UPA put up hurdles in Gujarat’s growth: PM Modi

AHMEDABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) served as a platform to pull Gujarat out of the devastation caused by the 2001 earthquake, the Godhra and post-Godhra violence of 2002, and the Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank (MMCB) collapse that pushed the state’s cooperative banking sector into a crisis.

Speaking at an event to mark 20 years of success of the VGGS, the PM spoke of the challenges he faced as CM of Gujarat and alleged that the UPA government at the Centre had displayed indifference towards Gujarat’s deve lopment and threatened foreign investors not to invest in the state.

PM said that despite “threats” by the then UPA government at the Centre, foreign investors visited Gujarat even when there was no special incentive. “They came to experience good governance, fair governance, policy-driven governance, an equal system of growth, and a transparent government in daily life,” the PM said.

Modi said the then UPA government viewed Gujarat’s progress through a political lens. “Ministers in the Union government refused to attend the summit. They told me personally they would join but later refused, perhaps after pressure from the top. Far from giving support, they were busy creating hurdles,” he claimed.
Painting a vivid picture of the challenges he faced after becoming CM, he said: “Gujarat faced a long period of famine before the earth- quake. The collapse of the MMCB Bank caused an upheaval in 133 other cooperative banks. I was newly elected and had no experience in governance. The challenges were huge. Amidst this, one more event took place: the heart-wrenching incident (Sabarmati Express tragedy on February 27, 2002) at Godhra. In the situation that followed, Gujarat burned in the fire of violence,” said Modi.

The PM recalled that at that time those with an agenda prophesied that youth, industry and business would leave Gujarat and the state would be destroyed and become a burden on the country. “Amid such a crisis, I pledged to pull Gujarat out of all this. Vibrant Gujarat became an important medium for the revival of the state and made it face the world confidently,” he said.

“We are standing at a phase from where India will soon emerge as a global economic powerhouse,” Modi further said, adding that international agencies and experts speak along similar lines today.