Rare January 2002 interview of Narendra Modi reveals Reformist Thinking Posted by : India272 Staff | Category : Narendra Modi He does not make little of where he comes from, in fact wearing his ‘Gujarati-ness’ , on his sleeve as was evident when Ajay Singh of The Business Standard interviewed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in January 2002. Matter of fact, dedicated, very much son of the soil, even before he had gained any quotable success as a CM, Narendra Modi was and still is unassuming. The fact the he is a visionary is pretty evident when one takes note of the following points that emerge from the interview: Accountability, perhaps the foremost reason Gujarat is the state that it is today. Modi points out that he had made an appointment with the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayiee to apprise him of the developmental work carried out by the state post the devastating earthquake. “This is the first time that a chief minister is asking the Centre to ask the state about utilisation of funds for an earthquake-hit area,” Recognising that agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy, he employed the expertise of professionals instead of bureaucrats, creating a bio- technology ministry that looked into bettering the output of farmers and other industries tied to agriculture as well, while also looking into pharmaceuticals and marine bio- technology. The state’s annual agricultural growth is now touted to be somewhere in the 10- 11 per cent region. ‘Politics has no business doing business’. Although he uttered the line in 2013 he has always been a firm believer of the words. He made the largely arid state one of the most business friendly zones in the country allowing for maximum privatisation and ensuring that bureaucratic red tape would not be a problem for those who were looking to set up their own enterprise. Making an example out of the Government, a practise long forgotten but revived by Modi. Questioned by Singh regarding allegations that his Government was proving to be uncooperative in the re- building measures being carried out in Kutch, he explains that 95 per cent of the rehabilitation work had been carried out by the state government saying, “the state is supposed to play the dominant role.”
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 07:43:50 +0000
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