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A few days back, I had the pleasure of discussing with one of the top Gujarat bureaucrats, who loves to remain faceless, in detail, about one of the most controversial acquisitions Gujarat government has been trying to clinch – gas network of Gujarat Gas Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the top MNC, British Gas, operating in south Gujarat. With a net worth of around Rs 4,500 crore, Gujarat Gas supplies around 3 million standard cubic meters per day of gas to lakhs of households and enterprises in and around three cities, Surat, Ankaleshwar and Bharuch. Known for his expertise in finance, I asked this bureaucrat pointblank: “Why do you at all want to acquire Gujarat Gas? Don’t you think that you are moving away from the established norm of what many believe should be an ideal state policy – of shedding economic activity and concentrate, instead, on social sector, in which Gujarat still lags? Why not, instead, allow a private player to clinch the deal?” The acquisition move had already become con...

HK Dash The other day, I was sitting quiet in my verandah, sipping morning tea, scanning emails. And, suddenly, my good old friend Neeraj Nanda came on chat. Right now, Neeraj edits a periodical, South Asia Times, in Melbourne, and runs a news portal, mainly targeting Indians in Australia. We know each other since our college days in Delhi University in 1970s. Neeraj, who migrated with his family to Australia decades ago after working in several papers in Delhi, wanted to eagerly tell me something about Gujarat, and as usual I was rather keen. “It’s about a roadshow your state delegation held in Melbourne. I got an invitation, decided to go, and took along with me a Gujarati trader friend and an activist from Labor Party of Australia”, he told me, and my eagerness increased: “Who led the delegation?” Neeraj replied “it was some Dash”, and I immediately identified the bureaucrat -- principal secretary, water resources, Gujarat government, HK Dash. An amenable babu, he led one of the sev...

He created flutter in May 2004. Attending a rebel BJP meet at a farm house off Gandhinagar, Purshottam Solanki, popularly Bhai among his supporters, called Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi "Hitler". Ironically, even today, Bhai claims he hasn't changed his views. Only, at that time he was on the side of those in the BJP who believed Modi was a bad guy. But now he is with those who say there is no alternative to Modi. A junior minister in the Modi government, I decided to call on Bhai a few days back at his residence in Sector 20 in Gandhinagar. The Gujarat High Court had just directed the state government to decide on sanctioning Bhai's prosecution for his alleged involvement in Rs 400 crore fishing contract scam. I talked to him about the scam. He, obviously, denied any involvement. Then I decided to remind him what had declared once, standing next to Modi's bête noire ex-CM Keshubhai Patel - that Modi was Hitler. "What do you have to say of it today? D...

He was addressed as “dinosaur” by late Congress chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhury, but Gujarat government officials recall him for being too much of a “simpleton”, who easily succumbed to all types of pressures, whether from the family, or bureaucrats, or politicians whom he trusted blindly. Whatever he has been, former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, who has allowed his decades-old association with the BJP to lapse just a few days ahead of his 83rd birthday, July 24, will now attract attention on how he seeks to influence Gujarat’s polity, about to witness assembly elections six months from now. Despite being old, his supporters say, he is seen as “Keshubapa” by the economically better off and socially influential community of Leuva Patels, especially in the Saurashtra region, to which he belongs. I came in contact with Keshubhai in 1998, though I met him once earlier, somewhat briefly, in early 1994 when he was opposition leader in the Gujarat state assembly. In 1998, he led his part...

Medha Patkar It was a Sunday. I was preparing to drive down to Ahmedabad from my Gandhinagar residence on June 17, in the afternoon. Suddenly, I got a phone call from one of the most controversial activists of India, Medha Patkar. She said, she was in Ahmedabad, why not meet? I readily agreed. I may have talked to her several times on phone to find out what she thought on issues related with the Narmada project, but never had an occasion to meet her. She had come to Ahmedabad for the second time in a year to appear in an Ahmedabad court regarding a case involving assault on her during - what many in consider - her "unwarranted" visit to Sabarmati Ashram in 2002 to attend a gathering of Gandhians and activists to protest Gujarat riots. Organizers of the 2002 meeting, including well-known danseuse and activist Mallika Sarabhai, were quick to distance themselves from Patkar’s sudden appearance saying the meeting was in no way "connected with the Narmada cause with which Pat...

Last Wednesday, when three senior ministers from Government of India - P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni and Salman Khursheed - landed up in Ahmedabad merely to "showcase" the Centre’s contribution to Gujarat’s development, I was taking a round of Sachivalaya in Gandhinagar. Time was 3.00 pm, and the ministers were about to address the media, which is what they had come for. I entered the room of one of the senior-most bureaucrats, who was found to be frantically changing TV channels in order to catch the station which would broadcast the press conference live. Flanked by three other officials, all working under him, this bureaucrat curtly remarked: "What the hell! Our chief secretary has asked us to watch live the three ministers’ press conference." The officials had their pen and paper ready. Amused, I walked out and moved towards Gujarat chief secretary Achal Kumar Joti's office, just a few yards away. I peeped into the conference room attached to the office - and t...

YK Alagh Does Gujarat government fudge figures to “prove” its success story? The suspicion is, indeed, not new. I recollect how chief minister Narendra Modi, post-2002 riots, insisted for at least three continuous years that Gujarat’s annual rate of growth was 14.6 per cent. I also believed him (and his aides) till one fine day a senior bureaucrat showed me unofficially – that the high rate was being shown even for the year when it was around six per cent! At a press conference that followed – a rarity nowadays – I asked Modi about his comment on this six per cent. He looked around for a while, and on getting a reply from an aide murmured, “When you are already on a high pedestal, it is difficult to go higher.” One can possibly say, then, he had political reasons for hyping Gujarat’s growth story. He wanted to establish himself, wanted people to forget riots and see how Gujarat had already become No 1 under him. Things, apparently, have not changed more than half-a-decade later, though...