Rhetoric is rhetoric, and reality is reality, and never the twain shall meet. This seems to be the maxim of Indian politics. The people of the nation, too, have got accustomed to the swirls of rhetoric, and the whirls of reality. This time, some say, there will be change. That there is a wave. But, is the coast clear? Narendra Damodardas Modi has a lot to answer. The Ganga, as if she has not been polluted enough, has been witnessing a lot of muckraking these days. Taking on the challenge-and the ink and eggs-head-on, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal is contesting against Modi in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. And he has been on a rat-a-tat mode against Modi and his corporate corps. Modi, who usually trained his guns on the shehzada and his shenanigans, called Kejriwal “AK-49” and accused him of being a Pakistani agent. THE WEEK did a reality check on the Gujarat Model of development and Modis claim of clean governance. It was a grim start. In February this year, the anti-corruption bureau of the Gujarat Police arrested Kalyansingh Champawat, who allegedly has close links with the BJP, for allegedly running a government job racket in Gandhinagar. He was arrested with Rs.1.43 crore, allegedly collected from candidates who had applied for the post of talathi-a village-level revenue officer. Sources say the average price of the job was Rs.10 lakh. THE WEEK met a candidate from Viramgam village in Ahmedabad. “Two days before the exam for the post, I was asked to pay Rs.18 lakh,” he says, adding that he could not make the payment. “Candidates who had paid for the post were asked not to answer question nos.10, 25 and 37; that was the code.” When the issue was raised in the Assembly, Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel denied any association with Champawat, who runs an institute named Smart Training and Research Centre in Gandhinagar. The BJPs state unit also denied reports that he was a party member. THE WEEK, however, has a copy of Champawats application for the Gandhinagar North Assembly seat during the 2012 state elections. He states that he has been the chief trainer at RSS and BJP camps. “Modi charges Rs.10 per person to listen to his speech and his aides charge Rs.10 lakh for a post of talathi,” says Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia. “This case alone exposes the fake claims that Modi makes [about employment generation].” The Gujarat government had invited applications for 1,500 talathi posts, which offers a monthly salary of Rs.5,300. Official records say 8,40,000 applications were received in a matter of days. Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi says, “These are the educated, unemployed people registered with the state employment exchange. At least, three times more are not registered; so the total figure will be about 30 lakh.” In fact, one of Kejriwals primary charges against Modi has been his “lies” about low unemployment in Gujarat. A week before the job scam broke, Prof. Hemant Shahs book Sachchai Gujarat Ki, which rips apart tall claims of the state government, was released by Suresh Hosbet, former judge of the Bombay High Court, in Ahmedabad. “During 1960-80, Gujarats growth rate was 1.04 per cent higher than the national growth rate,” says Shah. “Though the figure rose in the subsequent years, during 2002-2012, it decreased to 1.26 per cent higher than the national growth during 2002-2012. We are actually back to days of 1960s.” The economics professor also points to an advertisement of Mukhyamantri Amrutam scheme of the Gujarat government, which says 39 lakh families in the state are below poverty line. “So, where is the big claim of poverty alleviation under Modi?” Shah takes at a dig at Modis claim of transparent governance, too: “The state has just three deputy information commissioners in the state, while actually eleven are needed. Thousands of RTI applications are pending.” Lack of transparency regarding the states association with corporate giants has, in fact, been the biggest charge against Modi. The shifting of Tata Nano car project from West Bengal to Gujarat made headlines, and still continues to do so. “The kind of terms that the Gujarat government agreed to raises serious questions,” says Gautam Thakar, general secretary, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, Gujarat. Sources say 1,100 acres, reserved for a veterinary university, was allotted to the Tatas at Rs.900 per sq.m, while the market rate was Rs.10,000 per sq.m. “How and why did the Gujarat government agree to give a loan of Rs.9,570 crore to the company and that too at an atrocious interest rate of Rs..10 per cent with a moratorium of 20 years? This is ridiculous and illegal,” says Thakar. He points out that the loan amount was 4.25 times the project cost of Rs.2,200 crore. Another controversial case is allotment of 41,62,36,924sq.ft land to the Adani Group in Kutch district. The states revenue ministry accepted that large tracts of land were given at prices ranging from Rs.1 to Rs.32 per sq.m. It, however, argued that only wasteland had been allotted to the group. “What is shocking is that, after demarcating the allotted land into sub-plots, the Adani Group gave them to other companies, including some public sector companies, at Rs.800 to Rs.10,000 per sq.m,” alleges Modhwadia, adding that the loss to the exchequer is so huge that it cannot be calculated on normal calculators. Civil activist Mahesh Pandya alleges that the Adani Group sold land to Indian Oil Corporation at Rs.8,000 a sq.m. “There are more examples,” he says. “Why didnt the state government sell it directly to these companies, instead of helping the Adani Group earn billions?” In Gandhinagar, the state capital, too, land was allotted to industrial groups without auction or a uniform policy. Documents of the public works and revenue departments show that K. Raheja Corp. Pvt. Ltd was allotted a plot of 3,76,561sq.m at Rs.470 per sq.m. The group had requested the district collector to allot the land for setting up an IT park, on February 15, 2006. The deal was sealed on May 8, 2006. In contrast to the speedy allotment, the Southwest Air Command of the Indian Air Force, which had sought land from the Gujarat government on May 4, 2001, was allegedly made to go through red-tape that would leave any Indian red-faced. Eventually, after the PMOs intervention, the Air Force was given land at Rs.1,100 per sq.m-more than double the price paid by the Raheja group. The official argument, however, was that the plot given to the Raheja group was rural wasteland, while the area sought by the Air Force was urban, though both came under Gandhinagar district. Modhwadia, however, does not buy it: “This shows what kind of priorities Modi has. Allotment of land without auctioning is a complete breach of the Central Vigilance Commissions guidelines and prevailing laws.” RTI activist Karu Odedra alleges that many of the plots allotted in the name of industrial development remain untouched. “Corporate groups such as Raheja, DLF, ICICI, Satyam and Puri Foundation have not developed the land alloted to them,” he says. “They are holding the plots and waiting for price appreciation.” Under pressure from the opposition, which raised 17 allegations of scams, the state government appointed an inquiry commission headed by retired judge M.B. Shah on August 16, 2011. It accepted affidavits and documents from people till September 2011. “I had all the documents, but the commission wanted every single page to be notarised,” says Thakar. “I tried to find a notary for 44 days, but they were scared. On the last date for submission, I found one. When I reached the registrar of the commission to submit, he called me a Congressman and questioned my locus standi. I showed him the Constitution and the documents were accepted after a lot of effort to discourage me.” The commission worked for a year. Activists say Justice Shah was apathetic. “For instance, the commission asked us to produce the corporates and officials concerned before it, instead of summoning them,” says Thakar. The commission submitted its interim report to the chief secretary on September 29, 2012. “The state cabinet accepted it on October 2 and, the next day, the BJP spokesperson announced it as a clean chit to the government,” says Thakar. The report, however, is yet to be tabled in the Assembly. “There are many such reports, but of no use,” alleges Pandya. In 2010, Gujarats forest ministry accepted in its reply to a starred question that the deputy conservator of forests had recorded a punishable offence by Essar Steel Company Ltd. It, however, was settled by imposing a fine of just Rs.20 lakh. In 2013, a Comptroller and Auditor-Generals report noted that the fine was “not justifiable”. “The delay in regularization of encroached government land coupled with levy of ad-hoc penalty at lesser rates in the case of Essar Steel Company Ltd resulted in short recovery of Rs.238.50 crore.” The CAG noted other deviations from rules, too, to benefit industrial groups, including Reliance Industries Ltd. In Surat, a century ago, farmers had donated land to establish a seed farm, under Navsari Agriculture University. But Chhatrala (India) Hotel Group Ltd signed an MoU with Gujarat government during an investment summit to set up a Rs.500-crore, seven-star hotel in Surat. “The land marked for NAU was re-vested to the revenue department to be given to the hotel group, without concurrence of NAU,” alleges Gujarat opposition leader Shankersinh Vaghela. The principal secretary of revenue department suggested that the land be allotted at Rs.15,000 per sq.m, but the municipal corporation demanded Rs.44,000 per sq.m. The matter went to the Supreme Court, where the Gujarat government agreed to increase the price to Rs.35,000 a sq.m. “Finally, the 65,000 sq.m plot of NAU was given away for Rs.224 crore, against the market value of at least Rs.750 crore,” alleges Modhwadia. And, like many other allotments, this land, too, is yet to be developed, notes Odedra. Documents submitted to the Shah Commission show that 8,00,000 sq.m land in Surats Hazira region was allotted to Larsen & Toubro for just Rs.1 per sq.m. “This is the most prime location in Haziras industrial zone,” says Modhwadia. “Had the government auctioned it, the plot would have fetched thousands of crores. Giving land at Rs.1 per sq.m is like a gifting it away.” Another allegation of gifting was the allotment of 24,0.21 hectares to Archean Chemicals Ltd and 26,746 hectares to Solaris ChemTech in the Rann of Kutch for manufacturing salt and salt-based chemicals, at just Rs.150 per hectare. Also, the allotment drew a lot of attention, as the land lay along the Indo-Pak border, and security concerns were allegedly overlooked. The CAG report also slammed the Gujarat government for irregularities in land allotments. “The prices were fixed by various committees; the norms prescribed for fixing the price of land were found to be unrealistic in some cases,” said the report. “It was also observed that these norms were not adhered to in some cases. Thus, there was no uniformity in fixing prices of lands alienated.” Allegations are not limited to land. While the Gujarat government has a policy in place to give fishing rights of the dams only by auction, Fisheries Minister Purshottam Solanki gave 58 licences for 38 dams for an annual fee of Rs.2 crore, on first come, first served basis. The Gujarat High Court, however, cancelled the 58 licences, and ordered fresh auctioning. They were auctioned for Rs.400 crore. The court had indicted Solanki in 2008, but he continues as a minister. Modis air travel, too, had come under criticism, as an RTI query in 2007 revealed that between February 24, 2003 and July 1, 2007, he had taken 100 private chartered flights. They included trips to Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia and Switzerland. “He was accompanied by top corporate officials in most of the visits. All this is suspicious,” alleges Modhwadia. Though the state government defended that the trips were made to attract foreign investment to Gujarat, the suspicion is still in the air. Vaghela says the most frustrating thing is Modis silence over such issues. “He has not spoken a word in the Assembly in the past 13 years. He has never participated in any debate over any bill, nor has he replied to any question in the Assembly. Why this silence?” That is what Gujarats social activists and now Kejriwal and Co. have been asking, too. And Modi should know that the more he keeps quiet on reality, the more will be the noise over his rhetoric.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:47:14 +0000
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