Elections in Gujarat

This past week saw elections for in the Indian state of Gujarat. The elections were held in two phases and vote counting will begin on Dec 18.

But first some background. Gujarat – with a population of over 60 million – is in the western part of India. Its coastal line is over 1600km long, 500km longer than that of Pakistan. Gujarat’s largest city is Ahmedabad and the capital, Gandhi Nagar, is a new city near Ahmedabad. After gaining independence in 1947, the Indian government assembled hundreds of principalities of Gujarat in three groups.

The first one was called Saurashtra which included the principalities on the Kathiawar peninsula. This region is between the Gulf of Khambhat and the Gulf of Kutch. The Runn of Kutch is to the north of Kathiawar where the Kutchi language is spoken. In a way, Saurashtra is another name of Kathiawar which was added to Junagadh and formed as a state in February 1948. Initially, it was called the United State of Kathiawar but in November 1948 it was renamed Saurashtra. Sardar Vallabhai Patel had played an instrumental role in persuading over 200 principalities of this region to join in.

Bhavnagar was the first principality that initiated the process of the merger. Then in 1956, Saurashtra was included in Bombay. The second region of Gujarat was Kutch, in the west of Saurashtra. In Sanskrit, Kutch is the name of an area that is neither completely dry nor wet. Just like in 1948 Saurashtra or Kathiawar became a state, in 1950 Kutch was also given the status of a state. Then in 1956, Kutch was also added to Bombay. That’s how Bombay became a bigger state which included – in addition to most of the areas now included in Maharashtra – Kutch and Kathiawar.

Almost immediately after the formation of the bigger Bombay state, two movements started for the bifurcation of Bombay on the linguistic basis. The first was called the Samyukt or Sanyukt Maharashtra Movement, which strived for a separate state of the Mahrattas. The other movement was for the creation of Maha Gujarat that struggled to separate the Gujarati-speaking areas from Bombay. Because of these two movements, finally in 1960 Bombay was broken into two states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The first chief minister of Gujarat was Jivraj from the Indian National Congress. For over 14 years, Gujarat remained under Congress rule.

During this period the longest serving chief minister was Kanaiya Lal Desai who ruled for six years from 1965 to 1971. With the anti-Indira wave in 1977, the Janata party swept Gujarat too and its Babubhai Patel remained chief minister for three years. With the return of Indira in 1980, Gujarat once again came under Congress rule for the next 10 years. During this period, Madhu Singh Solanki ruled for six years as chief minister. From 1990 to 1994, the Janata Dal and the Congress formed coalition governments, but then in 1995 the Congress was pushed out of Gujarat for good.

It has been 22 years now that the Congress has not been able to form a government in Gujarat. From 1996 to 1998, the Rashtriya Janata Party was in government and then from 1998 onwards to date the BJP has been in power. The credit for the formation of the first BJP government in Gujarat goes not to Modi but to Keshav Bhai Patel who is over 90 now. Just like Modi, Keshubhai Patel was also an extremist Hindu who had been a member of the Jan Sangh since 1960. Prior to that he was also a member of the RSS.

When the Jan Sangh was dissolved in 1980, Patel joined the BJP and spent the next 15 years propagating Hindu bigotry in Gujarat. Finally, in 1995 he succeeded in banishing the Congress. So the credit goes essentially to Keshubhai Patel for enhancing the Hindu nationalism and fundamentalism that Modi later intensified. Patel’s performance from 1998 to 2001 was not impressive due to allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Then in 2001, the earthquake in Bhuj exposed the incompetence of the Patel government; the BJP high command forced him to resign on health grounds because he was already a septuagenarian.

Modi took over as chief minister in 2001 and Keshubhai Patel was elevated to the Rajya Sabha in 2002. Modi ruled for 13 years and during that period won for the BJP three elections in 2002, 2007, and 2012. When Modi was elected prime minster in 2014, the BJP selected the first woman to be chief minister, Anandiben Patel, who had remained education minister under Modi. But within two years she resigned in 2016 at the age of 75. Then Vijay Rupani of the same BJP became the CM. He had been a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2006 to 2012.

The incumbent CM is also an old Hindu fundamentalist with a background of RSS and Jan Sangh memberships. This time around the BJP is using its entire arsenal. Modi himself is accusing Pakistan of interfering in the Gujarat elections by supporting the Congress. We have seen similar allegations in Pakistan when Imran Khan accuses both Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif of collusion with India. Rahul Gandhi is leading the Congress campaign. Modi has accused that the Congress leaders Mani Shankar Ayer, former PM Manmohan Singh and former vice president Hamid Ansari met with some Pakistan diplomats and with the former Pakistan foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, to conspire against the BJP in the Gujarat elections.

This piece of news was first telecast by an Indian TV channel, then picked by Modi and made into an outlandish story. We have seen similar things in Pakistan when a channel or a newspaper releases a report which is then used by politicians for their benefit. The Pakistani foreign ministry has denied any such allegations and termed such reports as baseless and concocted, but Modi has been relentless in his accusations. Even the Congress has been equally stupid in saying that if Modi’s allegation is correct then Pakistan’s High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood should be sent packing for his interference in the Indian affairs.

Congress leader Mani Shankar Ayer has called Modi a ‘neech’ (lowly human). The Congress has reacted by suspending Ayer, terming it a poor choice of words. Here Pakistan differs. No such action is taken by any party against any politician who misbehaves and uses foul language. In fact, such transgressions are applauded.

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

Email: Mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk