For Gujarat’s birthday bash, Modi repackages ‘gaurav’ as theme

This time the celebrations will be spread over two days and the state capital will move to Vadodara. Next year it will be another town. Vadodara is known as the cultural capital of Gujarat. And, more importantly, this is where in the central Gujarat region the party did exceptionally well in the assembly elections.

A string of functions (about 40) has been planned — farmers’ convention, ex-servicemen’s convention, vigyan mela, display of weapons by the Army’s Electro-Mechanical Engineers division, several performances of dance, painting and rangoli competitions, yagnas etc. Sursagar Lake will be illuminated by 43,000 floating diyas — a thousand for each year of the state’s existence — while 700 children will sing ‘Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat’ at another venue.

According to official sources, the function will cost about Rs 1 crore but that’s just a fraction of the amount that’s being spent. Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Gujarat Narmada Fertilizer Co and Indian Oil Corporation have already made contributions totalling to Rs 25 lakh.

Private parties — industries, businesses, hospitals, religious bodies etc. — have also been roped in. But Vadodara Collector Bhagyesh Jha pooh-poohs all allegations of coercion. ‘‘There’s not an iota of truth in them,’’ he says. ‘‘Money has been willingly contributed by locals who wish to be part of the celebrations. Talk of crores of rupees being siphoned into the programme is untrue.’’

Indeed, there are some organisations contributing zealously: these are splinter groups or fronts of the saffron brigade. The Sursagar Lake Deepotsav, for instance, is being organised by the Satyam Shivam Sundaram Samiti. It will also host a programme of bhajans by Anuradha Paudwal. Yogesh Patel, Samiti chief and BJP leader, says no government money is involved and that his trust is bearing all the expenses.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad-backed Gujarat Asmita Sangh is organising a Mahayagna ‘‘to ward off evil spirits from Gujarat’’. Says local VHP leader Niraj Jain: ‘‘The programme is for the honour, culture and all-round progress of the state.’’

And the strangely named Indian Farmers Ethanol Coalition, a Bharatiya Kisan Sangh-backed organisation of farmers contracted to grow sugarcane for manufacturing ethanol for use as vehicle fuel, is organising a farmers conference.

Meanwhile, routine work in the Vadodara administration — much like in Laloo Yadav’s Patna because of the lathi rally — is at a standstill. A rationing official is co-ordinating a dance programme while a police officer supervises the arrangements for a painting competition. It’s the same story everywhere.

At the Navlakhi Grounds, where the main programme will be held, PWD bulldozers and municipal tankers have been deployed. With buntings above and barricades below, officials scurry around for the two-hour function. District supplies officer J K Gadhvi is supervising arrangements for the cultural events while resident deputy collector D H Shah is getting ready to man the control room.

The entertainment department has received a strange directive. It is to ensure that all cinemas in Vadodara hold at least one screening of a Gujarati movie that day. Cinema owners grumble as few viewers turn up for Gujarati movies but have agreed to comply.

‘‘How can we anger officials of this department?’’ asks one cinema owner. ‘‘We have to deal with them all the year round.’’

‘‘It’s shocking. But then there is no one to stop Narendra Modi,’’ says J.S. Bandukwala, social activist and professor.

‘‘He is obsessed with Gujarat Gaurav. They are cutting university grants, they have got their priorities and focus wrong.’’

‘‘Modi wants to promote his name,’’ observes former Congress MP Dinsha Patel. ‘‘The party will appropriate every achievement in the past 30 years to him. When they don’t have money to provide basic amenities, I don’t know why they are celebrating in such a big way.’’

And Brahmkumar Bhatt, a leading light of the Mahagujarat movement, which led to the creation of Gujarat, says, ‘‘The Jana Sangh was opposed to the creation of states on liguistic lines. They have no idea what the movement is all about.’’

But it was Prakash Shah, another leader of that movement, who had the last word: ‘‘I think the BJP government is not qualified to speak in the name of the movement. People, irrespective of caste and religion, took part in the movement, contrary to the polarisation they (the BJP) are working for. They have a wrong notion of Gujarat gaurav. It should be penance day for them.’’