I was staying at a government guest house at Rajkot. I asked the caretaker to fetch for a cup of tea. He arranged that from outside. That cup of tea cost Rs 15. I was told that was the prevailing rate of a cup of tea there. I was told that throughout Gujarat all things are costlier in comparison with other States. Some people want to see Narendra Modi as PM of the country. If that does happen, and then all commodities will become dearer in the country. There is not a single place, where ordinary people are not upset with him. I was told everywhere that the only class benefited by Modi is the business and industrialist class. They have prospered at the cost of government treasuries. Recently Kejriwal too has charged Modi for favoring Adani Group. Even Mukesh Ambani was spared from Sales Tax, and as a result of it, the government treasuries suffered a loss of thousands of crores.

It is true that power is available 24 hours in many places of Gujarat, but it is equally true, too, that ordinary farmers are getting power for only 6 to 8 hours a day. I myself saw that farmers had diesel pumps installed in their fields. I was told that 6 lakh applications of power connections for irrigations are pending in the offices of Gujarat. If the decision has not been taken on such a big number of applications, it only implies that Modi government is not the government of ordinary people.

Education sector is also not healthy. It has been handed over to the private sector. There is heavy shortage of teachers in government schools. Government grants to educational institutions have been stopped. As a result, the private institutions are mushrooming in numbers and they are charging a lot for courses that are not up to the mark.

The reason for the scarcity of teachers is the policy related to their salary. Teaching and non teaching staffs of the schools get a fixed salary till five years. It ranges from Rs 2000 to 5000 per month. After five years, they start getting their regular salaries. This is the reason why government staffs are against the Modi government. Majority of government staff have not got the benefit of Sixth Pay Commission. That is why the organisations of government employs have appealed to vote against Modi and BJP. I was told that they have made public appeal for such voting.

The government officers are also facing problems because of the dictatorial attitude of Narendra Modi. He treats them like his domestic servants. Even the RSS family has been feeling hurt because of Narendra Modi’s lack of democratic functioning. He has demolished Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Gujarat. General Secretary of VHP, Praveen Togadiya, cannot conduct a public function in the state. Similarly, RSS leader, Sanjay Joshi, cannot open his mouth there. I have been told that Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, affiliated to RSS, has got his office of Gandhinagar closed because of Modi.

It is claimed that there is no corruption in Gujarat. However, I have been told that there is corruption in the government machinery right from top to bottom. A top journalist of rural areas, Hansmukh Kansara, told me that Garib Melas are organised in Gujarat, in which the poor get plots, cycles, stitching machines and other tools free of cost, but these are given only to those poor, who bribe the officers! For a plot, Rs 50,000 is given and for a stitching machine Rs 1000 is paid. For a cycle one has to pay a bribe of Rs 500.

Similarly, for getting work done in government offices, one has to pay bribe. Earlier, one had to pay it in secret, but these days one can give the bribe openly in the office.

During my five-day stay in Gujarat, I saw that other face of Gujarat, which is quite different from the one exhibited by the media that is intoxicated with Narendra Modi’s corporate-friendly glamour. (IPA Service)