Friday, August 10, 2012

NARENDRA MODI, CM, GUJARAT

“Support from Delhi, what’s that?”

Priyanka Rai speaks to the TSI - C-VOTER survey topper, Chief Minister, Narendra Modi and finds a man angry at the Centre’s treatment of Gujarat

According to a C-VOTER survey drawn on 20,000-plus respondents across India, Narendra Modi is the best chief minister of the country. Gujarat is number one in governance.

I am obliged and thankful to all those who participated in this survey. I have been in the top five in every poll for the last six years. I believe that when people vote you the best, they do it because they expect you to do more and always do the best. I am grateful that people have such high expectations of me.

Delhi's Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, thinks you are a good administrator but being an autocrat, not the best CM. According to her, a CM should be good in totality. She thinks Nitish Kumar is doing a much better job.

I am grateful to Sheilaji for calling me a good administrator. She is senior to me and I would not like to comment on this. You seem to be obsessed with 'Gujarat Gaurav.'

Why don’t you ever talk about the entire country's gaurav?

I never talk about just Gujarat. I say Gujarat's development is crucial for India's development.

Have you ever thought of expanding your territory in terms of going beyond Gujarat for a bigger role?

It is an era to stay slim and trim. Let me stay slim.

What is the secret behind Gujarat''s development and you remaining on the top of all surveys for years?

People of Gujarat are to be credited. Until and unless you get support from the people, you can not do any development work. It’s the people, it’s the team effort. I work with my people and take them along.

What was the biggest challenge you have ever faced?

The earthquake in 2001. It was the most devastating earthquake to strike India in recent history. Even after such a disaster, Gujarat recovered quickly and swiftly moved on to its natural routine within three years. A World Bank report says that it takes ages for countries to recover from such earthquakes. Well, I''ll say we did fairly better.

BJP is going down by the day. Don''t you think the party needs to reinvent itself? completely?

With 116 members in the Lok Sabha and 53 members in the Rajya Sabha, apart from ruling five states, how can you say that! It is not going down.

BJP''s National President, Nitin Gadkari, compared you to Mahatma Gandhi?

That is not correct. He never compared me to Mahatma Gandhi. If you listen to his speech, you would understand what he really meant. He said he wants to do good work like Mahatma Gandhi. For example, if I admire Swami Vivekananda and follow his ideology, that doesn’t mean I am comparing myself to him. This is the hand-job of mischief mongers. They love to spread false rumours.

The other day, you made fun of the Union government by saying you will write letters to them in Italian.

You must listen to the speech again. The UPA government had promised in their manifesto that they would bring down the rising prices of food items within 100 days. It’s more than 200 days now. I have written number of letters to the Centre on this issue of price rise. I didn’t get any response. It seemed that either they are not willing to take steps to control the situation or can’t understand the language of my letters.


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