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Showing posts from April, 2019

Modi's Gujarat Model : A Matchless Mirage !

  . BY R.K.MISRA Myths multiply matchlessly while reality is a reluctant racehorse. The same stands true for the Gujarat model of development which is the national role model in   Narendra Modi ruled India. Hyped perpetually by a high voltage media blitz, gullible products of the ‘whats app’ university have led to the belief that Gujarat was ‘born’ the day Modi took charge as Chief Minister on October 7, 2001 and developed magically over the next 4,610 days until a buoyed nation asked him to relinquish charge on May 22, 2014 to lead the country. A reality check, based purely on facts, of his rule of the state would be in order. Though Prime Minister Modi is the present messiah of the Swachh Bharat movement, interestingly, it was Mahatma Gandhi who had launched the biggest sanitation drive in the history of Ahmedabad in 1919, cleaning almost 3,000 tonnes of garbage. Thirteen plus years of Modi’s helmsmanship and five years of his   own party’s   successors later, Gujarat

Gujarat : Different Strokes For Different Folks

  BY   R.K.MISRA While the Court gave relief to a Gujarat Congress MLA regarding his disqualification, it denied urgent hearing of a plea from Hardik Patel of the same party, bringing into question his ability to contest the polls. In the space of just 24 hours, two leaders from Gujarat who looked for succour from the Supreme Court were left with different expectations. In the first case, the Court on April 1 stayed the Central Election Commission's (CEC) decision notifying the Talala assembly constituency seat in Gujarat as vacant and declaring by-polls there along with the Lok Sabha polls. There was hurry in the process of law at all levels in disqualifying Congress legislator Bhagabhai Barad of Talala. In the second case, the apex court denied urgent hearing of a plea by Congress leader Hardik Patel to suspend his conviction in a 2015 rioting case and thereby put paid to his ambitions of contesting the Lok Sabha polls.   It all began in 1995 when an FIR was lodged aga

L. K. Advani : Requiem For A Dream

BY R.K.MISRA Political epitaphs have a way of returning to reclaim the hand that buried them. If the present prime minister of India, spares no effort to berate Jawaharlal Nehru for perceived injustice to his deputy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, how would Narendra Modi be rated   when posterity evaluates him for putting to pasture two of his own party patriarchs-L.K.Advani   and Murli Manohar Joshi? Lot less flatteringly then he desires. Lack of basic courtesy bordering on utter disdain marked the manner in which   the two were sent packing.   Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the third of the triad that sculpted the BJP to power, had   already been reduced to a ritual when he bowed out. Every dawn comes with a timed sunset but it is the way you treat your revered that shows the moral fibre of a leadership and the pedigree of a party. It is common knowledge that BJP president Amit Shah did not even care to inform the two that their candidature was not   in the

Gujarat : A 2019 Poll time Case Study Of PM's Home State

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BY R.K.MISRA Gujarat is the home state of two of the most powerful people in India today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.  Both were deeply rooted in state politics before graduating to centre-stage. Both leveraged  their standing in the state to carve out a national niche for themselves. And both wield power with elan and an element of ruthlessness to achieve desired results. Additionally, Shah remains a loyal shadow of Modi and his single most trusted lieutenant. This constitutes the biggest strength of  the BJP in Gujarat and also it s most flawed weakness. An outright winner in 2014, BJP bagged all the 26 seats in the state. It has nothing beyond this to gain in the 2019 elections  here. It fights to repeat the feat. The Congress, on the other hand, has nothing to lose and everything to gain.  The addition  of even a single seat constitutes a win and  is one less for it’s principal rival. Gujarat has been the crucible for Indian politica