RESEARCH

Akshay Marathe and Mayank Gandhi Raising hope or fear? T he Gujarat growth model, being marketed by Narendra Modi is being seen by the middle class as a solution to all the problems of the nation. We intend to understand its strengths and weaknesses and indicate a constructive alternative model of growth. This article is Part 1 of a three part series on Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model. While it cannot be denied that Gujarat has seen growth in terms of water, electricity and good roads, there are some aspects of growth that need to be analysed. One of the argument for the Modi growth model is the legitimacy it gets due to 3 consecutive electoral victories. Congress has been ruling India for 60 years, CPM had been ruling WB for over 30 years, Lalu had won 3 terms. We do not subscribe to electoral success begetting good governance. Historical perspective Gujarat has seen high growth rates for the last 20 years, even before Modi came into the picture

Response to Sanjeev Sablok's inquiry into my allegations against Bharat Swabhiman, and explaining why I am a member of the Aam Aadmi Party [Click on the post title to go to the blog that necessitated this article] A s a careful reading of my tweets will show, the allegations are relayed, not mine, though the Bharat Swabhiman’s hesitation to launch an all-out movement against government’s corruption was witnessed firsthand. For want of space on Twitter, I couldn’t name the persons making the allegations. The friend referred to there is Chandra Vikash, who was once my batchmate in Holy Cross School, Bokaro Steel City (then in Bihar, now in Jharkhand), between the grades VI and X [We cleared Class X in the year 1987]. Disturbed as much as I was by rampant, all-pervading corruption, Vikash had moved to Delhi, leaving his well-paid job as an engineering consultant in Bangalore because he thought the national capital was the epicentre of corruption and here was where he co

But it was a manifestation of the "functional anarchy" that India is known to be, which unravelled in central Delhi this week , as non-violent demonstrators bore the brunt of a frustrated police force I am managing to write this post with immense difficulty in typing as my right hand that received a big blow from a policeman's lathi last evening is reluctant to cooperate in this necessary exercise of reporting the eyewitness account. I was surrounded by five Delhi Police and RAF personnel who dealt massive blows all over my body in a fit of rage even as I kept screaming that I was a peaceful protester exercising my democratic right. I am not joining the demonstrations today because a few more hits in the same parts of the body will render me motionless, while I am entrusted with the task of organisation building. The day before yesterday, 22 December, we were squatting around the canopy at a distance of about half-a-kilometre from North Block where Rajpath ends,