"Narendra Modi's government today took advantage of the opposition's absence in the state assembly to pass without fracas a diluted Gujarat Lokayukta Commission Bill 2013, which includes no change sought by the state's governor, Kamla Beniwal. Ms Beniwal had last month returned the bill, which proposes to give all powers to appoint the state Lokayukta or ombudsman to a committee headed by the Chief Minister, virtually eliminating the governor as well as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court from the process..."
" Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday said the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat Government stands ‘exposed’ in its corruption linkages, after it compiled a proposal to amend the state’s Lokayukta Commission Bill so as to leave the Lokayukta powerless, extracting all prosecution powers from the position. “Obviously, he does not want the various scams of Gujarat to be independently investigated. In Gujarat, he has given two lakh acres of land to one company, Adani, for Re. 1 to Rs.
"... “Why did you invite the Kabir Kala Manch? Are you a Naxalite?” the ABVP activist asked Ajayan. “When I said no, he asked me which party I support. I said I am an artist and do not have political affiliations,” Ajayan told The Hindu. “If you want to prove you are not a Naxalite, then say Jai Narendra Modi,” the ABVP activist stated. When Ajayan refused to do so, the activist shouted, “He is a Naxalite,” after which he was surrounded by other ABVP activists, who started assaulting him, Ajayan has alleged. Four other FTII students were also injured.
"Can shit collection or cleaning of gutters—which has condemned lakhs of people to a life of indignity since ages—be considered a ‘Spiritual Experience’? Definitely not. Everybody would yell. Well, Mr Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has a different take on this, which he mentions in the book ‘Karmayog’ (publication year 2007). The book is basically a collection of his speeches to high-profile IAS officials. Herein he discusses the age-old caste-based vocation of the Valmikis as an “experience in spirituality”.
"From the label of “Master Divider” in India Today in January 2003 to the tag of “The Great Polariser” in the Outlook in July 2012 — Narendra Modi’s image remained static: self-declared champion of one community of people. But the strain Gujarat faced in the course of his tenure has increased manifold. Wherever I travelled in Gujarat, there was a clear distinction between “us” and “them”. This difference was articulated by several Hindus every time the conversation veered in this direction. In contrast, counterparts among Muslims denied this.
'Making a pitch for women’s empowerment before an audience of women entrepreneurs in New Delhi on Monday, Narendra Modi tacitly employed some Hindutva themes and voiced social conservatism in an otherwise largely business-oriented speech. Pointing out that the role of the mother was highest in Indian civilization, Modi rued that “1000-1200 years of slavery” led to social evils creeping in, diminishing respect for women and leading to female infanticide and eventually foeticide...
"It is not a mere coincidence that Narendra Modi had labelled his tour across the state of Gujarat "Vivekananda Yatra". In a context where Vivekananda has been posited as a "leader of the youth", it is pertinent to remember the principles the man stood by – casteism, racism, slavery, patriarchy and xenophobia. He is considered by many as the first Hindutva ideologue. It is no wonder then that the right wing finds Vivekananda so useful in its agenda of "Cultural Nationalism".
"Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is back to doing what he is best at — raking up Hindutva when his plank of development doesn’t seem to be working in what has turned out to be a three-cornered contest in the Assembly elections. At one public meeting after another, as the campaign hots up, Mr. Modi says the Congress has a secret plan to pitchfork Ahmed Patel, political secretary of party chief Sonia Gandhi, into the job of Chief Minister. To ensure that the message reaches home, Mr. Modi now refers to Mr.
"...But in the heat and dust of accusatory politics and competitive journalism, there is one shady deal involving a precious natural resource worth billions of dollars that has escaped public scrutiny. The deal involves the Narendra Modi government and a dubious company incorporated in the Caribbean island of Barbados. In perhaps what would qualify as one of the most scandalous contracts ever signed, the Modi regime gave away a 10 percent participating stake in an expansive gas field it had won in a bidding process to a company named GeoGlobal Resources that existed only on paper.
"..For a while, there has been a buzz in legal circles that the SIT chief and former CBI director R K Raghavan, who has given a report which is very favourable for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the Zakia Jafri case, was being pampered by the state government. While he had a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh and was entitled to executive-class travel by air, there were murmurs about personal trips at Gujarat government expense to London.
