By Vivian Fernandes
Apr 16: So much has been written about BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, I am not sure more can be written about him. Modi is his own megaphone. But Modi can be looked at differently and that is what I have tried in my book, 'Modi: Leadership, Governance and Performance' (for details visit orientpublishing.com). It is a journalistic attempt at seeing things as they are from the viewpoint of a liberal who believes in free markets, individual liberties and the rule of law.
Unlike the author and free-marketer Gurcharan Das, who says it is ‘wrong and elitist’ to privilege secularism above the demographic dividend (high economic growth that will give our youth a once-in-lifetime opportunity to get on in life) I believe that chauvinism of any kind (nationalistic or religious) spells menace. India First happens when Indian citizens enjoy the liberties which our Constitution entitles them to. We must put the individual first and not the other way round.
When Leftists discredit Modi’s economic management of Gujarat, I see them getting at liberalization (or neo-liberalism, as they call it) by suggesting it is heartless, pro-big business and the handmaiden of muscular Hindu nationalism. Modi’s Gujarat is pro-big business certainly, but there are about 200 industrial estates where small businesses flourish. The state has a low unemployment rate. And it does invest in education: in the past decade the number of schools has doubled to 34,000; most of these are government schools unlike in Kerala, where sixty percent are private.
For Modi, the talk of development is a shield. It is his best advertising and defence. It has perhaps done more to burnish his image and make him acceptable, that flattered the fortunes of the state. Since 2000-01 (he was named Chief Minister in October 2001), Gujarat has grown annually at 8.85 percent. But so has Haryana, which has a higher per capita income, without as much fuss. Maharashtra - more prosperous and with double the population - has grown annually at a tad higher than eight percent. Tamil Nadu’s eight percent growth is matched by its efficient delivery of welfare benefits like subsidized grain, and excellent public healthcare. Uttarkhand has done very well (11.68 percent growth) but its population is a sixth of Gujarat’s. Bihar’s economic pizza is a slice actually compared to Gujarat’s which is four times as big. Bihar’s eight percent growth must be seen in that context.
There is a Gujarat model of development with its reliance on private enterprise, port–development (like China’s Shenzen special economic zone) and investment in infrastructures like roads, power and a gas grid. Industrial promotion has been a leitmotif of successive Gujarat administrations regardless of personality or party. While earlier it was done by officials, Modi now leads the investment effort loudly, and visibly, from the front. So while there is no Modi model of development, there is a Modi way of executing it.
If political stability matters in a state known for revolving door chief ministers, if there is value in social peace (despite uneasy relations between the principal religious communities), if certainty of policies and quickness of decision-making have an appeal to investors, credit must be given to Modi for Gujarat’s near nine percent growth, without terming it exceptional. But when one examines the quality of that growth Modi’s hand no longer remains hidden. Eight percent agricultural growth in a semi-arid state is commendable, especially because it has been achieved despite much of the Narmada water flowing into the sea. The rationing of power to farm pumps, the provision of round the clock electricity to rural homes, revival of the agricultural extension system, paving of rural roads, a vigorous check dam movement, liberty to farmers to sell to organized retailers and food processors, and the propagation of water saving technologies like sprinkler irrigation have helped. So has luck: a series of good monsoons and commercial approval of genetically-modified Bt cotton by the central government in 2002. High agricultural growth makes Gujarat’s development pro-poor.
Modi is pro- business, not necessarily pro-markets. He is a loud liberalizer but measured in practice. Unlike Vajpayee government’s which privatized state enterprises, Modi believes in turning them around. The return on investment in public enterprises has doubled under this tenure to seven percent, according to state audit reports. While Modi has hived off the state’s electricity utilities he has not privatized them for fear they will not care for non-creamy customers.
Modi is perhaps the only ruling leader with a philosophy of governance. He has a few good ideas about breaking silo thinking, making government cohesive and keeping the administration in touch with people. Modi’s government is relatively clean, but not corruption free. Little happens in Gujarat without palm grease. Bootlegging is a big source of black money. E-governance has checked petty corruption but not eliminated it. The size of bribes has perhaps shrunk. Industrial favourites provide campaign finance and ensure that the ‘electoral tax’ is not spread across the economy. They are obliged with grants of wasteland, of which Gujarat has the largest swathe after Rajasthan, and through policies that optically do not smack of cronyism. They do not have the power to unmake Modi’s government. It is obvious that corporates have helped the BJP splurge for the Lok Sabha elections. Will this strengthen this strengthen their hold on the next government at the centre to the detriment of the common man?
Modi is an autocrat; nothing exceptional. Most Chief Ministers are, if they have a choice. But the Modi administration also lacks in the justice department. Its record of successfully prosecuting 2002 riot criminals is very poor. The Muslim community in Gujarat is alienated. Modi did little to reach out to it before he developed national ambitions. But twelve years of peace has certainly benefited the community. Gujarat is a communal tinderbox. Communal riots used to occur every few years. The violence, the curfews and the economic disruption that followed would set back the Muslims because most of them live in urban areas, are self-employed (as rickshaw drivers or garage owners) and do casual labour. Yet according to five-yearly National Sample Surveys, poverty among Muslims has fallen by just five percentage points in the fifteen years to 2009-10. During the same period, poverty among Hindus has declined by sixteen percentage points. The more frequent bi-annual National Sample Surveys based on thinner show that poverty among Muslims has drastically declined in Gujarat and is less than that of Hindus. I would rather wait for the next large sample survey to be sure.
Do Christians have to fear from Modi? When I asked a Catholic priest in Dahod (a tribal district) this question in early 2013, he said that he faced no harassment. On India TV on Sunday 14 April, a question was asked of Modi (in Rajat Sharma’s Aap Ki Adalat) whether Christians would be safe. The person asking the questions perhaps had the 1998 Christmas riots in Dangs district in which Christians and missionaries were targeted. Modi deflected and said even Parsis who are a smaller community feel absolutely safe in Gujarat!
Modi has been a patron of Swami Aseemanand’s Ghar Vapasi (homecoming of Christian converts to Hinduism). Leena Gita Regunath writes in Caravan magazine that Modi appeared on stage for a fundraiser for Aseemanand’s Shabari Dham in Dangs in 2002. On the basis of Right to Information filings she says the Modi government spent Rs 53 lakh to divert water to a local river adjoining Shabari Dham for a Shabari Kumbh in which thousands of tribals ‘purified’ themselves with a ritual bath. His 2002 election manifesto had proposed a bill that would make approval of a district magistrate necessary for religious conversions (the law was withdrawn in March 2008 after the Governor (a Congress lady) denied assent.
I am opposed to religious conversions that happen on the basis of money and have heard (but not verified) that many fundamentalist Christian cult organizations are behind this. I also do not approve of the state funding religious indoctrination of any kind. Instead it should set up schools so that tribal children get secular education. It should run medical dispensaries and hospitals so that hapless tribals do not convert out of gratitude to missionaries, Hindu, Christian or Muslim. In a multi-religious society every community must respect the religious sensibilities of other communities and not give cause for offence.
Rather than make such a big issue about conversions the Catholic community must focus on charity not only in tribal areas but even in urban zones, where the poor and the middle classes cannot get admission to decent and low-priced convent schools because there are so few of them. This is how the Catholic community earned goodwill in the past. It must continue that tradition.
During the Lok Sabha elections Modi has not made any communal pitch, through there have been a few dog whistles that are no overtly communal but within the aural range of the communally-inclined. Will Modi’s love of power chip away at beliefs long-ingrained?
About the author
Vivian Fernandes has been a journalist in Delhi for thirty years. After working with publications like Hindustan Times, The Observer of Business and Politics and India Today, he joined the Network 18 group (CNBC-TV18 CNN-IBN, IBN-7, Forbes India, Moneycontrol.com and Colors), where he was Economic Policy Editor with CNBC-TV18, and Executive Editor of Network 18 founder Raghav Bahl’s book, 'Superpower? The Amazing Race Between China Hare and India’s Tortoise', published by Allen Lane, a division of Penguin. For that book, Vivian wrote three chapters on Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, under his own name. He called them India’s Dragon States.
Vivian did a series on governance for CNBC-TV18 for which he had interviewed Modi in 2008. A few months later, Modi was on a programme which Vivian moderated in Baroda. In 2012, Vivian met Modi again for an interview. Last year, he traveled extensively through Gujarat’s tribal areas on a fellowship from Delhi’s Centre for Study of Developing Societies. This book is entirely self-financed. It has no institutional backing.
Vivian studied in St Aloysius College and lives in Kulshekar, whenever he comes to Mangalore, which is pretty often.
For Vivian’s conversation with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan on the book, broadcast on 11th April, 2014 on India Business Hour prime time at 9.30 pm, please click on the link below: http://www.moneycontrol.com/video/politics/attack-modis-politics-dont-discredit-his-economics_1068354.html