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Articles by Darshan Desai
Congress's Big Win In Karnataka, But A Defeat In Gujarat: A Shift In Strategy
A localised election campaign focusing on corruption and price rise, impactful social engineering and strong local leadership— these are some of the factors that helped the Congress sweep the recent Karnataka elections and defeat the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the JD(S).
The Never-Ending Narmada Nightmare
With the central government’s new push to construct infrastructure projects and generating new sources of revenue by leveraging huge tracts of land owned by the Indian Railways and acquiring public land for projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train or huge private sector projects, the very paradigm of ‘development’ clashes with the livelihood of native communities.
As Congress Gets Destroyed In Gujarat, Aam Aadmi Party Has Its First Roar
‘Eventually, Modi will win.’ This was the common refrain among those who didn’t vote for anyone and those who voted for someone else. Few knew that Narendra Modi’s home-state would gift-wrap a massive victory that broke all records and cut through all regions and classes with 156 out of 182 seats, putting the Congress on ventilator support with a lifetime low of 17. And there’s a new kid on the block: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with five seats and 14 percent voteshare. This is besides four independents.
Why Aam Aadmi Party May Be More Than A Vote Divider In Gujarat Polls
When Narendra Modi became the chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, riding on a strident Hindutva wave, he famously taunted the opposition Congress party and the media alike: “Mein jahan-jahan jaunga, aap mere pichhe-pichhe aayenge (Wherever I go, you all will follow me)”. The simple meaning of this is that Modi will set the agenda of discourse. Exactly 20 years later, this has worked as planned and a successful Congress-mukt Bharat campaign is in place.
Gujarat Civic Bodies Target Eggs, Non-Veg Stalls; It Has More Than What Meets The Eye
It was a sudden whim of the Rajkot Mayor Pradip Dav on November 9 last year that spurred a drive to uproot all roadside stalls selling eggs and non-veg food. At first it appeared to be one mayor’s idea but within 48 hours, four other municipal corporations—Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Ahmedabad—too launched a similar drive. And since not a single directive was on paper—all passed verbally—the municipal commissioners simply feigned ignorance.
AAP At The Grassroots And Its Big Strides In Gujarat
“We started with five people in Surat sometime around January 2018, soon after the December assembly elections in which I contested as an AAP candidate,” recalls Ram Dhaduk, now the party’s general secretary (organisation) for south Gujarat.
The Great Gujarati Migration And The American Dream
Jimmy Patel of Ahmedabad recently completed his engineering studies from a reputed private university in Ahmedabad but is desperately applying for admission to just any US institution for higher education. “Many youngsters not just from Gujarat but also from across the country are looking at avenues in the US,” says Jimmy. Ditto Chintu Patel, who is studying civil engineering in Atlanta, US. “There is corruption and nepotism in India…But in the US, you get appreciation, good money and status.
Good Cop Bad Cop
In Gujarat, coincidences often get too close. Who would know this better than the incarcerated and sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, awarded a life sentence last week in a case of custodial death dating way back to 1990. Since 1991, the state government had refused permission to prosecute Bhatt and other officers in the case while investigating officers had filed a report closing the case. The courts, however, rejected the police report and a case was initiated.
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