Gujarat: Vibrant PM’s Global Showcase!

BY R.K. MISRA

A new year is a harbinger of hope. Optimism is the flavor of the season; so let’s go along.
Gandhinagar, the state capital of Gujarat, is glowing like the  peach coloured skin of an affluence soaked offspring. One of three man-made cities in India after Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar, it is decked up like  never before. Gujarat’s first woman chief minister, Anandiben Patel  has done in a few months what Narendra Modi could not , even in thirteen years. She has given an absolute makeover to Gandhinagar. The city has turned spanking new and could easily be mistaken for an American creation. As it stands today purely in terms of civic showmanship, it could do the country proud. How long it can remain this way in the face of our pan-spitting, street littering ways  is anybody’s guess. But for the moment lets luxuriate in likeable thoughts.
The reason for this massive effort at makeover is that Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar  is  hosting the  Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas, normally held in Delhi from January 7-9 and the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit from January11 to 13.January 14 happens to be the kite festival of ‘Uttran’ and the state would like to use  this mega-event week to showcase it’s cultural-tourism potential to the large number of visiting guests from  various parts of the country and abroad.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra  Modi, US Secretary of State, John Kerry, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, vice-president Hamid Ansari and state heads of other countries,30 fortune 500 company CEOs besides 200 others of high global profile are slated to attend. Over 5000 delegates for the Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas (PBD) and 10,000 delegates for the Investors’ summit are  expected. There is  not a single room available in any hotel in the twin cities of Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar and the State Real Estate builders body has been requested to make available 300 luxury flats lying unsold and an agency requisitioned to furnish them. In all, a hundred chartered planes are expected at the Ahmedabad  airport but there is facility for hardly 30,the other planes will have to go to other airports in Gujarat or in neighbouring states to park. Three thousand luxury cars-the likes of BMWs and Mercedes are on call for cab duty (daily rentals anywhere between Rs10,000 to Rs 25,000, say media reports)to ferry the top of the tops. Two hundred and fifty new jeeps for escorting convoys of VIPs, over 500 CCTVs on the airport-Gandhinagar road alone ,three new helipads, a special PMO at the cost of Rs 6 crores for the PM, Harley Davidson motorcycles for the police…  the list goes on and on. An over 10,000 security contingent is in deployment and this includes representation from  all conceivable national security agency. A high level  meeting  with the top brass of  the three  defence wings was held and  a special control room  has been set up to coordinate with all three wings of the armed forces and Coast Guard, according to chief secretary D.J.Pandian.
The past  Gujarat Investors Summit, Modi reveled with announcement of Rs one lakh crore worth of MOUs, even more to showcase it’s success. Now the official version is that there will henceforth be no MOU announcements as this present seventh edition of the summit is donning the role of a business facilitator for other states as well. But Uttar Pradesh has already struck a discordant note  with it’s government claiming that  chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s posters put up on the occasion in Ahmedabad  and Gandhinagar are being pulled down! Gujarat government, has meanwhile, let it be known unofficially, that over 22,000 MOUs are likely to be signed at the summit.
According to highly reliable sources a sum of Rs 200 crores is being spent to show the best face of Gujarat. Old-time state watchers admit that  even during  Modi’s tenure so much resources were not splurged on sprucing up the city during previous  Vibrant Gujarat Investors’ summits. The  simple answer is that previous summits showcased the state and thereby the state chief minister. Now, the two events  are meant to showcase  the work of a Prime Minister and India is too vast and six months too small a timespan  for it. Besides, there is hardly anything tangible and concrete to show at the national level; so Modi has to fall back on the past, to  project his future and Gujarat must pick up the bill!
As the state pulls out all stops  to this end, the run up is also marked by a  strategically timed  RSS  conclave in Ahmedabad. A three day RSS conclave from January 2 to 4 attended by it’s entire top brass besides over 25,000  activists has just concluded last Sunday. It was here that Sangh ideologue M.G.Vaidya projected the not- so- subtle distinction between ‘homecoming’ (ghar vapasi) and  religious conversion terming the first as voluntary and  the second as forced. The clear defiant message emanating from the  meet was  that the voluntary return agenda was age-old and shall continue irrespective of the murmurs.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not make it  due to his ‘busy’ schedule, his bête noir Sanjay Joshi and  sangh sevika, Anandiben Patel did attend. This Sangh show of strength in Modi’s  backyard  with its emphasis on  home-coming/ religious conversion at a time when he is set to showcase   his life’s  biggest developmental  achievement has great  significance with far  reaching political implications.

Interestingly, small peepholes  sometimes provide big  insights. Three  small news items in today’s (Sunday) newspaper made for interesting reading. The first item was how a deputy collector in Gujarat  with a  monthly salary of Rs 46,000 had been depositing Rs 49,000 every day in the  bank account of his wife for three years and according to his wife he owns properties worth  over Rs200 crores. The  second  news item  was a detailed  account of  how  a national intelligence operation in the high seas off the Gujarat coast had  led to the busting  of a  possible terror attempt from across the borders and the destruction of the fishing vessel. Some  achievement this but back home  is a different story. The third  item was  an account of how thieves had celebrated new year by burgling   the district court  in Gandhinagar and  taken time out to sit within and have a celebratory eating programme  before leaving. All this  when the city was teaming with cops who had  turned Gandhinagar into an impregnable fortress in view of the forthcoming  high profile events but could not stop petty thieves from burgling a court! Judge for yourself. Happy New Year folks!.

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