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Journalism of Courage
An Indian Express editorial, 8216;Modi vs BJP? IE, July 21, 2007, alleged that Mr Narendra Modi was unavailable to his party MLAs and ministers, developed a personality cult and diminished and marginalised his party. The facts are at odds with this, and it is my duty to set the record straight for the readers of this esteemed newspaper.
Mr Modi has headed the state government for more than five years. The state cabinet meets every Wednesday, and he personally ensures the presence of the entire council of ministers. Before these meetings, through a system called 8216;zero hour8217; institutionalised at his behest, ministers freely discuss various issues for approximately 45 minutes in his absence. This discussion is then carried into the formal meeting to facilitate collective decision-making.
He has been instrumental in making democracy vibrant and lively at the grassroots level through a vast network of gram sabhas. They meet three times a year. MLAs and various leaders from local bodies, in addition to Class I officers of the state government attend them. This has provided them a very active forum to have direct contact with the people at the village level and to formulate development plan for the villages.
Barring public agitations, Modi has proactively participated in all organisational and party matters. He has never missed any national or state-level party function where his presence has been necessary or expected. Furthermore, he has initiated many innovative programmes to address the grievances of the public. Through the internet-based State-Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology, he or his representatives attend to people8217;s problems once a month to solve them on the spot. So far, 33,581 such grievances have been solved. A further 87,822 phone-in grievances of citizens have also been solved. He also interacts with people through video conferences. In fact, he himself takes the lead in explaining to people various welfare schemes. Just to illustrate, very recently he has directly communicated with 16 to 17 lakh women in just 40 days through 26 mahila sammelans spread across the state.
I hope this provides an insight into Mr Modi8217;s philosophy, attitude and actions.
The writer is Gujarat8217;s minister for development
