[The (Gujarat) model (launched by Modi) was built on three things: a) Giving land at subsidised rates to corporates, and providing single-window clearance.
b) Creating infrastructure for air and land connectivity largely aimed at corporates and the urban upper classes; providing uninterrupted water supply to industries c) Tax incentives for industry, especially in sales tax, going up to as high as 40 per cent, prompting Ratan Tata to say at the Vibrant Gujarat conference in 2007, "You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat." They led to an exceptionally high growth rate but the concessions to industry came at a price. Government investment in the social sector banked sharply. The spend on education became less than two percent, and even less than one per cent of Gujarat's total earnings was spent on health. Instead, the government encouraged privatised education and health sector, leading to prohibitive costs. For instance, of the 85 pharmacy colleges in Gujarat, 82 were made self-financed. This is a popular degree because Gujarat has a large number of pharma companies. The closing of 500 state transport bus routes from villages to towns hit female students the hardest, as parents wouldn't let them travel otherwise. The inherent faith in the private sector, the downgrading of SMEs has changed the political economy of Gujarat, says Dr Indira Hirway, director and professor of economics at the Centre for Development Alternatives in Ahmedabad and a National Fellow of Social Sciences Research.] https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/cover-story/vote-the-future-holds/articleshow/62101646.cms GUJARAT ELECTIONS 2017: VOTE THE FUTURE HOLDS By Meenal Baghel, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Dec 17, 2017, 10.22 AM IST Gujarat Elections 2017: Vote the future holds Rahul Gandhi at a rally at Pavi Jetpur in Chhota Udaipur Though the BJP may win tomorrow in Gujarat, Hardik Patel has a message that can no longer be ignored. During the Assembly elections in Orissa in early 2000, I was at a Congress party roadshow in the Ersama district, which had been almost wholly destroyed by the super cyclone a few months earlier. An old woman, grandchild cradled to her chest in a cloth sling bag and clapping enthusiastically, caught my attention. I began chatting with her, as reporters are wont to, in search of anecdotal evidence. 'So, you will be voting for the Congress party?' 'No, I will vote for Navin Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal,' she said. 'Then how come you are here, clapping so hard?' 'Well, I have two hands, may as well clap.' Saying so, she trundled off. As politics becomes, more and more, a performance art with an endless staging of mediatised events to stay in the public eye, journalists can sometimes be blindsided by the carnival that is the Indian Election. While electoral math is best left to pollsters - and if they are right, the BJP should cruise to an easy win tomorrow--this Assembly Election in Gujarat is also a signpost that cannot be ignored. For, waving that red flag is a young man, not even old enough to contest elections. The emergence of Hardik Patel from complete obscurity two years ago to becoming the channel for Patidar anger in this election, is the story of the Gujarat Model failing the young. They are an important demographic - there are 10 lakh new voters in these elections, and, according to the 2011 census, there are 1.78 crore people under the age of 24 in the state. These voters have never known a government other than the Bharatiya Janata Party's. When Hardik commands thousands at his rally to light their phone torches in the inky blackness of a night sky somewhere in rural Gujarat and take a pledge to oust the 'enemy'— their solemn voices ringing in the air — it is at once medieval and modern. "When you press the EVM button on polling day, press it hard...so hard as if you are smothering the throats of the men who killed your brothers," he says, referring to the deaths of 14 Patidar youths in the 2015 agitation for reservation in Gujarat. "Here, we don't need to go to Gir to see lions. We Patidars are the lions," he says as the crowd roars back in approval. How has an anarchist who holds no brief for any political party, who espouses no ideology, only demagoguery, become a catalyst for change in the BJP loving, pragmatic Gujarat? Equally, why are the Patels, both Leuva and Kadva, who comprise 14 per cent of Gujarat's population and who are the richest and most politically empowered community in Gujarat, agitating to upend the BJP? (To provide a context, when the Patidar agitation over reservation broke out in 2015, Anandi Patel was the CM while Nitin Patel is the deputy CM at present. Nine out of 26, that is 35 per cent of ministers in the cabinet, are Patels and 43 of the 121 MLAS for the BJP are Patels). Where is the anger coming from? In the three terms that Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014, he coined, built and nurtured the Gujarat Model of development. The model was built on three things: a) Giving land at subsidised rates to corporates, and providing single-window clearance. b) Creating infrastructure for air and land connectivity largely aimed at corporates and the urban upper classes; providing uninterrupted water supply to industries c) Tax incentives for industry, especially in sales tax, going up to as high as 40 per cent, prompting Ratan Tata to say at the Vibrant Gujarat conference in 2007, "You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat." They led to an exceptionally high growth rate but the concessions to industry came at a price. Government investment in the social sector banked sharply. The spend on education became less than two percent, and even less than one per cent of Gujarat's total earnings was spent on health. Instead, the government encouraged privatised education and health sector, leading to prohibitive costs. For instance, of the 85 pharmacy colleges in Gujarat, 82 were made self-financed. This is a popular degree because Gujarat has a large number of pharma companies. The closing of 500 state transport bus routes from villages to towns hit female students the hardest, as parents wouldn't let them travel otherwise. The inherent faith in the private sector, the downgrading of SMEs has changed the political economy of Gujarat, says Dr Indira Hirway, director and professor of economics at the Centre for Development Alternatives in Ahmedabad and a National Fellow of Social Sciences Research. Rahul Gandhi built his entire election narrative in the rural areas, finding traction around these two issues and the lack of jobs. With an economic slowdown, in parts due to demonetisation and GST, Gujarat, too, has slowed down. Formal employment is at 6.8 per cent, well behind states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. The wage rate is the lowest from among the top 20 states of India. According to a UNDP report, as high as 40 per cent people in the state - these are mainly slum dwellers, agricultural labourers, daily wage earners — are caught in multi-dimensional poverty, which means they cannot afford basic hygiene, housing, education and health care. This, coupled with the drought of 2012, hit the Gujarat Model hard. Under the UPA the Minimum Support Price for cotton was Rs 1500 per 20 kilos. Modi promised to raise it to Rs 2000 but the MSP today is Rs 900. A similar thing has happened with groundnut. According to Dr Hirway, the agriculture growth rate has come down to 1.5. "The assumption with the Gujarat Model was that growth will trickle down, but it did not." Thus, 'Vikas gando thayo chhe'. Those who were marginalised now want to intervene politically, and are drawn to the anarchic politics that Hardik Patel offers. In private the 24-year-old is more sober, though he cannot resist the occasional hyperbole. "During a cricket match even commentators sometimes say Hardik Patel instead of Hardik Pandya." In the living room of his flat, which has been given to him by a builder friend, there is a photograph of Bal Thackeray and another of him with Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray. On the flag of his of movement, PAAS (Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti), are portraits of Sardar Patel, Shivaji and Bhagat Singh. Had he been city-bred it could well have been Che Guevara. Are they his guiding lights, I ask. "I have no heroes. If you also tell something wise, I will tweet it to my followers," he says with a certain innocence. He and his team have used social media to exceptional effect. With most channels blacking out his rallies, presumably under government pressure, he used FB Live, garnering millions of views, and recently conveniently floated a rumour that Mark Zuckerberg had invited him to Menlo Park. With social media, invariably, there is a 'sting in the tale'. A WhatsApp video of him making out with a girl was leaked during campaign, which Hardik, with typical chutzpah, turned to his advantage. "I am a 24-year-old virile male. Are Modiji and Vijay Rupani test tube babies, I want to know." The machismo goes further in the rallies: 'Naukri na maley to chokri na maley' (If you don't have a job, you won't have a girl). With 'Gujarat no nath' now sitting in Delhi, it is uncanny how much Hardik has modeled his rhetoric on Modi's. Similar hyperbole, invoking of victimhood and the scoffing at opponents. If Narendra Modi is the Amitabh Bachchan in this election and Rahul Gandhi offers the gentlemanly aspect of a Shashi Kapoor (without once referring to his 'Ma"), Hardik has the raw appeal and dialoguebaazi of a Shatrughan Sinha: 'Teesre Badshah Hum.' Both Modi and Amit Shah, whom Hardik only ever refers to as General Dyer, do not mention him in public but they did refrain from campaigning in Patidar-dominated areas. In Ahmedabad there is much talk of Amit Shah's formidable ability to build caste coalitions and the OBC bloc (they comprise over 40 per cent of the population) that will negate the Patidar vote. While this may serve the purpose for elections, so much of the equation is about exclusion: first the Muslims, ten per cent of the population, and now the Patidars. When Madhavsinh Solanki formulated the equation of KHAM — Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim — he, too, excluded the Patels, for which the Congress paid a heavy price. At his last rally in Ahmedabad the Prime Minister talks at some length about the riverfront he has built on the Sabarmati. But he is subdued that evening, and unusually defensive as he responds to Rahul Gandhi's charges of crony capitalism. May be he too spots, up ahead, a bend in the river. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
