<http://conclave.intoday.in/index.php>*I guarantee there will be no more riots in Gujarat, says Modi. See him pledge this here.*Uday Mahurkar & Joel RaiNew Delhi, March 18, 2011
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his state had turned development into a people's movement to achieve all-round success and expressed confidence that India could emerge as a great power if it adopted the same mantra and set its goals after precisely assessing its strengths. Drawing repeated applause from the audience at the 10th India Today Conclave for his sharp speech as a keynote speaker for the session 'How India can develop into the next decade', Modi said Gujarat was now focusing on the service sectors like tourism after achieving success in the industrial and agriculture sectors. Modi also gave an insight into how Gujarat had achieved success in various fields by following an approach that was both forward-looking and integrated. The biggest success of Gujarat, he observed, is that it had proved that success could be achieved by using the same instruments which have been found defective in the past, thus removing the atmosphere of negativity among the people and giving them hope. Modi said the way to India's future is through education. "Skills get you jobs, but knowledge creates jobs," Modi pointed out. With this in mind, Gujarat had created separate universities for subjects like petroleum, forensic sciences and for creating teachers. He said the last Vibrant Gujarat Global Investment Summit in Gandhinagar saw participation by representatives of 33 universities from across the world, who interacted with university representatives of Gujarat for starting courses in new disciplines. Gujarat, Modi said, was focusing on the minutest human and social aspects in its developmental planning and revealed that it had also set up a new university for children's development to shape their future in an age that is fast changing. He said Gujarat had triggered a public movement in 2005 for restoring its skewed sex ratio and after five years its sex ratio had improved to 924 from 820. Speaking on Gujarat's climate change and energy initiatives, Modi said the state was set to emerge as the biggest hub for solar power generation following the robust measures taken by the state Government. The state has a 2,200-km long gas pipeline and there were many villages that are getting domestic gas through the pipeline. After his speech, Modi was not found wanting in repartee when questions were put to him by the audience. Modi, expectedly, found himself being asked about the battering his image has taken following the riots of 2002. Did he hold a meeting of top officials, as alleged, to orchestrate the events? Modi said that the Special Investigative Team had questioned him thoroughly on the riots and he had answered them as well as he could. "The matter is with the Supreme Court and it would be proper now that only the apex court commented on the issue," he said. Pressed further on whether he could assure that Gujarat would not see a repeat of communal violence, Modi recalled a history of Gujarat being "communally sensitive since 1736", where not a single month passed without curfew being imposed somewhere in the state. After 2002, he said, there have been no curfews, not a single incidence of communal violence, despite incidents like the attack on Akshardham temple and the Ahmedabad bomb blasts. "This should indicate our determination on ensuring that Gujarat believes in peace and harmony," Modi said. The question of his image was the subject of some other questions too, though in a different light. Modi was queried whether his spin doctors had consciously tried to change the image, even in sartorial terms, in preparation for a bigger role away from the state, in fact in New Delhi as the prime minister. Modi said that though he had not spent even a minute on image correction, people drew their own inferences and it was up to them to answer the question in whatever way they wanted to. As for prime ministership, he said, "I deal in realities, not in dreams. I am concerned with the realities of my state." Modi added that much was being made of the western attire he sported at times. "This is not an effort at rebranding myself," he said. "I used to wear a trouser and shirt when I worked for the party in places like Himachal Pradesh, and I wear those clothes during the cold season in Gujarat." Asked about how the measures he had so successfully adopted for Gujarat could be replicated in other states, Modi replied that each state had its own priorities and there could be no automatic adoption of Gujarat's method to redress the ills in other states. But he said states could share their experiences and learn from the best practices that other states adopted to reach development to people. When the subject of corruption was broached, Modi retorted that corruption was in poor health in Gujarat and faced death. But he also added that if Gujarat, using the same institutional systems as in the rest of the country, had bucked corruption's forward charge, the rest of the country could too. When asked about the need for electoral reforms in the light of the present electoral system breeding corruption, Modi said he didn't believe clean governance couldn't be delivered in the present system but there was as dire need for poll reforms. He said the biggest reform that had to be carried out was the holding of state and parliamentary elections simultaneously and at a stipulated time every time. Reminded of how the income tax department had raised questions about his meeting with western investors and how this could be construed as an example of a skewed federal system in India, Modi conceded that though the system has worked for over 60 years, there are encroachments on state turf by the Centre. "Things have changed from the time one political party controlled governance from Panchayat to Parliament and the thought on federalism in India has to factor in the changed circumstances where different powers reigned in states and the Centre," he said. 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