drew an interesting picture of the post-riots plight of Muslims in Gujarat, by dividing Muslim population in the state in three sections. One, which had completely lost hope and left themselves at the mercy of fate under Modi. Another continued to struggle for their rights against heavy odds. And third - like Vastanvi, the debater stressed - had compromised.
There are others who have passionately defended Vastanvi's right to have his opinion - even if in their wisdom it would mean a subtle defense of Modi. But all the same, Vastanvi who unlike traditional religious heads is an MBA and has a Facebook account, has found himself mired in the swirling controversy from which he won't be able to extricate himself for a while to come.
However, what makes the debate over Vastanvi's comments important is not the alleged internal politics of the Deoband where Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind is said to be seeking to regain control of the Darul Uloom - that is a distracting dimension - but the very nature of its having arisen in the first place. And that is the Muslim relationship with Modi. And he cannot and is not the past from which Muslims need to move on or reconcile with. There can and should be no problem if he always remains a hate figure.
Muslims in Gujarat, of course need to come to terms with the 2003 pogrom as a collective tragedy. How do they deal with this past: they might try to forget it, reconcile with it and then hopefully move on. These things happen as a matter of course, as part of an inherent natural process. But to move on from an unpleasant past they certainly do not need to absolve the people who made it painful for them.
Trouble with Vastanvi is that he in an unwelcome way has ushered Modi into this process. So, instead of dealing with the past and its painful memory, we start engaging with Modi as a person and along the way the emphasis on the serious priority of Muslims getting on with their lives appears like absolving the Gujarat chief minister of his all too apparent role in the riots. More so, when the detritus of this past is still strewn around us. And that, it is the Deoband VC who unsuspectingly or deliberately is aiding the exoneration of Modi has a certain troubling dimension that sits above the simplistic freedom of expression debate to which it has been reduced to. Nor is it the internal Deoband politics which needs to be stressed over and above the import of Maulana's utterances about Modi.
The larger question that hangs over the debate is whether Muslims or their leadership, both political and religious, can reconcile with Modi. Or whether there is a need and necessity to reconcile with him at all. Isn’t it just ok to just ignore him and move on.
Or is there a need to relentlessly fight Modi and his hate-mongering, divisive agenda that his administrative efficiency will never redeem. This is a Modi who has yet to apologize for the riots and proceed against the people guilty of the Muslim massacres. His government has stymied the legal action against an array of the activists who have publicly admitted their role in the killings forcing Supreme Court to move some of the more high-profile cases outside the state.
And this is a Modi who even seven years after the carnage which claimed around 2000 Muslim lives has yet to visit the Muslim refugee camps, and who some prominent national politicians have repeatedly said is a fit case to be tried in an international human rights court. This is also a Modi whom United States will not issue the visa to visit the country. This is what, more than anything else makes Maulana Vastanvi's Modi - Deoband VC, no less - remarks not only uncalled for but also unilateral and hence more hurtful to Muslims.

Modi blows own trumpet, heaps sarcasm on state

NAGPUR: Hindutva poster boy Narendra Modi on Friday portrayed Gujarat to be a virtually a state within the state as he trumpeted the achievements of his reign while taking swipes at Maharashtra and the Centre.


"Have you heard of a treaty between a country and a province of another country. Certainly not, but it happened in Gujarat. Powerful economies like Canada and Japan have partnered with Gujarat in its economic ventures. This has led to an investment commitment of almost Rs 21,00,000 crore through the Vibrant Gujarat summit. Heads of states and ministers from 109 countries gathered at Gujarat for it. Does it happen in Delhi," he asked. Modi was addressing a function in city to mark the golden jubilee year of formation of Gujarat organised by the local Gujarati community.


Attempting to project Gujarat as larger than country, he said even India had reached 50 years of its independence but the event went unnoticed while celebrations of Gujarat's 50th year seem to be surpassing all records. Speaking in Gujarati, Modi used the typical Amdvadadi jargon to take swipes at the Centre and other Congress-ruled states.


He said "mey badha booch band karee karee deedha che, chowkidar banee ne baitho choo ke koi Panjo nahin mari sake," (I have corked all the holes, so that no 'hand' can dare to grab the treasure), a clear reference to keeping Congress at bay from his state. He did not spare even Mahatma Gandhi. "Giving is in Gujarati culture, we have learnt from Gandhiji to give away everything, (indirect reference to conceding to the demand of Pakistan)," he said.


He quickly added that even Sardar Patel, the Gujarati ideal appropriated by BJP, had the same quality of being generous. The comment came as he said that Gujarat had now become a power surplus state and was supplying electricity to Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.


Taking at a dig at Maharashtra from which Gujarat was carved out, he asserted his state had left the big brother far behind. "Does anyone have a health card in your state? In my state every farmer has a health card for his soil. We have cataract and dental treatment camps for cattle, you must be having it for humans in your state," he said condescendingly.


"When it was formed, all Gujarat had was a registan (desert) and Pakistan beyond that. Look now the very dry state has clocked a 9.6% agriculture growth while the country is still half way to the 4% target set a couple decades ago," said Modi to an applause. He said after the green revolution in the farms and white revolution with Amul, now its time to colour Gujarat with saffron and complete the tricolour. Saffron stands for energy, Modi pointed out even as the audience chanted BJP!


"Every village in Gujarat has uninterrupted power supply and a few minutes of power cuts make headlines saying darkness in Modi's land. I am sure here it makes news when there is a short period of power supply after days of darkness," he said ridiculing the load-shedding that persists in Maharashtra.


Modi exhorted the local Gujaratis to donate generously for his dream project of erecting a statue of Sardar Patel that would be double the size of Statue of Liberty. It would be called the Statue of Unity. "Eh to janta na Sardar hata nake koi sarkari sardar (Patel was a Sardar of masses and not a government-anointed Sardar)," Modi said in one last sarcastic comment about Centre.