Empty soundbites

In the run-up to the December 12 elections, leaders of both the BJP and the Congress are renewing their commitment to Gujarat8217;s prosper...

In the run-up to the December 12 elections, leaders of both the BJP and the Congress are renewing their commitment to Gujarat8217;s prosperity and progress. This is as it should be. Also, given the fact that a series of calamities 8212; both natural and man-made 8212; have ravaged the state recently, Gujarat is in great need of a healing touch.

But, unfortunately, the physicians here are politicians, and they can only indulge in their favourite pastime of sloganeering. In spite of all his talk of an Aapnu Gujarat, Aagvu Gujarat our Gujarat, progressive Gujarat, Narendra Modi appears to have a single-point agenda: to continue polarising the state in communal terms in order to harvest the votes.

Whether Gujarat can progress without peace is not something that worries him unduly. After all, it is much easier to berate Godhra8217;s narpishachs and Miyan Musharraf than to give an account of the last five years of governance under the BJP.

Meanwhile state Congress president, Shankersinh Vaghela, talks about making Gujarat riot-free and secure, and reclaiming for it the status of being India8217;s No 1 state.

He explains how, under the BJP, investment has declined, power shortage has worsened, administration has got corroded and the finances of the state have dipped to the point where it has to take overdrafts for routine expenses. It sounds all right. But can Vaghela do any better? Not if one were to go by his many silly promises, like not metering the electricity supplied to farmers. If only he could consult his party colleague, Amarinder Singh in Punjab, who stopped free power supply for farmers after winning the elections, Vaghela would be wiser.

The point is that populist politics, whether packaged in saffron or khadi-white, will only harm Gujarat further. Time was when Gujarat was counted among the few well-administered states, with a measure of financial prudence that was the envy of others. If the post-Godhra mayhem has exposed administrative degeneration, rising deficits and sinking public sector performances point to its precarious financial health.

The result is that the payment of social security commitments, like pensions, has become highly irregular. So has the release of grants to nagarpalikas and panchayats. This in turn has affected the maintenance of civic amenities, not to speak of new development projects. The water from the Narmada may be flowing into the canals, but large areas in Saurashtra and Kutch remain thirsty. The power sector is in a mess. Disinvestment is stalled. Conditions need to be created to revive investors8217; confidence. Even Gujarat8217;s famed co-operative sector has, in the last one year, produced only stories of ruin: numerous banks sank one after another when greedy promoters cleaned them up of depositors8217; money. How these problems are tackled will decide Gujarat8217;s future. For the moment, however, neither the BJP, nor the Congress is paying much attention to them.