Gujarat has the last laugh

It is not 117; it is 115, two less than what Narendra Modi went into the much awaited ‘Gujarat Assembly Elections’ of this year. His ‘critics’ already have declared that his ‘popularity’ is on the decline since there is a ‘sizable’ decrease not only in number of seats but a ‘huge decline’ of 1% in the popular vote share as well. This is not new to the Gujaratis nor to the people like me who were not giving more than 115 even in the month of July by taking the anti-incumbency of not only a decade of ‘Modi Raj’ but also 17 years of BJP ruling the state, plus the factor delimitation of constituencies and of course the GPP factor as well. What we the fans of Mr. Modi are looking at this is the ‘hat trick’!! Not many could do this only few names come to the mind when we talk about the hat trick in power. Jyoti Basu, Sheila Dixit and Tarun Gogoi are the first few names come into the mind straightaway. But as a Gujarati, this is the first time in my state; hence it is a big reason to celebrate. We the Gujaratis have been ignorant to what mainstream media is throwing at Mr. Modi for more than a decade now and we will continue to be ignorant to the same along with the biased and zero logic postmortem of these elections. Today, we want to celebrate and feel happy that we have not lost, despite of plenty of obstacles thrown at our beloved CM. Let me today give some insights into why we Gujaratis adore Mr. Narendra Modi so much?





Why ‘we’ love ‘him’ so much?



This is the question must be in the minds of many who are not from Gujarat and never had first hand experience of being in Gujarat or never had an interaction with a Gujarati directly or via any social networking site. There is a simple answer to this question, which many media persons across the print and electronic media had never tried to find and that is that he gave us the identity and the self respect. Only the veteran Gujarati political analyst and writer Mr. Vishnu Pandya, inknowingly  approved this point of mine this time in all the news channels he featured in during pre and post election programs. The opposition and the media were continuously thrusting on one thing that, Gujarat is a progressive state since its incarnation and what new Modi had done in his decade old regime? Here comes the answer, which I had put in one of my pre election blogs and unknowingly endorsed by Mr. Vishnu Pandya in one or two programs he did for few news channels. Yes there was a progress, as a matter of fact during the regime of Mr. Amarsingh Chaudhari and Mr. Chimanbhai Patel, Gujarat progressed few percent more than what it has under Mr. Modi, but the difference is that since last decade Gujarat has progressed with ‘respect’. Mr. Modi has given us the ‘pride of being a Gujarati’. I have witnessed Congress regime as a kid and as a growing up young man, the only difference which I found and probably all those who are from my age group or older than us will agree that previously all the decisions had to be endorsed or rejected by ‘Delhi’ and now they are done at Gandhinagar only.





The ratio of rejection was probably more than endorsing. Those days Congress was everywhere; hence Maharashtra was probably preferred more than Gujarat. Though the CM who used to be from Gujarat but he had less say in decisions which could make life different in Gujarat. Whereas now Mr. Modi is boss of himself and he has a government at the center which is not going to favor him at all. But still this man makes decisions, which are in his hand and sees that he gets the job done, if not from the center than whatever he can do locally. In simple words he is ready to do whatever possible for him. By doing this he has inserted self respect in Gujaratis. For people like me this is a huge change in us. Just a decade ago, we used to be part of some poor fun targeted to us from the people of other states. We often used to be called “ Daal-Bhaat Khane Waale” (those who eat only daal and rice). Yes we were progressive before Modi came, yes we were minding our business well before Modi came, but somehow the inferiority complex was there and was refusing to go. Just when during the 2002 election campaign, Mr. Modi for the first time mentioned “My 5 crore Gujaratis”, suddenly people like me felt the pride of being Gujarati, which is still there with many increments. ‘The Gujarati Pride’ doesn’t mean to disrespect other races, but to allow them to mix with us. This is where Mr. Modi differs with other regional leaders in the country. He teaches us to welcome everyone from other parts of the country and work to gather.





The victory wasn’t easy this time



Despite indications that Mr. Modi will win around 110-115 seats I and a few of my friends had six months before the elections, we still were a bit skeptical about this figure. To be very honest this time, Congress came with better strategy of giving populist promises like ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ (Own your home), ‘Free Laptops for college going students’ and ‘Free land plots’ to females living in villages. The confusion was that these may hurt BJP’s chances badly. These promises were tempting to a large chunk of society. The rush to get and to fill ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ forms was unprecedented to say the least. But then just week or ten days before elections Mr. Modi released his party’s manifesto and promised 50 lakh homes in next five years. We know that this is highly impossible task to achieve, but what people who had already filled ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ forms would have thought, that, “this man who is promising us 50 lakh homes is in power and he is most likely guy to comeback in power, whereas others are out of it and who knows that their promise is just to give us a lollypop?” I believe this decisive thinking  has turned the table. ‘Ghar Nu Ghar’ after getting a huge response, somehow it went into the cold storage. What Congress forgot was to keep on mentioning it in their meetings, but what they did was that they only kept on saying that, “This will hamper BJP to win”, that’s all!!





The GPP factor



The most worrisome thing was how the GPP will flair in these elections since they were an unknown quantity. The nearer the date of elections came greater the fear became. Just a couple of days before first phase of voting, the Leuva Patel leader Mr. Naresh Patel openly said in a meeting that, “Where Leuavas find GPP candidates weaker, they must vote for Congress”. Suddenly the fear of Gujartis again getting into the trap of castism was looming large. Many people who have tasted food of constant progress have also found that castism in Gujarat was there but it had lost the prime effect on voting patterns, they feared that if Leuvas get to gather, we may lose the current leader and by this the speed of the progress will be reduced. But thankfully Leuvas have voted for GPP but it was not one sided, plus those who feared of losing Mr. Modi as CM, got polarized and voted for BJP and the end results speak for themselves, GPP got only two seats and one of them is won by Shri. Keshubhai Patel.





Currently many Gujaratis feel that Mr. Modi can become the PM of India in 2014, if BJP gets the numbers, but right now they are relieved that he is back at the helm. The next five years will be more testing than the entire last decade. 2017 will not be a cakewalk for sure, are The Gujarat Congress leaders listening?



There are many other points as well to share, but if I keep on writing them, then I will end with writing a small book of hundred odd pages. Hence I am stopping here and will keep on updating on what is happening on and around Gujarat in days to come.





25.12.2012 (Christmas), Tuesday

Ahmedabad