Chief Minister Modi’s appeal to the people of Gujarat

Recently there has been an unfortunate tragedy, because of which Gujarat has shocked, and personally I also feel great pain.

Having anger in reaction to this tragedy as a citizen is natural and I have total sympathy towards victim families. My condolences are with them.

I promise the citizens of Gujarat, that my government is determined to go to the roots of this problem and those responsible will get unimaginable penalty. The government will give no concession in this. But we don’t want to stop there, because this problem has always ruined the lives of poor people. I don’t want to raise a discussion on what happened and not happened under whose government in past.

Despite the global economic slowdown, Gujarat achieved a high growth rate of 12.79 in 2008-09, state Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala said here Today.

Announcing the annual state budget for 2009-10, Vala told the state assembly: “The five-year plan outlay for Gujarat was Rs.23,275 crore and despite implementing the sixth pay commission recommendations coupled with the slowdown woes, Gujarat achieved a growth rate of 12.79 percent.”

The 2009-10 budget has a surplus of Rs.47.75 crore.

Q. First of all hearty congratulations for getting the Nano project to Gujarat and…
A. I would also like to thank the Times group for taking things in the right perspective and taking the message all over the country.

Q. Tell us about the process which led to you and Ratan Tata hugging each other in Gandhinagar last Tuesday.
A. It was on Tuesday morning that Ratan Tata phoned me and told me about the decision. Prior to that there were some official level talks, but Tatas were engaged in a dialogue with at least six or seven states.

Q. When did you first speak to Ratan Tata about Nano?
A. Long time back. But at that time, I didn’t invite him to Gujarat. It was more of showing sympathy for what was happening in Singur. It was more of a friend talking to a friend who was in crisis. I have had friendly relations with the Tata family for long. In fact, I also spoke to a top Tata official at that time and told him that I would be happy if the crisis blows over and the Tata small car rolls out of West Bengal. He was surprised that a CM of another state was saying this, instead of taking advantage of the situation. I told him that Tata’s pulling out of Bengal would be a setback to the whole nation because the whole world has its eyes set on Nano. Many other countries would love to manufacture the Nano. With what was happening to the project, how could we put up a united and progressive image to the world and challenge China? But when Tatas announced they were pulling out, I just sent an SMS to Ratan Tata saying ‘Swagatam’. Other states may have written letters to him but I never did that.

Q. How often were you talking to Ratan Tata all this while?
A. Lots of times. I used to talk to him directly. In between, when I invited him to Gujarat, he told me he was going abroad but he would certainly send his officials. Many Tata teams did come here and looked around Gujarat for possible sites.

Q. How did Sanand happen then?
A. I am clear in my mind that I have to market the DMIC, the Delhi -Mumbai Industrial Corridor. And Sanand is a main centre on this corridor. If I want to draw attention of the whole world, there was no better magnet than Nano. The other consideration was that in the global scenario cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore have already built an image for themselves. But Ahmedabad does not have that face. The image of Gujarat is great but I need a city as its showpiece. Nano will bring that status to Ahmedabad and will now be spoken of in the same league as Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. With this one move, I have been able to bring both Ahmedabad and the DMIC to centre-stage.

Q. And the land that you gave was almost a government land, belonging to an agriculture university. It was hassle-free.
A. Yes, but even otherwise, farmers in Gujarat are different. When the news of Tatas coming to Chharodi in Sanand first broke out, the sarpanch, I think his name is Hussainbhai, took all the panchs with him to the district collectorate and said they were willing to give whatever the government asked for. They told us not to let Nano go away. It is like you yourself wrote that it was an early Diwali. Very true, everyone in Gujarat is feeling that way.

Q. But if the farmers were more in number, surely there would have been delays in handing over possession.
A. That’s true. If we had gone into the process of land acquisition, it would have taken time. For Tatas, urgency was critical and it was important for me to address that. But the situation is that I am a step ahead of Tata in terms of speed. I have told him that we want the smallest car in the shortest time. I am going to make this a model case study of how fast a government can work.

Q. Ratan Tata also told us in an interview that the speed at which Mr Modi moved was unbelievable.
A. I can tell you that in the last three days, after signing the MoU, our government has moved faster than the Tatas to sort out all the small details before they move in.

Q. Why is there silence about the MoU and the concessions you have given to Tata Motors?
A. There is no silence.

Q. Why can’t you put the MoU on the government website?
A. I have no problem in doing that once every thing is completely final. But the deal is within our known industrial policy. Land is the main thing. I have heard that the land in West Bengal was given at one rupee. But in my Gujarat, the land will be sold to Tatas at market rate. You will be surprised that there is also a clause in the agreement that if the Tatas delay in making the payment, they will have to pay eight per cent compound interest. What I have given the Tatas is faith and confidence. Given the conditions under which they were forced to move out of West Bengal, this is all they needed. Tata is not the kind of company which will bargain for some Rs 50 crore or so worth of concessions. I am also equally conscious that I have to live up to the faith and confidence Tatas have placed in me.

Q. We spoke to some Gujaratis who are employed in the car industry in Detroit and they seemed to be willing to relocate to Ahmedabad and work for the Nano project.
A. I am looking at an immense possibility. The worldwide business of the automotive industry is worth three trillion dollars. It is difficult for the developed world to make cheap cars because labour is expensive. In the coming years, foreign car manufacturers will be outsourcing spare-parts, even design. If Gujarat aquires those skills, my biggest advantage is our ports. Even today, Rajkot’s engineering industry supplies auto spare-parts to many countries. Nano will only act as a catalyst to make Gujarat into a hub of the auto industry. It is a non-polluting and labour intensive industry in which Gujarat has a great future. Don’t forget that Ahmedabad already has the National Institute of Design which has made a mark in the area of car design. Apart from a fitter who works on a lathe machine, even these high skills will come good and will be in great demand in Gujarat.

Q. Okay, Gujarat will emerge as an auto making hub. But is that all it means to Gujarat?
A. I am looking at Gujarat as a transport hub. It is an ambitious project we thought of in 2005 and are now aggressively pushing ahead with. We have the world’s biggest ship-breaking industry. But we have a 1600-km coastline. Do we only want to break ships? I think there is tremendous scope for ship-repairing in Gujarat which will serve both the east and the west. We are also bullish about ship-building. We are tying up with many firms in Korea and Taiwan on this. Plus, we are also looking at railways seriously as we enter into an era of metro-rail. All metro-rail trains in India today are being made in Vadodara by Bombardier. A truck manufacturing company is setting up a plant in Kutch. We already have General Motors in Halol and we will soon have Nano. Gujarat was known for chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It will now be known for its engineering industry.

Q. Is there a political message in Tatas moving from West Bengal to Gujarat, from one extreme of the political spectrum to the other?
A. I don’t believe any industrialist or investor goes by the colour of the flag of the party in power. He probably considers political stability.

Q. But Sanand also falls in the Lok Sabha constituency of L K Advani.
A. That is an accident. I don’t attach any significance to that. This was an event which matters to every Indian, it is not restricted to a few square kilometres. It will be unfair to Tatas if we were to look for a political motive behind their move.

Q. But Nano does add a feather to your cap.
A. I don’t believe that. Gujarat has the highest industrial and agricultural production growth rate in the country. Even Reserve Bank is saying 25 per cent of all investments in the country is flowing into Gujarat. Between the No. 1 and No. 2 states, there is a huge difference. What Nano has done is to show things in totality. I wish people see all that we have done in the last seven years which would give them an insight into the sustained development in Gujarat across all sectors.

Q. But among all milestones in Gujarat’s march to progress, where will you rank Nano?
A. The background of the small car project is so huge that Nano has found a place in the heart of the common man. And whoever takes good care of Nano will derive a lot of goodwill. Nano’s move is like Krishna’s birth while his parents Vasudev and Devki were in a jail and it was Yashoda who took care of him. Even today, Yashoda is remembered more than his real parents. And Gujarat will take care of Nano just like Yashoda raised Krishna. (Laughs)

Q. Where do you see Ahmedabad five or ten years down the line?
A. Gujarat will be different from other states because our development focus is not Ahmedabad-centric. Ahmedabad is good for marketing Gujarat. It may get the right branding in the next couple of years. But we want uniform development of Gujarat. We want to make Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and other cities strong pillars on which Gujarat will stand. Plus, we are building new cities, like the financial city. Then there will be a nano-city exclusively for units researching or using nano-technology. We are planning a knowledge city, on the lines of Nalanda or Taxila, as an education hub. We are also planning a health city with modern medical infrastructure. We need to create satellite cities around major cities to speed up the expansion of the mother city. Another new concept I am working on presently is called ‘rurban’. It is a big village with a rural soul and an urban feel, having all the amenities that a city can strive for. But the soul would remain rustic.

Q. What are you expecting out of the Vibrant Gujarat investors summit in January 2009.
A. We didn’t have any expectations from the earlier summits in 2003, 2005 and 2007. I don’t give importance to invesments, the focus is actually on job creation. I want the government to have a focussed approach towards growth and these events help in that respect. I don’t want investors to run after the government. I want the government to run around to make things easy for investors. We have always had some focus in each Vibrant
event. Last year it was SEZs, this year it is DMIC and special investment regions (SIRs). The focus is also on infrastructure creation. If we create infrastructure, industry will come here anyway.

Q. Gujarat is going to celebrate its Golden Jubilee in 2010, fifty years after breaking away from Bombay state. How do Gujarat and Maharashtra compare today?
A. For Gujarat, it was like a son walking out of his father’s home. We had to build from scratch. It won’t be nice of me to say who is ahead today. These comparisons can be made by eminent economists. I would like healthy competition. We would like to improve in areas where we are lagging behind.

Q. For how long would you like to remain the Gujarat CM?
A. I am not in this position because I wished to be. So I don’t wish to hang on what I have got.

Q. Do you also have a vision for India?
A. (Pause) I am just a hard-working man. By and large, I try to learn from ordinary people. Being a Gujarati, I understand the pulse of Gujaratis better. I can’t claim to have a vision. I can only show my work and say that I will not cease working hard. It is for the ‘janata’ to judge me.

Q. Some ‘janata’ have started saying that you are the ideal prime minister of the future.
A. There are two ways to harm a person. One, you can give that person less work than what he is capable of doing. Second, you can show him big dreams which he is not capable of achieving. You fire his ambition so that he ventures out and gets finished. In the past, many CMs were shown dreams of becoming PM. I pray (laughs) to all my well-wishers not to make me a sacrificial lamb. I am happy doing what I am doing. (Laughs)

Q. You don’t seem to have any political challenge left in Gujarat. But can terrorism come in the way of your realising dreams about a vibrant Gujarat?
A. Terrorism is not Gujarat’s problem alone. It is a problem for entire humanity. The need is for the right thinking world to isolate terrorism and unite to fight it. There should be a joint strategy to combat terror. In India, all governments, people, media and intelligentsia should come together. It’s like war. Nobody talks about intelligence failure in a war situation. There should be one voice against terror. We need zero tolerance on terror.

Q. If Advani becomes PM, and you the Union home minister, will there be zero tolerance against terror.
A. I thank you for accepting that Advaniji will become PM.

Q. Even Ratan Tata is probably accepting that!
A. (Laughs) Advaniji has himself said that his government will make tough terror laws and have zero tolerance against terror. As to who will join his team is a decision only he can take.

Q. One last question. Does it hurt you that you still can’t get a US visa?
A. On the day I was denied a visa, I had said in an interview that I take this as an opportunity. I want my India to be so strong and prosperous that Americans will queue up to come to India. A day will come when Americans will yearn to come to Gujarat. I convert every adversity into an opportunity and I will do so in this case too.

Q. But do you long to go to the US?
A. When I used to go to the US earlier, a lot of time, money and energy were wasted. I must thank the US for putting an end to that. I have used satellite video at least twice every year to address huge gatherings of Indian people. Just like Dalai Lama lives in India but inspires Tibetans worldwide, I am fortunate I can show my love to Indians all over the world by using technology.

Q. Thank you very much.
A. I enjoyed this. (Laughs)

With e-Governance at the forefront, Assam has taken lead in Common Service Centre (CSC) deployment in the entire North East as 450 CSCs would be operational from Wednesday.

The CSCs will be inaugurated by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at Indian Tea Association Convention Centre in Guwahati, state Department of IT Commissioner and Secretary VS Bhaskar said.

“The function would also be attended by large number of village level entrepreneurs (VLEs),” Bhaskar added.

He further said that the remaining 3,925 CSCs would be rolled out in the next two months.

Of the total CSCs, Sahaj SREI leads CSC deployment at 325 whereas Zoom Developers has deployed 125.

The state service agencies have deployed various connectivity options but majority of the CSCs have been deployed using VSATs, the IT Commissioner said.

In terms of e-Governance applications, Bhaskar said, “We would be providing permanent residence certificate, non-creamy layer certificate, income certificate and caste certificate from the day one of CSCs becoming operational by paying a nominal value to VLEs.”

Assam will deploy a total of 4,375 CSCs across all rural hinterland and would provide e-Governance and value added applications on an affordable basis to all villagers of the state.