India’s Most Admired and Most Feared Politician: Narendra Modi

Meet India’s most admired and most feared politician: Narendra Modi. The world’s largest democracy, India, could elect him Prime Minister. And the world’s leading democracy, the United States, currently does not issue him a visa. I spent ninety minutes with Mr. Modi earlier this month at his Chief Minister’s residence in Gujarat – a state of 60 million people, about the same size as France, Britain, or Italy, and practically twice as big as California.

More than any other state leader in India, Modi is shaking up national politics. In a January survey by India Today, he again ranked as India’s top performing Chief Minister. For the first time, he also was the top pick for national Prime Minister. The percentage who favored him had doubled over last year, vaulting him past Rahul Gandhi.1

I had heard about Modi — from all sides—all across India. “India’s most effective public official.” “If given five years, he would transform India’s economy.” In person, Modi comes across as an effective administrator, a proud Indian nationalist, and a committed if not zealous Hindu. He also is a policy maven—introverted, precise, and even passionate about the most technical of subjects. On almost all of these issues, his Gujarat is pushing, not following, New Delhi and India.

Modi may be branded by the riots, but what he really wanted to talk about was Gujarat’s economic miracle. Gujarat’s economic performance is without peer in India, growing an average 10% each year for a decade. That is faster growth than almost any place on earth, including most of China. Some argue that this might have happened regardless of Modi, but what is clear is that on most key policy matters, he has defied the logic and design of Delhi policy-making. “I want to develop Gujarat to develop India.”

After the earthquake and the riots, Modi launched a “Vibrant Gujarat” conference in 2003 to market the state to Indian and foreign investors. He established simple rules: “We will not pay any incentives and will not accept any bribes. But I will provide single window facilitation, quality power and water, and will honor my commitments.” One Gujarati businessman told me that he had been suspicious back then, and had doubted that any company would ever actually invest. But they did. According to state published reports, pledged investments have grown from 76 MOUs amounting to $14 billion in 2003, to nearly 8,000 MOUs signed in 2011 for $450 billion.

Unlike Chinese-style urban manufacturing that draws workers from the country-side, Modi also targeted rural development. “If it does not work in the villages, it will not work in the city.” His eyes light up when discussing infrastructure, agricultural colleges, solar energy, and climate change. “I prioritized four things,” he said, holding up his four fingers, and then pulling each one down in turn: “Water, electric power, connectivity, and distance education.”

Against considerable protest by environmentalists— both in Gujarat and in New Delhi – Modi expanded a dam in Gujarat’s north. The arid state’s fields are now irrigated. In three years, he also did what no other state has done: provide reliable electric power. “We now have high quality power all day, every day, in every village.” Modi simply started charging people for electricity’s true costs. They were willing to pay, once they realized that it would be more reliable. “Once farmers had power, they wanted to buy electric appliances.”

He also made sure all villages were equipped with roads and high-speed phone connectivity. He has placed special emphasis on rural schools, especially on “educating the girl child” to wipe out female illiteracy.

He practices what he preaches. Each spring, in the hottest month of the year, he demands that all his officials join him to work in the fields, helping farmers plant their crops. “The week is a travelling open university… From Lab to Land.” Before Modi, Gujarat already was known around the world for its “white revolution” in expanding milk production. Modi discussed at length his further efforts on behalf of cattle health— a religiously loaded theme among practicing Hindus.

Modi also has led the way in India in discussing climate change and renewable energy. After asking for a two-day tutorial from Rajendra Pachauri, the award winning head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Modi came up with a comprehensive plan to cut fossil fuel use in Gujarat— including India’s first state-level ministry for climate change.

Working with the Clinton Climate Initiative, he is betting on renewable energy— hydro, wind, biodiesel, and especially solar energy. Again, he is pushing New Delhi. The Central government, for instance, demands that any solar panels it purchases be primarily manufactured in India. Modi’s Gujarat buys them wherever he can at the cheapest cost. Before a recent G-20 summit, Modi told me, “I suggested to the Prime Minister that we create a global alliance of solar abundant countries.”

He summed up all of this work in a glossy book called Convenient Action: Gujarat’s Response to Climate Change. Sound familiar? It is directly modeled on Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, though it emphasizes what Gujarat has done, as opposed to what Gore hopes America might someday do. Critics respond that many of the actions listed in the book were not intended to address climate, and have raised their own questions about Modi’s environmental record.[2]
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