#books
Gujarat under Modi
by Christophe Jaffrelot.
In 2012, Narendra Modi came to power with the promise of bringing the Gujarat model to Delhi.
Christophe Jaffrelot gives a detailed account of the four mainstays of his strategy in Gujarat.
Communal polarisation, the capture of institutions ( including the police and the judiciary), the making of a new kind of crony capitalism conducive to jobless growth as well as inequalities and, of course, Moditva, a specific kind of high-tech communication-based national populism.
Modi’s economic policies: He promoted mega projects at the expense of small and medium enterprises. A new nexus took shape, formed by him and half a dozen of cronies, who got land at a low price, 0.1% interest rate loans and tax free, as well as labour-laws free SEZs in exchange for the funding of expensive election campaigns.
Despite its higher per capita revenue, Gujarat under Modi ( and since then) has not invested in education, health and anti-poverty schemes.
