Senior Congress leader and Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the much-touted ‘Gujarat model’ of development cannot be replicated across the country as it is not aimed at ushering in inclusive growth.
Mr. Kharge, who has been named the Congress candidate for the Gulbarga (SC) constituency, told The Hindu here that “Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model can never become a national model for development.”
He alleged that the Gujarat government had given priority to big industrial houses, ignoring common people, Dalits and tribal people. Gujarat’s human development index was unimpressive, compared with Kerala and many other States, he said. The 2011 Census showed that the literacy rate in Gujarat was only 77.3 against 93.91 per cent in Kerala. Karnataka was ahead of Gujarat in terms of education, presence of information technology and biotechnology firms, and agriculture and health sectors. Devolution of funds by the UPA government under Centrally sponsored schemes had helped Gujarat develop its infrastructure, Mr. Kharge said.
The Congress model of inclusive development stood apart in the sense that its main aim was to empower people and decentralise power, he said. Karnataka excelled in terms of implementation of e-governance and ensuring social and economic justice to all sections of people, which again was not the case in Gujarat, he said.
Mr. Modi had remained the Chief Minister for more than a decade, but Gujarat was yet to be ranked number one in the country in terms of GDP or agricultural growth, the Railway Minister said.
Party’s prospectsAsked about his party’s prospects in the general elections, Mr. Kharge said the Congress would garner majority of seats in Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, and north-eastern States. He was satisfied with the Railway projects initiated in the State in the last eight months, he said.
