Ailment and cure

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goes around boasting about the 'Gujarat Model' of development and promises similar results in other states. They did it last year during the state elections in Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, but were shown the door by the electorate of the respective states. Previously, in 2020 as well, the BJP had tried to fight against the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and made it a fight between the 'Delhi Model' and the 'Gujarat Model', but the voters of the state showed their thumping endorsement of Arvind Kejriwal's politics, and the Aam Aadmi Party was voted back to power with 62 of the 70 seats.

It is often believed in politics that continuity and stability of a government usually leads to better governance. However, in the case of Gujarat, this does not seem to be the case. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power in Gujarat since 1995, for 27 long years, and yet they have not been able to make the lives of the people better. The 'Gujarat Model' favours rich industrialists and is non-inclusive in its nature. As a result, several years down the line, the finances of the Gujarat government are in trouble, with the state reeling under debt. Gujarat's public debt has grown nearly 3.6 times since 2006 and almost five times since 2001. The state is paying Rs 44.15 crore per day as interest on outstanding debt, which is one of the highest in the country. This, of course, is the money of the people of the state. In fact, over the last five years, the condition of the state has only deteriorated along most parameters such as economy and cost of living, social indicators such as neonatal mortality rate and HDI rankings, civic issues such as flood management, law-and-order situation and other policing issues. According to data from the NITI Aayog, around 112 women out of every one lakh die in Gujarat during childbirth (2016-17).

The law-and-order situation of the state has been in free-fall in the last few years, and the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on August 29 confirmed the worst of our fears. For a second consecutive year, Gujarat recorded the highest number of custodial deaths in the country. What makes this statistic worse is that there has been a 53 per cent rise in the number of deaths in 2021 as compared to the previous year. This data has also come out at a time when the families of police personnel in Gujarat have been protesting across the state, demanding a hike in the grade pay. Despite being one of the richest states, the grade pay of police personnel in Gujarat is lower than that of its counterparts in other states of the country.

Aam Aadmi Party National Convener Arvind Kejriwal, during his visit to the state on August 10, had promised that if his party is brought to power in the state, the grade pay of police personnel in Gujarat would be increased to match what their counterparts earn in other states. Four days later, fearing a backlash from the families of the police personnel and due to the fear of loss of votes in the upcoming Gujarat elections, the BJP-led government announced a Rs 550-crore package to increase the grade pay of the police force. This indicates the monopoly that the BJP had in Gujarat, which went unchallenged with Congress as the main opposition. Aam Aadmi Party, despite no representation in the state assembly yet, has proven to be the main opposition on the streets.

Similarly, another unfortunate development in the recent years in Gujarat has been the quantity of illegal drugs seized from the state. In the last one year, there have been at least eight such seizures where drugs worth nearly Rs 25,000 crore were seized in the state. The range of the drugs varies from heroin that is believed to be coming in from Afghanistan via Mundra port to mephedrone that was being manufactured in Gujarat's Ankleshwar.

In just one such incident, nearly 3,000 kg of heroin had been seized from Gujarat's Mundra Port in September last year by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) — making the Mundra Port haul the largest drug consignment intercepted by the agency ever. The seized high-quality contraband was estimated to be worth over Rs 21,000 crore in the international market. To add to this, there is a well-known 'hooch mafia' in the state that deals with distribution of liquor in the dry-state of Gujarat. It is commonly known that a lot of people involved in this trade are party members of the ruling BJP, who, along with the police, have formed a nexus. Despite being a dry-state, alcohol is freely available and can be arranged for anyone who is willing to pay a little extra money.

The downside of this is the trade in spurious liquor, which kills hundreds of people in the state every year. Despite this, the state government has shown no urgency to deal with the issue, as the money from it fills up party coffers. Recently, in July this year, 40 people died in districts of Ahmedabad and Botad due to consumption of spurious liquor. A few people were arrested in the case, and a few officials were transferred for failure of their duty, but those are just those who are at the bottom of this chain of corruption. Those who lead this corruption are amongst those who run the government and therefore they feel secure that nothing will happen to them.

Gujarat desperately needs a change of government for its people to get the rightful benefits they deserve. Why shouldn't children of Gujarat study in world-class government schools? Why shouldn't people of Gujarat get quality healthcare in government hospitals and clinics? If the BJP comes to power once again in 2022, all these issues that have come into the limelight in the last one year will be swept aside, and it will be the public of the state that stands to lose out in this serious battle.

Gujarat will be given a new lease of development under the Aam Aadmi Party government. People of Gujarat should look forward to a truly 'for the people' government that will implement the Kejriwal model of governance in the state.

The writer is a spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party. Views expressed are personal