Journalist’s diary


By Japan K Pathak
Ahmedabad


Professionalism kept Doval away from DGs meet

It’s national meet of Director Generals of Police in Rann of Kutch but the most expected face, National Security Adviser Mr Ajit Doval is not attending this 3-day event. The question is obviously asked that why Mr. Ajit Doval is not there? It is learnt that purely professionalism is responsible for Mr Doval’s absence. As the Union Home Minister, both Ministers of State, Union secretaries and DGs all are camping in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat to attend the DG conference, someone has to be there in Delhi to oversee the national security affairs and to monitor the situation, and therefore Mr. Doval and Union Home Secretary stayed in Delhi. As tent city in white Rann of Kutch is popular tourist destination too, Prime Minister Modi had decided to invite the delegates of DG conference with spouse. Though Mr. Doval is not attending the conference, his wife is there at tent city. Doval is represented at DG conference by his Deputy. Anyway, but Doval sahab should visit Kutch anytime in future. Remember that Gujarat Tourism TV ad? ‘Kutch nahi dekha to kuchh nahi dekha!’

Choryasi assembly by-poll

As DeshGujarat reported it earlier, there are two elections coming up in next few months. Choryasi assembly by-poll will be held on January 21 while Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation election will come anytime between February and April 2016. For now let me discuss only Choryasi by-poll. I can safely say that Choryasi assembly by-poll is tension less affair for ruling BJP. Sitting BJP MLA Rajabhai passed away in the month of August this year. By-election as per rule had to be organized in six-month period. Accordingly, polling is scheduled on January 21. There are nearly 4 lakh voters in Choryasi seat. Class wise, there are around 1.25 lakh Koli Patels and 1.25 lakh non-Gujaratis(north Indians, Bihar, south Indians and Odisha people largely). There are 8 wards of Surat Municipal Corporation(SMC) situated in this assembly seat. The total number of SMC seats comes to 32 therefore. Of them 27 are with BJP while 5 are with Congress. There are 3 district panchayat seats in Choryasi assembly area. 2 are with BJP while 1 with independent. There are 14 taluka panchayat seats in this area of which 11 are with BJP and 3 with independents. There are two Nagarpalika(Municipality) area located in this seats. Both are with BJP with thumping majority. If you remember, a few years ago Choryasi was considered one of the largest seats in terms of the number of total voters. Narottam Patel was the face of this seat. The seat later was divided into different assembly segments. After Anandiben came to power, BJP lost 3 assembly seats that were earlier with party(in 10-seat by-poll including Vadodara Lok Sabha seat), BJP also lost majority of district panchayats and taluka panchayats. The party however retained its upper hand by winning 7 out of 10 seats that went to by-poll, 6 municipal corporations(but with some damage), gaining Junagadh Municipal Corporation and retaining one assembly seat in Rajkot. Choryasi seat however with undisputed candidate seems easily winnable.


Rural story

The picture here is from Gujarati daily in August 2014. Cotton farmers in Gujarat riding on BT, favorable monsoon and booming export markets were earning so much that car companies were making advertisements featuring and thereby targeting them. The cotton story then suffered setback following overstock internationally, not so favorable monsoon and import cuts by China and other nations. So we no more find such advertisements. By the way, to know rural Gujarat (not specific to particular year but overall sense) you need to access these two links. One would lead you to year 2011 census rural socio-economic figures from Gujarat, released a few months back by central government. The other link would lead you to Sitaram Kedilaya’s letter to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi after his rural Gujarat journey which continued for 152 days on foot. Sitaram may have raised some points according to his belief mainly dominated by RSS think pattern, but still he makes sense as he has walked across rural India and therefore he is able to make proper comparison. If you access the link to Rural socio economic figures, mind well such figures from other states are even worse.

– DeshGujarat