Caught In The Crosshairs

As Anandiben Patel readies to vacate the Gujarat Chief Minister's post, one of the major complaints against her is that she was unable to sustain the pace of the much publicised "Gujarat Model" of development practised by her predecessor and current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Patel did not limit herself to the exact policy priorities of her predecessor after she took charge two years ago. While she continued to patronise mega shows like Vibrant Gujarat and Modi's other pet programmes for industrial development, she also looked at areas getting less attention in the earlier regime.

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Patel set aside more funds in the budget for tackling the state's poor social development track record. The contradiction that existed while she took over was glaring. While the per capita Net State Domestic Product of Gujarat at Rs 57,447 was much higher than the national average (the per capita Net Domestic Product of India was Rs 37,643 at 2004/05 prices), the average daily wages of male casual workers in rural areas of Gujarat was Rs 116, far below the national average of Rs 149 for the same category of workers. The overall health indicators of Gujarat vis-a-vis national average showed that the State ranked 11th among the 19 big States in birth rate, ninth in infant mortality ratio and sixth in maternal mortality ratio. The State was 12th in total fertility rate. The latest Swachhta Status Report 2016 indicates that 48.1 per cent of households in rural Gujarat defecate in the open. Thus, Gujarat must have been leading in terms of industrialisation, but it was way below when it came to rural wages, skill development, and several other social development indices. Patel's diagnosis was correct. There was a social unrest in the making that was not her creation.

The CAG Report on Gujarat, tabled on March 31, 2016, is critical of the state government's achievements on many of the social development indicators. On healthcare, the report notes that while Gujarat's position is better than the national average, it is not among the front ranking states of the country. In terms of skill development, CAG finds that even after adding 97 new industrial training institutes between 2010 and 2015, the average number of students passing out remained almost static. It also found that only 37 percent of the 1.63 lakh candidates that were enrolled for practical training could pass the apprenticeship exam during the period.

There could be dozens of political or strategic reasons for Anandiben Patel quitting her job. But the fact remains that the "Gujarat Model" needs lots of patchwork. Perhaps Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was right in assessing that Patel was a victim of the policies adopted by her predecessor for 12 years.