The BJP launched its Modi campaign for the elections with a meeting in Hyderabad on August 11. The party perceives Narendra Modis greatness to lie in the developmental model he has adopted in his home state of Gujarat, which is said to have outperformed all other states during his rule.
Though there is opposition to him within the BJP, the party is likely to support Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for this reason. A section of the big industrial lobby of India is actively supporting him.
In his Hyderabad speech, Modi ridiculed the development of Andhra Pradesh and promised the people that if they adopt the Gujarat model, their situation will change.
Andhra Pradesh has some standing in development and inclusive welfarism. But Modi did not give it any credit for its existing economic status. Though Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy countered his attack, Modi carried the media with him. We, therefore, must see how Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat compare in terms of development.
According to the 2011 Census, Andhra Pradesh has a population of 84,655,533 and Gujarats population is 60,383,628. APs 2013-14 budget outlay is Rs1,61,348 crore. The outlay of Gu*jarat in the same year is Rs 1,14,450 crore. The per capita share in APs outlay is Rs 1.91 lakh, whereas in Gujarat it is Rs 1.9 lakh.
If the AP and Gujarat governments simply decide to distribute this budget money per head, every man/woman/child in AP gets Rs 1,000 more than a Gujarati man/woman/child does.
This indicator shows that Gujarat is behind AP, a state ruled by the Congress, which has faced turbulent times from 2009 onwards with frequent agitations on the regional issue. Gujarat has been ruled by Modi for the last 12 years. During that period AP has been ruled by four chief ministers, yet, its resource mobilisation capacity is better than that of Gujarat.
If Gujarat was better industrialised than AP, it would have been visible in its resource mobilisation. Or, if Gujarat is better developed in agriculture, including its dairy economy, it would have shown in its resource mobilisation as well. When the Gujarat government does not have a better income than the AP government, the question of its better investment in public welfare schemes does not arise.
A well developed state must take its people, particularly the poor and in Indias case, especially the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes into account for better and focused spending on human development. Any balanced government would also have to focus on religious minorities, particularly Muslims, whose condition was shown to be equally bad in the Sachar Committee report.
A state government that is developing better than any other state must be able to show that its developmental proposals are better than others, particularly in improving the life of disadvantageous social groups. Let us compare the plan proposals of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for this year.
APs plan budget for 2013-14 is Rs 59,422 crore, whereas the Gujarat plan budget is Rs 58,500 crore. In APs plan budget, under the new, legalised Scheduled Caste special component, Rs 8,585 crore is allocated. The Gujarat government allocated Rs 1,838 core for development of the Scheduled Caste.
According to the 2011 Census, APs Scheduled Caste population is 12,339,496, while Gujarats SC population is 3,592,715. Andhra Pradesh has planned to invest Rs 69,573 in every SC person under this plan. Gujarat has planned to invest Rs 51,159 in every SC person under its welfare schemes.
For tribal development, the Andhra Pradesh government has allocated Rs 3,666 core for a population of 5,024,104 Scheduled Tribes. Gujarat has allocated Rs 1,832 crore for a population of 7,481,160 STs. The AP government has decided to invest Rs 51,159 per ST person; the Gujarat government, on the other hand, has decided to invest just Rs 24,488 per person.
For minorities, the AP government has allocated Rs 1,027 crore, whereas the Gujarat government has allocated just Rs 131 crore. Andhra Pradesh has a minority population of 8,273,654 and Gujarat has a minority population of 5,494,365.
Surprisingly, the AP government allocates Rs 12,413 per each minority person, whereas the Gujarat government allocates just Rs 2,384. In the AP governments plan proposals, the category minority appears in several places. In Gujarats proposals, the word minority appears only twi*ce. The Modi governments aversion to the word minority and its reluctance to allocate money for their development match.
APs allocations for this year proved to be much more robust and far more people-centric than Gujarats. This was not be*cause of the largesse of the rulers, but because of the assertion of the people of AP.
Such assertion seems to be absolutely absent in Gujarat. The Gujarat governments apathy towards tribals, leave alone minorities, speaks volumes. In fact, there is no evidence that Modi allowed capable leadership to grow which would allow them to assert themselves.
For example, the tribal and dalit intelligentsia in Andhra Pradesh emerged from quality residential schools and colleges that the state government initiated way back in the 1980s and 90s. Modis government did not initiate such educational projects for the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes.
With this reality, how can Modi go round the country claiming that the Gujarat model is the best and that it should be adopted by the whole nation?
Source:
Gujarat model is exclusive, not the best | Deccan Chronicle