Gujarat’s development model is little different in its basic framework from UPA-II’s commitment to neo-liberal policies, and the difference is that with his brute majority, Chief Minister Narendra Modi could do away with any pretence he was striving for inclusive growth, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said.
In a booklet, ‘The BJP Model for India — Vikas Purush and Vinash Neeti,’ the party said political discussions in the mainstream media did not look at policy alternatives but only at leadership alternatives.
“In fact, what the country requires is a policy-based alternative platform which puts people before corporates and defends unequivocally the secular principles of unity and protection of minority rights, without which India can never be vibrant.”
The UPA government in general, and the Congress in particular, had failed to confront the communal agenda of the BJP and organisations affiliated to the RSS. Even now, the legislation against communalism was in cold storage. The Left parties, including the CPI(M), suggested important amendments to the draft, but the government refused to take them in and fast-track the bill because of bitter opposition from the communal forces, the booklet said.
Listing the policies of the Gujarat government since 2002 and focussing primarily on the riots, the booklet said the charge that the UPA government had allowed the plunder of India’s natural resources was equally valid against the BJP.
“They are two corrupted sides of the same coin. This is a huge scandal but the Gujarat government has managed to keep it suppressed, perhaps, because the main opposition in Gujarat, the Congress, follows the same policies.”
