A Nawab had borrowed a lot of money and had no means to pay back to his creditors.
Whenever the angry creditors came up to him to ask for their money back, he told them he had no money left and that he had sold all his treasure and furniture, but still couldn't pay them.
The Nawab had pulled beautiful curtains to hide his palace.
This increased curiosity among the creditors and they believed there was still a lot of money and belongings left with the Nawab, behind the curtains and that he was lying.
Once an angry creditor pulled down the curtains to get a better view of the palace. To his shock, he found just nothing and even the family members had no money to cover their naked bodies.
The Nawab gave away the costly curtains to the creditor as the whole world had now witnessed the naked truth and the curtains are of no use to him now.
As complied by Ram Puniyani, the MOUs by the Nawab of Gujarat are much like the curtains of the palace in the story acting like smoke screen to cover the nakedness of its occupants.The more naked the family members in the palace, the costlier the curtain.
Firstly, all my sympathy with the PR agencies of Gujarat who works unbelievably hard behind polishing the image of this Nawab of Gujarat. The PR of Nawab have proved how well they have mastered the 'Use of social media' chapter of their Mass Communication course.Or say they have mastered the art of mob attacking on social media.
Writing against Narendra Modi on twitter or facebook is like walking on the streets of Delhi after 8 pm without a duppata.
1 tweet/update and you are spammed by abuses.
It has to be noted that, this 10-15 people who abuse you there are members of NaMo PR team, who are paid for this.
The media hype changed the image of Narendra Modi from the one who led the carnage to a DEVELOPMENT MAN.
The Nawab in the story was at least trying to protect the dignity of the members of the family by putting up the curtains. The Nawab of Gujarat invites the capitalist vultures from outside in his vibrant gujarat and assists them to pull away the remaining scanty pieces of clothes from the bodies of helpless members and raid the remaining furninture inside the 'Gujarat Palace'.
In return, Nawab is promised that he will be supported by them to become the Emperor of India.
While Gujarat was already amongst the most industrialiszed states, it has been able to invite good deal of investment.If development counts, we must thank nature for Earthquake that vanished the Kutch and Bhuj region of Gujarat and Pujya Modi ji had no option but to make it SEZ to attract investment. What else could be done on the barren land of Kutch?
And then, Modi ji became 'visionary leader' of India.
With Sharvari Rawal(Juve Gujarat), I would be glad to break some myths with real stories of Gujarat.
"Hun Modi no Manas nathi (I am not Modi's man), We are NOT congressmen, We are NOT PR of any political Party. The pictures are of our own camera and not Srilanka Photographer's. We are Mango Man and We are pickled."
EDUCATION
Construction is one such sector employing the highest number of unskilled labourers. The workers are usually migrant agriculture laborers There is provision of setting up a Welfare Fund at the State Level. The fund that is to be utilized for financial assistance to families of beneficiaries in case of accident, old age pension, housing loans, payment of insurance premium, children’s education, medical and maternity benefits, etc. The Act also has provision for other welfare amenities like temporary accommodation at or near work sites, crèches, canteen, first aid, washing facilities, etc. But nothing is done as promised!
Sumi is playing with stones, living in temporary accommodation (street), forget about first aid, canteen, water and sanitation, she doesn’t have access to school! So, if any child’s parents are migrating workers, the child does not have the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE)? Will Sumis of India ever see the school?
We found Vinay taking care of his small sister Ankita at one of the construction sites in Ahmedabad. Sadly, Vinay has never been to school!
Below the layer of buildings and bridges in Gujarat, they are the ones taking the burden.
' I AM MALNOURISHED, NOT BEAUTY CONSCIOUS'
Bharati(left), 3, lives in open field and is fighting against TB and malnourishment.
She is not beauty conscious.
This is just one story of one photography.
Gujarat Palace has 13 lakh such stories.
Living here since around 100 years but without gutter connection! Will you call this ‘development’ in Gujarat?
Health Care
Is this shown in Vibrant Gujarat?
You Rich, Me Poor
Pinky has studied till standard two due to financial condition of her family.
Gujarat produces some of India's wealthiest, is a well known fact.
What is not known is that Gujarat also has the highest percentage of poor population, a whooping 31.8%.
The vibrant face of the state is full of thick make-up where the real face is no more traceable.
Millions of Gujaratis cannot even have two square meals a day whereas our home-made billionaires plan billions of dollars of investment overseas.
Sadbhavana
Palakben is residing in Ambawadi area with her husband Arvindbhai; two children studying in standard 11 and 8; and 80 year-old father-in-law. Arvindbhai, driver by profession, is resurrecting from his head surgery. Palakben shoulders all the responsibilities single-handed. She works round the clock. She is nurse in Primary Health Center but the salary is delayed often. To manage household expense
s, Palakben engages in embroidery work, survey of bank, and also works as domestic help and cook. She is upset that in spite of her hard work in such challenging times, although they have BPL card, their name as per the new list is in APL card holder’s list. She angrily questions, ‘what is the method of Gujarat Government for distributing Ration Cards?
Through conclaves like Garvi Gujarat, and annual meetings of NRIs; industrialists, investment is being solicited and more than the investment, projections are being made of the flow of dollars, creating the image that it is during Modi regime that Gujarat begun to progress.
The fact is, there is investment but it is far from what is being projected.
For example,in 2005 claim for Rs. 106161 crores had been made. Out of that investment of Rs. 74019 crores (63%) was made as stated by CM but in reality as per info available under R.T.I only Rs 249998 crores were under implementation.
A good investment climate demands cheap labor and freehand in exploiting the natural resources. But the third requirement, land, is not an easy proposition.
The super-inflated MoUs give the government tremendous political mileage.
For the corporate, the priceless land comes free with no deadlines of the promised investment.
The adivasi farmers who are dependent on the forests and agricultural land are pushed away.
These landless farmers have no option but to sell their labor for cheap to survive. Some don't survive.
16,000 work force committed suicide during Modi's tenure.
Am I doing an internship?
Rami and Devi residing in Gulbai Tekra works at a canteen. Devi shared that her routine involves cleaning dishes and making ‘Rotis’ at mess. Devi says, ‘I am good at making round ‘Rotis’ and so my work is to make Rotis.’ Whereas, Rami helps in keeping the surroundings clean and washing the utensils. Rami has been in school for a while earlier but doesn’t know what does ‘teacher’ mean. She shares, ‘I used to play with friends and eat and go back home.’
How is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act being implemented in Gujarat? Does Right to Education Act make any sense? Do students go to Municipal Schools only to play and eat midday meals? Are teachers supposed to teach in school? Who evaluates the functioning of Municipal Schools? Should there be audit of Municipal Schools by local groups?
We can only hope that Rami and Devi’s parents have employment opportunities so that their girls can go back to school and not worry about earning bread.
Child labor laws are virtually non-existent in Gujarat. From Construction sites to restaurants, innocence is continuously killed.
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We are not going to talk about what happened in Godhra Carnage, as always requested by Mr. Modi to the media.
Mr Modi is decribed as an iconic leader with innovative thoughts. A leader for whom progress matters more than propoganda. Mr. Modi's resolve is to put Gujarat on top of human development index.
Resolution and reality, however, seems to have a huge gap which is steadily widening.
Fascist or not, we know.
Credits: Reports by Pravin Mishra, Deepal Trivedi, Ram Punyani.
Photo Credits: Sharvari Rawal (Juve Gujarat)
