[As an
adult, he volunteered for the country's hardline Hindu nationalist movement, the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, whose power brokers tapped him to become chief minister —
similar to a governor — in Gujarat in October 2001. Not long after, religious riots swept the state,
leaving more than 1,000 people dead, many of them Muslims. Modi was accused of
not doing enough to quell the bloodshed. While a review panel appointed by the
Supreme Court found that there was not enough evidence to charge Modi with a
crime, the legacy has haunted him.]
By Annie Gowen
 |
| Picture: Google |
AHMEDABAD, India India
Now, with Modi poised to become India India
On the stump, Modi promised a new India India China
But critics and supporters alike say the state leader dubbed
“Development Man” may face challenges implementing his agenda nationwide.
In Gujarat , Modi has faced little opposition, with
his Bharatiya Janata Party in power since 1995. He sidelined his rivals,
limited press access and tolerated little dissent, critics note. Such control
will be harder to assert throughout India
And, for all Modi’s economic success, critics say Gujarat has made little progress on social
problems like child malnutrition and maternal health. Meanwhile, his strident
Hindu nationalism has left deep divisions between religious groups in the state
of 60 million.
“It’s not going to be as easy for him as it has been in Gujarat ,” said Hanif Lakdawala, a physician who
works with the poor in one of the state’s biggest slums. “He is going to face a
lot of difficulties if he becomes prime minister.”
A self-professed workaholic, Modi lives alone in a
government-owned bungalow in the state capital of Gandhinagar. He typically
rises around 5 a.m.
and does yoga before beginning his workday, which usually lasts well into the
evening.
“If he becomes prime minister he is going to be great for India Anand
Many of Gujarat’s better-off Hindus like Patel support Modi
because he’s built roads and flyovers that ease traffic and has launched
beautification efforts and festivals that promote civic pride, according to
Uday Mahurkar, a journalist and the author of a recent book about Modi.
“If India wants to get over its economic crisis and move forward,
a big part of it is capitalizing on our own strengths” such as the country's
growing youth population and skilled tech force, Mahurkar said. “Modi would do
that.”
Early in his first term, Modi created a program to provide
reliable power to nearly all of Gujarat’s 18,000 villages, leveraging available
supply by separating domestic and agriculture feeder lines and cracking down on
power thieves. Jyotigram, as it is called, is one of his signal achievements
and electrifying is India
Sebastian Morris, a professor at the Indian Institute of
Management in Ahmedabad, who has studied the program, said that the improved
power supply led to profound change – with students able to study at night and
small industries increasing their output. Demand for television sets and used
refrigerators soared.
“The benefits were quite significant,” he said.
Modi said he made electrification a priority because of his own
experience studying by a kerosene lamp during his youth. He grew up as the son
of a tea-seller, from a family of the lower Ghanchi caste.
As an adult, he volunteered for the country's hardline Hindu nationalist movement, the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, whose power brokers tapped him to become chief minister —
similar to a governor — in Gujarat in October 2001. Not long after, religious riots swept the state,
leaving more than 1,000 people dead, many of them Muslims. Modi was accused of
not doing enough to quell the bloodshed. While a review panel appointed by the
Supreme Court found that there was not enough evidence to charge Modi with a
crime, the legacy has haunted him.
In a bid to remake his image, he turned his attention to
development. His efforts resulted in 10 percent average growth for his state
between 2004 and 2012, although it's dipped since then.
Along the way, he became enamored with China
“China
On the campaign trail, Modi has outlined plans to build roads,
airports, ports, bullet trains and 100 brand-new cities if
he becomes India
In 2007, he proposed building the Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City, or GIFT City Singapore London
R.K. Jha, the managing director of GIFT , said it was normal for new projects to
take time. “Initially anything you develop will be slow.”
Morris said the project was overly ambitious.
"If anybody knows anything about financial centers, they
don’t just happen wherever you provide infrastructure,” he said. “If any city
is going to be a global financial center it is Mumbai, because it's already
there and that's where the skills are."
Critics have said that the state’s wide-ranging development under
Modi has put pressure on the environment, unfairly displaced farmers and
fishermen and done little to address the state’s lingering social problems. A
2013 report from UNICEF found
that while the state had tried to improve education and access to clean
drinking water, nearly every second child under 5 was still malnourished, and
its infant and child mortality rates had declined slowly over the last decade.
“He’s only for big buildings, big industry,” said Sartanbhai
Bharwad, 50, a farmer who lost the ability to farm and graze his animals on
land cleared for a Maruti Suzuki auto manufacturing plant. There is a court
case pending over the disputed property, which Bharwad said his tribe owns.
“Poor people, people like us, don’t fit anywhere in his scheme of things.”
The state’s Muslims, too, feel they have been left behind as the
state has grown more prosperous. The tension and hostility unleashed by the
2002 riots have made it more difficult for Muslims to purchase property in
Hindu-dominated areas in Gujarat . So the state’s largest Muslim neighborhood, Juhapura, in
Ahmedabad, has swelled to 400,000 people, from millionaires to impoverished
slum-dwellers.
One recent evening, the shortcomings and successes of Modi’s Gujarat were on full display. In one makeshift
camp in Ahmedabad, families lingered in the heat outside shacks. They had been
displaced when slums along the river were torn down to make way for one of
Modi’s crowning achievements, a downtown riverwalk.
The state paid for thousands of new homes for people forced to
leave the slums, but some families either lacked the documents to qualify or
were waiting for word on if they could move into new dwellings.
“They demolished our houses,” said Shahnawaz Malek, 13, as he
played marbles. “We can’t go back there.”
Across town, as the sun went down, a speedboat cut a wake through
the river. The sound of temple bells echoed along with the Muslim call to
prayer. Middle-class families mingled next to the lotus pond in the Riverfront Park India
“We don’t want to remember the past, old things. We think all
people are equal,” said Nafisa Rangwala, a homemaker. “For the goodness of
everybody, let’s go forward.”
Jalees Andrabi in New Delhi
