‘No Modi wave, Gujarat model may not work’

Talking about the development model that BJP-led NDA wished to pursue if it came to power, Joshi said he did not favour a ‘straitjacket’ model of one particular state, but would like to take the good points of development from various states. Given the fact that BJP has peddled the Gujarat model as panacea for reviving an ailing economy, Joshi’s comments have the potential to embarrass them.

‘It is now the developmental model of the country as presented by BJP. In a country like India, what developmental model is true for Jammu and Kashmir or Arunachal Pradesh, may not be true for Kerala’, Joshi told the channel and  added, ‘So to say that this model or that model -- no. So some good points may be there, some good points from the government of Tripura will also be there, it is not some straitjacket model.’

Joshi, who headed the BJP manifesto committee and had to make way for Modi for the Varanasi parliamentary seat, in subtle comments aimed at party’s prime ministerial candidate said there was no Modi wave in the country but only a BJP wave and that their prime ministerial candidate was just a ‘representative’ of the party for the top post.

‘Modi is a representative of the party as a PM candidate...so it is not a highly personalised thing (the wave). It is a representative wave. He gets support from different parts of the country, from sections of the society and from all leaders of the BJP,’ he said.

Joshi’s comments could also raise eyebrows on the Jaswant Singh issue, when he said the decision to deny the party ticket to its expelled senior leader was not taken at the Central Election Committee, of which he is a member but by the party president and Rajasthan Chief Minister. When asked for his reaction, senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said he would react only after going through Joshi’s comments.