Ajay Singh shares a distinctly un-Gujarati breakfast with Narendra Modi, the state's chief minister
He is considered a master strategist who draws up his schemes to a fault. So when Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi called to confirm his breakfast meeting with me, I was not surprised at his choice of venue - Gujarat Bhavan. Ever since he assumed the chief ministership of that state, Modi misses no opportunity to exhibit his Gujarati-ness. He displayed this in a succinct slogan he coined in Gandhinagar - Apno Gujarat, Agvun Gujarat (our own Gujarat, the first Gujarat).
As I entered Gujarat Bhavan, an official accompanied me to the chief minister's suite. I waited for a short while before Modi, his grey beard neatly combed, arrived. "I was relatively free in the morning so I chose breakfast as the occasion to meet," he explained.
I told him I'd wanted to take him out for lunch. "But don't underestimate Gujarat Bhavan," he told me loyally and asked one of the waiters to prepare a good breakfast, adding in Hindi, "Naak na katwana, bhai (Don't let me down)."
Being familiar with Gujarat, I had pleasant visions of piping hot puranpuri, dhokla, fafra, Saurashtr-ian delicacies and chach. But how could you ask what we were going to eat? I suppressed my curiosity about the menu and started talking politics.
Modi is the first pracharak (propagandist) of the RSS to have assumed the chief ministership of a state. And he is among those who have been advocating the line in the RSS that pracharak status should not be given to those RSS activists loaned to the BJP because the two functions did not jell. So I was curious to know how he handled the duality now that he was chief minister.
"I have yet to get the real feel of being a chief minister," he replied, obviously indicating that he was not influenced by the trappings of power. "But what about your status as a pracharak?" I persisted. Modi turned philosophical. "Pracharak-hood is a mentality - not a person," he said and went on to explain that pracharaks are people fully devoted to the organisation and restrained from contesting elections. "I will no longer be a pracharak as I am contesting the Assembly election," he said, cleverly skirting the issue.
As we moved to the breakfast table, however, Modi proved that he hasn't kicked the propaganda habit entirely. He told me that he had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to inform him about the development work undertaken by his government after last year's earthquake. He was at pains to point out: "This is the first time that a chief minister is asking the Centre to ask the state about utilisation of funds for an earthquake-hit area."
The Gujarat Bhavan waiter materialised at my side and asked me if I would like a plain dosa or masala dosa. Dosa? Did that mean we were not having rotlas? Obviously it did, as I noticed two pieces of toast and butter being placed on the table. "Plain," I said curtly, instantly losing all interest in the food.
Industries involved in the reconstruction work had complained of non-cooperation from the state government, so I asked Modi as much. If Modi sensed my disappointment over the breakfast fare, he gave no indication of it. He replied, "All these things are wrong. The government is going out of its way to help those involved in rebuilding Kutch. But there is a difference. I have had a survey done to ascertain the progress in rehabilitation work in Kutch and you will be surprised to know that 95 per cent of the work has been done by the state government."
But conscious that the statement would rub some people the wrong way, he was quick to clarify. "I don't want to complain about industries or NGOs because the task is so enormous that anything is a drop in the ocean. But also, the state is supposed to play the dominant role."
Modi also likes to project himself as a champion of privatisation, no doubt in deference to the famously entrepreneurial spirit of the citizens of his state. He claims he was the first to allow ports to be privatised (ignoring the fact that there are already over 100 private minor ports in the state). He was also, he said, in favour of maximum liberalisation in order to allow entrepreneurship to grow. "The people of Gujarat are very enterprising and they want minimum government," he said.
I pointed out that this didn't jell with the state's poor record on reform, particularly power. Modi was prepared for this question. "Recently, I have allowed captive power plant for industrial estates, for which no permissions are required," he said. "I have also requested the prime minister to set up a nuclear power plant in the state," he added, referring to his recent visit with the PM's entourage to Russia. Why nuclear power? "Because, in this drought-hit state, atomic energy alone can save the state."
But, like any politician anywhere in India, he was unwilling to bite the bullet on imposing market rates for power, the lack of which has been the single biggest impediment to an efficient power sector. "I am not among those who believe in subsidising electricity for the industry," he explained defensively, "but subsidy to the agriculture sector is a necessity for survival in Gujarat."
Modi has decided to draft professionals from different fields into the government instead of relying on IAS bureaucrats. "For the first time, I have created a bio-technology ministry which will act as a catalytic agent for development in this field," he said proudly. This ministry is supposed to take care of pharmaceuticals, marine bio-technology (given the state's long coastline) and efforts to control the spread of the desert.
In the course of the conversation, Modi had gobbled up two dosas while I was still struggling with my first. The waiter poured tea which I expected would be the famous Gujarati masala tea. But it was the unbearably sweet, viscous liquid that passes off for tea in north India.
Modi may be proud of his reformist credentials, but I was keener to understand his status within the party. I asked him why he had acquired the image of a person who plays factional politics. I gave examples of infighting in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana - all states he was assigned by the party.
"No, no, this is wrong. Had this been correct, I would not have been made BJP's general secretary (organisation) by the party leadership. Then I would not have been given the present assignment," he said, struggling to regain a poise that he is known to lose fairly easily. "But one of your colleagues and former minister of Gujarat, Jaspal Singh, says you ditched him," I persisted. "What he says is true. He got a set of clothes stitched for the swearing-in but he was not inducted. He might have felt ditched but we had information about his hobnobbing with our rivals," Modi countered.
As the meal wound down, I chose to change the subject - his unmarried status as a pracharak, which had become a point of great curiosity in political circles in Gujarat now that he'd become a politician. "Now that you have relinquished pracharak by contesting the elections, why don't you throw off your second inhibition and get married," I asked, advising him like a concerned friend.
Modi was not to be caught out. "Then there will be little time left for friends like you in the media," he retorted tongue-in-cheek. I got into the spirit of things. "Oh, I wouldn't mind that, but are you planning something in this direction?" I replied. "I really cannot say anything on this," he said with a mischievous smile.
Gujarat Bhavan's un-Gujarati breakfast may have let him down, but on this score, I had to acknowledge he'd scored a palpable win. I decided to end the conversation there and bid him good-bye.
