NaMo UNMATCHED PRECISION IN GOVERNANCE

Modi’s steely resolve, thumping success of Vibrant Gujarat - Rupesh Shah, Former Prez, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry

It was the time of the Lehman Brothers meltdown and the subsequent global economic downturn. All the committee members of the Chamber came together on this for a discussion, especially at the Vibrant Gujarat summit of that year. The Summit was a global event, where investors not only from India but from across the world were supposed to come and invest in the state.

The concern was, in times of such global meltdown, was it the right time to hold the event and expect investments? The world was witnessing a slowdown of such a magnitude for the first time after 1930. All the industries were working to not even half of their capacity. Who would invest in such a trying situation?

Everyone in the Chamber meeting thought that the time was not conducive at all to hold such a mega business event like the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. So we decided to take our concern to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and request him to postpone the event to the next year. As we did so, the CM stopped us midway and said, come what may, Vibrant Gujarat is happening. The event will be successful and investments will come for sure. He followed his statement with a few lines of a poem, which I still remember. He said, ‘Mana ki Andhra ghana hai, lekin kaun kehta hai diya jalana mana hai’ (maybe the darkness is deep, but who said the lamp can’t be lit). Immediately, the mood of all the committee members changed. We instantly felt he was right. How can we expect results if we don’t act? We all yoked ourselves to very hard work to make the event a success even in those difficult times. Eventually, it became a very successful event and broke all previous investment records in the state. 2009 Vibrant Gujarat Summit recorded the highest-ever investments. Such was the conviction and resolve of Modi ji that no one could distract him.

PM Narendra Modi’s ear to the ground - Raj Kumar Beniwal, Officer, Gujarat

This is a small example of Narendra Modi’s ability to gather information to strengthen his knowledge base which helped in his decision-making process. I was serving as the collector of the Mehsana district at that time. The repair and renovation work of Becharaji temple there was taken up around the same time.

However, when the first rains came, there was some leakage found in the temple through its roof as water started dripping in. I got a call from Modi ji’s office the same night itself. Queries were raised as to how there could be leakage in a temple that was so freshly renovated. I was surprised that even being in the district and leading it, I was till that time unaware of this problem at the temple, while the CM, sitting in Ahmedabad, amid all his busyness, was fully informed of what was happening far away in Mehsana. Later we were told by the engineers that the joints consolidated after the first rains and this was normal. From next time, the leakage stopped.

What I came to realise after this incident was that Modi ji’s information network and people connect was so strong that he had every smallest detail of the happenings in the state at his fingertips 24/7. The habit still persists with him. Despite being at the top post, he keeps close track of everything that is happening in any corner of the country, even the smallest problems of the last man in the row. This impeccable tab on knowledge helps in his decisionmaking and framing his policies that are so peoplecentric and effective in addressing problems with precision, be it extending help to the poor to efficiently managing natural calamities. Despite the height of his success and achievement, his ear is always to the ground.

Narendra Modi ji’s attention to details is impeccable - Mukund Joshi, Gujarat

My job was to oversee the interior decoration of CM Narendra Modi’s guest house. The flooring work was going on in the large hall of the facility. A lot of debris was lying around in the place as work was on. They included rods, cement, tiles, pipes and bricks strewn haphazardly. For work on electric connection, 8-10 switchboards were carved and placed on the side. The switchboards should be at the same level across the guest house and any deviation in the uniformity of their size and placement won’t look good. I was ensuring the same.

One day the chief minister walked into the place incidentally. He casually asked me if the holes for the electric boards were done, and I replied, yes. Then he conducted a detailed inspection of the work. In a while he called out ‘Mukund Lal’, the name by which he addressed me affectionately. I rushed to him and he pointed to a hole and said, see, this placement is three inches above the rest. He then moved ahead and pointed at another switchboard and said, this one is an inch and a half below the rest. This way, he showed me quite a few board placements which didn’t seem uniform to him. I told him it was my profession to ensure everything was in place and he need not worry himself with such small things. Once the flooring was done, I would take all the exact measurements and show them to him. They would all be uniform. To this he said, okay, so show me the measurements then.

You won’t believe, that when the flooring was done and the final measurements were taken, the discrepancies he had pointed out during the inspection, came exactly true. I was astounded by his attention to detail.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY SHASHIKANT SHARMA