A spirited Roundtable discussion at the ICSSR Hall in Osmania University this morning launched the civil society challenge to Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial aspirations. Organized by 20 student organizations including the Telangana Vidyathila Sangam , All Mala Students Association, Democratic Student Union, Student Federation of India, Bahujan Student Forum and All India Students Federation and, the roundtable featured student leaders and professors including Kancha Ailiah and Balaboyina Sudarshan. Prof. Illaiah, currently Professor of Exclusion Studies at MANU, laid the gauntlet out in clear terms. He argued that even though Modi was himself an OBC, he should not be “considered a person in any way sympathetic to the Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs and minorities of India” because his “rise within the BJP was based on the RSS’s need for non-Brahmin faces to run the anti-Mandal agitation of the 1990’s.” Urging the students to do their own research he added “find me one place where Modi has taken a pro-reservation stance.” Striking a different register, Balaboyina Sudarshan of the Osmania University Scholar’s Association began with a series of statistics that challenged the Gujarat model of development. “How can there be 40% child malnourishment in a state that claims to be a model of development?” he asked. “The Telangana of our dreams is one where development is for the ordinary people – the Dalits, Adivasis and minorities of our new State and not for the Ambanis as it is in Gujarat” he concluded.
This was followed by an event in the evening at Lamakaan in Banjara Hills where visiting scholars and activists Mahesh Pandya, Hemant Shah and Rumal Dhrangi spoke on “Development in Gujarat: Myth or reality”. Mahesh Pandya, an environmental activist with Pariavaran Mitr started with a simple fact. “Three of the top ten most polluted regions in India – Vapi, Vatva and Ankaleshwar – are in Gujarat. Is this development or destruction?” he asked. Speaking to a rapt audience Professor Hemant Shah (retd, Economics, Gujarat University) pointed out that between 1985 and 2001 Gujarat had an annual GDP growth rate of 14.5% as against the all India figure of 3.25%. Since Modi’s term as Chief Minister in 2001 to today, “we have had growth rates that are far less than the 1980s and 90s” he argued. “If Gujarat’s golden corridor is a hub of development it is is because of the 1980s and 90s and not an achievement of Modi” he added. In conclusion he asked the audience to consider one fact: ”we see states like Madhya Pradesh, Oriss and Rajasthan to be less developed than Gujarat. And yet the rate of poverty reduction in these States between 2001 and 2010 far outstrips Gujarat. How can we call Gujarat a model of development?” he concluded.
The two day launch will conclude with a full day seminar on the Gujarat Model for India? Tomorrow Thursday August 8th at the FAPSI auditorium in Lakdikapul featuring Vrinda Grover, lead lawyer for Ishrat Jahan’s family in the Supreme Court and Jitendra Ahwar, NCP MLA from Mumbra constituency (Ishrat Jahan’s constituency). The seminar seeks to examine all aspects of Gujarat society in a day long intensive – from communal carnage and encounter killings and developmental disasters to failure of democracy. “If Modi has nothing to hide why has he fought the Lok Ayukta so hard and for so long?” asked Shabnam Hashmi of ANHAD, a Delhi based organization that has been involved in post-carnage relief and advocacy work in Gujarat. Hashmi will also be addressing the seminar tomorrow.