Meet Modi - the most loved & hated man in Gujarat

He is playing it safe when he dissociates himself from the tag ‘CEO’ . “Why don’t you call me common man (CM) instead,” he insists. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi stays subdued on personal ambitions and goes loud on state welfare. The most loved and hated man in Gujarat talks about SEZs, state elections and his sex appeal in an exclusive interview with Ashwin Walunjkar & Anil Nair. Excerpts:

How has your chief ministership taken the Gujarati entrepreneurial spirit ahead since you came to power in 02?
Gujarat has always been a state of entrepreneurs. Since centuries . But we were never No.1. In the last four years, we have emerged as the No.1 state in terms of investments. This happened four years back. It is easy to rise from No.10 to No.2, but very tough to go from No.2 to No1. Historically, Gujarat’s coastline has been used for world trade. However, nothing happened in the last 200 years. Our vast coastline is now getting central to the world trade after 2004. It will be the entry point for India’s prosperity . It’s a result of strategic planning. Earlier, there was just port development. Now, we have port-led development. This includes development of infrastructure , chain of warehousing, chain of cold storages and SEZs. I have suggested to the Centre to provide ports with rail links. Centre is yet to decide on this, but we have done it. We are the first state in the country to privatise rail network and link it to the ports.

Why have SEZs never posed a problem here?
Gujarat is a policy-driven state. We are the first state to come out with an SEZ Act. We have always taken care that SEZs do not come up at the cost of agriculture. There is a lot of barren land and one should carve out a new world on that land. No point is dismantling what already exists. It’s an absolute win-win situation. In Gujarat , industry has come up where nothing else could grow and because of new companies coming in, prices of land have shot up many times. We don’t practice the economic model that robs one to pay the other. You should create wealth that can be evenly distributed.


Do you agree that your style of functioning is more like a CEO than a CM?
I don’t agree with this tag. A CEO’s job is to earn profits and look at the welfare of a company . If you call me a CEO, it means I am only looking at the welfare of Gujarat. That’s not true. I am here to look after the welfare of five crore Gujaratis. I don’t want to fill the state coffers . That’s not my agenda. I want my people to get prosperous . I am happy being called a progressive chief minister who works like a labourer.

Perception about Gujarat is not encouraging? Industries think you favour Gujarati entrepreneurs. Is it correct?
I have never heard about this. If at all there is any such complaint , I will surely look into it. I want to make it clear that investment in Gujarat is as much right of a Gujarati as it is of anyone else. This is the philosophy of my life. People from across the country are working here and they are quite happy.

Coming to the elections, you have been saying that if someone’s better, please vote for him. So, you are sure, there is no one.
No. I don’t mean this. What I want to tell people is that if you are happy with my work since six years, you choose me. If you think there is someone else who can do a better job, you go for him. The state should progress. That is all that I want. My chair is not important , the state is. I am emotionally involved with Gujarat.

To what extent will Modi’s oratory play a role in these election?
I don’t believe in oratory. I don’t think it’s my strength. I am just a communicator. I speak my heart out. My style and my language have little role in this. If there is fire within me, I let others experience it.

What will be election issues this year. Manifesto? Any one issue that is your trump card...
We are still in the process of preparing it. I am part of that exercise , I cannot reveal that ahead of my party announcing it. It will be known soon, but the highlight will be on development ad progress of Gujarat.