Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been given a red carpet welcome in Ahmedabad at Gujarat. This is not the first time that a foreign dignitary after an initial stopover at the national capital was taken to Modi&#39;s state of Gujarat. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe paid a visit to the western state too. As did the Chinese premier Xi Jinping in 2014.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

It leaves us wondering why these visits to Gujarat is being so strongly encouraged. And, why the foreign dignitaries agree to visit the state amidst a tight itinerary. What appeal does Gujarat, or more specifically, Ahmedabad hold for both the parties?

&nbsp;

Ahmedabad is not India&#39;s political nerve center, New Delhi is. Ahmedabad is not the place where the IT industry flourished as is the case with Bengaluru. Nor is Ahmedabad India&#39;s business capital; a mantle given to Mumbai for a longest possible time now.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Then why Ahmedabad?&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Foreign dignitaries visiting the US limit their stay to Washinton DC. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited NYC after his initial meeting with President Obama in DC. But that is because of the large diaspora of Indians present in the tri-state area of New York-New Jersey-Connecticut. It was not a visit organised by the Obama administration. It was Indian businessmen who organised it. The same thing can be said about Modi&#39;s visit to the Silicon Valley. It was an Indian initiative spearheaded by Indian corporate honchos in the US.

&nbsp;

But Gujarat does not have either a large Israeli, Japanese or a Chinese diaspora. It is cities, such as Mumbai and Delhi which have flourishing Chabad Houses where thousands of visiting Israelis stay put every year.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Decades back when Nehru visited the US, he did take a detour to visit Albert Einstein. Again, a personal visit, undertaken to converse with one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. Also, the Jewish question needed discussion. Einstein, an active proponent of the Zionist cause, wanted to convince Nehru of the need to support the cause of Israel.

&nbsp;

Many political analysts wonder whether Modi is going back Gujarat to give these powerful heads of state an idea about his root.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

It does not seem so. While the modest youth of Modi makes a good fuel for political quibble within India, it does not have the desirable impact at the international arena. Bilateral relationships function better between equals, involving very powerful people. The Language of Power rather than the sympathy card is more effective under the circumstance. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

If Modi is taking these dignitaries to Ahmedabad, it is to show what he is capable of achieving. Ahmedabad has evolved into swanky city with polished roads, disciplined traffic, shiny public transport. It is a revitalised city, almost creaseless. A poster-boy of Modi&#39;s development model.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Ahmedabad represents Modi&#39;s future plan for India. It shows India&#39;s enterprising nature at its best. Leaving behind its more conflicted past, Ahmedabad emerges as India&#39;s global city with deep cultural roots. Its identity is very much Hindu, very vegetarian, very businesslike.

&nbsp;

This unique combination of cultural nationalism with business success is what distinguishes Ahmedabad from Bengaluru.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Bengaluru is far too cosmopolitan. More importantly, it is not the creation of Modi.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The roadshows with prominent dignitaries on streets of Ahmedabad comes with a strong visual message. Modi is announcing to his fellow citizens and, actually, to the world that India is not going to linger any longer in the waiting room of development. India has, in fact, arrived.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What better place to announce that other than the city of Ahmedabad-the workplace of the Father of the Nation. In one masterstroke, Modi connects his personal achievement with the most glorious saga of India&#39;s independence movement.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Somewhere, imperceptibly, India and Gujarat, Gandhi and Modi, Gujarati asmita and Indian nationalism get merged.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

That perhaps is the unstated goal. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Ahmedabad represents Modi's future plan for India. It shows India's enterprising nature at its best.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been given a red carpet welcome in Ahmedabad at Gujarat. This is not the first time that a foreign dignitary after an initial stopover at the national capital was taken to Modi's state of Gujarat. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe paid a visit to the western state too. As did the Chinese premier Xi Jinping in 2014. It leaves us wondering why these visits to Gujarat is being so strongly encouraged. And, why the foreign dignitaries agree to visit the state amidst a tight itinerary. What appeal does Gujarat, or more specifically, Ahmedabad hold for both the parties? Ahmedabad is not India's political nerve center, New Delhi is. Ahmedabad is not the place where the IT industry flourished as is the case with Bengaluru. Nor is Ahmedabad India's business capital; a mantle given to Mumbai for a longest possible time now. Then why Ahmedabad? Foreign dignitaries visiting the US limit their stay to Washinton DC. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited NYC after his initial meeting with President Obama in DC. But that is because of the large diaspora of Indians present in the tri-state area of New York-New Jersey-Connecticut. It was not a visit organised by the Obama administration. It was Indian businessmen who organised it. The same thing can be said about Modi's visit to the Silicon Valley. It was an Indian initiative spearheaded by Indian corporate honchos in the US. But Gujarat does not have either a large Israeli, Japanese or a Chinese diaspora. It is cities, such as Mumbai and Delhi which have flourishing Chabad Houses where thousands of visiting Israelis stay put every year. Decades back when Nehru visited the US, he did take a detour to visit Albert Einstein. Again, a personal visit, undertaken to converse with one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. Also, the Jewish question needed discussion. Einstein, an active proponent of the Zionist cause, wanted to convince Nehru of the need to support the cause of Israel. Many political analysts wonder whether Modi is going back Gujarat to give these powerful heads of state an idea about his root. It does not seem so. While the modest youth of Modi makes a good fuel for political quibble within India, it does not have the desirable impact at the international arena. Bilateral relationships function better between equals, involving very powerful people. The Language of Power rather than the sympathy card is more effective under the circumstance. If Modi is taking these dignitaries to Ahmedabad, it is to show what he is capable of achieving. Ahmedabad has evolved into swanky city with polished roads, disciplined traffic, shiny public transport. It is a revitalised city, almost creaseless. A poster-boy of Modi's development model. Ahmedabad represents Modi's future plan for India. It shows India's enterprising nature at its best. Leaving behind its more conflicted past, Ahmedabad emerges as India's global city with deep cultural roots. Its identity is very much Hindu, very vegetarian, very businesslike. This unique combination of cultural nationalism with business success is what distinguishes Ahmedabad from Bengaluru. Bengaluru is far too cosmopolitan. More importantly, it is not the creation of Modi. The roadshows with prominent dignitaries on streets of Ahmedabad comes with a strong visual message. Modi is announcing to his fellow citizens and, actually, to the world that India is not going to linger any longer in the waiting room of development. India has, in fact, arrived. What better place to announce that other than the city of Ahmedabad-the workplace of the Father of the Nation. In one masterstroke, Modi connects his personal achievement with the most glorious saga of India's independence movement. Somewhere, imperceptibly, India and Gujarat, Gandhi and Modi, Gujarati asmita and Indian nationalism get merged. That perhaps is the unstated goal. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why Modi takes Netanyahu to Ahmedabad?

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/gujarat-elections-2017-live-results-27014" target="_blank">Amid the unfortunate din around the authenticity of Rahul Gandhi&rsquo;s faith, a video appeal from the young Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani went viral on social media</a>. The bespectacled young man with a trademark stubble appealed for funds to support his campaign as an independent candidate in the upcoming Gujarat state elections. Mevani said neither he nor his organisation wished to draw funds from corporates or NGOs, his campaign was to be part of a people&rsquo;s movement funded by the people.

The appeal was for funds to defeat the Hindutva forces in Gujarat and to provide interim relief to the people of the country and help them prepare for a larger fight in 2019. The ultimate objective of this fight would be the annihilation of caste and the establishment of an egalitarian social order.

The appeal was poignant both in tone and substance. More so as it was released on a day a non-bailable warrant was issued against him for organising a rail roko movement a year earlier as part of the statewide protests against the flogging of four Dalit youths with iron rods at Una. The use of state force on Mevani at a time when his campaign has just acquired momentum is indicative of the fact that he represents a clear and present danger to the ruling party&rsquo;s narrative of development in Gujarat.&nbsp;

While Hardik Patel&rsquo;s demands for jobs and educational reservations for Patidar youth have been seen to be untenable and self-indulgent, Mevani&rsquo;s political discourse poses a distinct challenge.

If Rahul Gandhi has focused on the fall out of &lsquo;spectacular&rsquo; policies such as demonetisation, GST and Hardik Patel, on Patidar grievance, Jignesh has sought to formulate a sharper attack on the systemic failures of Gujarat&rsquo;s developmental model and on the material and symbolic structures of Dalit oppression. Identity politics for him could not be divorced from fundamental livelihood issues.

Part of the reason for the intellectual depth of Mevani&rsquo;s discourse is its rootedness in a long tradition of Dalit mobilisation in Gujarat. Drawing inspiration from Marx and Ambedkar, Dalit activists and organisations in Gujarat have long sought to combine questions of Dalit identity with those of livelihood.

While the resurgence of caste politics has invited adverse comment in the media, what remains unaddressed is the fact that conversations about caste and primordial affiliations resonate much more intensely in contexts where neither the market nor the state is able to secure livelihoods nor promote social harmony. What is equally worrying for the BJP-ruled government is that the broader tent of Hindutva seems to have less meaning today than it had five years ago. The project of the Hinduization of Dalits touted as among the key to BJP&rsquo;s success in Gujarat remains both uneven and unfinished.&nbsp;

Notwithstanding the gestures of welcome accorded to Dalits into the larger Hindu fold, the entrenched structures of caste prejudice continue to play out in the lives of Dalit communities both in rural and urban Gujarat, despite the incremental material improvements in the lives of many. Gujarat stands fourth in the country in the number of atrocities against Dalits in the country.

Mevani and his followers are affiliated to Navsarjan the oldest NGO in Gujarat advocating Dalit rights and offering legal services to members of the community facing atrocities. Mevani articulates Navsarjan&rsquo;s demands for justice for the Una victims, and urges the government to provide alternative livelihood options for landless Dalits, and finally pleads for a more committed implementation of the land re-distribution scheme initiated several years earlier. Combining the critical issue of land rights to the larger problems of discrimination and atrocities against Dalits has been Mevani&rsquo;s singular contribution to the present campaign.

Mevani reminds us that the 1950s land reforms in the state of Gujarat have been skewed against the interests of Dalits and other marginal communities.&nbsp;

An argument long endorsed by sociologists like Ghanshyam Shah who also argue that corrective measures such as land redistribution among landless Dalits carried out between 1962-1998 have been implemented shoddily. Most redistribution remained on paper and only a few landless groups got actual possession. The demand for land resonates deeply with the vast majority of Dalits who remain small or marginal farmers or those who survive on traditional caste-based occupations, such as scavenging, tanning or weaving.

Yet the hope for 5 acres of land for every landless Dalit remains elusive. Gujarat&rsquo;s Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill 2016, which became a law in August 2016 has, finally, removed the social impact assessment and consent clauses to facilitate ease of acquisition. The rush to implement the law was triggered by demands for lands for industrial development and more significantly for the 1,500 km Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor. The wasteland or common grazing lands redistribution schemes also remain mired in intra-caste rivalries between Dalits and OBCs.

Mevani argues that the demands for the 5 acres of land are actually for the implementation of what is due to landless Dalits. For him, land rights on paper need to translate into actual possession. Yet, there is debate whether land by itself would address larger problems of livelihood, particularly, in the face of prolonged agricultural distress and suppression of wage incomes. For Mevani, however, the possession of land allows the imagination of alternative livelihoods particularly for those engaged in traditionally stigmatised occupations, such as scavenging or tanning.

It may well be a long and arduous battle for land and dignity for marginalised Dalits in Gujarat but Jignesh Mevani has drawn larger attention to the question of &lsquo;inequality&rsquo; in a rapidly developing state. His invocation of the Ambedkarite notion of &lsquo;graded inequality&rsquo; in the Hindu caste structure together with his focus on the structural inequalities generated by a neo-liberal economic regime are in essence a call for solidarities around questions of economic privation and marginalisation.&nbsp;

Mevani reminds us that &lsquo;graded inequalities&rsquo; impedes the forging of sustainable solidarities against oppression.

Little wonder then that he has been able to persuade the OBC leader Alpesh Thakore and the Patidar maverick Hardik Patel to come together in mutual recognition of the shared experience of economic hardship.

In an election in which appeals to religion and caste seem to be dominating political discourse, Mevani&rsquo;s appeal for such solidarities offers hope for a return to a less divisive politics.

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Jignesh has formulated a sharper attack on the failures of Gujarat?s developmental model and on the material and symbolic structures of Dalit oppression.

Amid the unfortunate din around the authenticity of Rahul Gandhi’s faith, a video appeal from the young Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani went viral on social media. The bespectacled young man with a trademark stubble appealed for funds to support his campaign as an independent candidate in the upcoming Gujarat state elections. Mevani said neither he nor his organisation wished to draw funds from corporates or NGOs, his campaign was to be part of a people’s movement funded by the people. The appeal was for funds to defeat the Hindutva forces in Gujarat and to provide interim relief to the people of the country and help them prepare for a larger fight in 2019. The ultimate objective of this fight would be the annihilation of caste and the establishment of an egalitarian social order. The appeal was poignant both in tone and substance. More so as it was released on a day a non-bailable warrant was issued against him for organising a rail roko movement a year earlier as part of the statewide protests against the flogging of four Dalit youths with iron rods at Una. The use of state force on Mevani at a time when his campaign has just acquired momentum is indicative of the fact that he represents a clear and present danger to the ruling party’s narrative of development in Gujarat. While Hardik Patel’s demands for jobs and educational reservations for Patidar youth have been seen to be untenable and self-indulgent, Mevani’s political discourse poses a distinct challenge. If Rahul Gandhi has focused on the fall out of ‘spectacular’ policies such as demonetisation, GST and Hardik Patel, on Patidar grievance, Jignesh has sought to formulate a sharper attack on the systemic failures of Gujarat’s developmental model and on the material and symbolic structures of Dalit oppression. Identity politics for him could not be divorced from fundamental livelihood issues. Part of the reason for the intellectual depth of Mevani’s discourse is its rootedness in a long tradition of Dalit mobilisation in Gujarat. Drawing inspiration from Marx and Ambedkar, Dalit activists and organisations in Gujarat have long sought to combine questions of Dalit identity with those of livelihood. While the resurgence of caste politics has invited adverse comment in the media, what remains unaddressed is the fact that conversations about caste and primordial affiliations resonate much more intensely in contexts where neither the market nor the state is able to secure livelihoods nor promote social harmony. What is equally worrying for the BJP-ruled government is that the broader tent of Hindutva seems to have less meaning today than it had five years ago. The project of the Hinduization of Dalits touted as among the key to BJP’s success in Gujarat remains both uneven and unfinished. Notwithstanding the gestures of welcome accorded to Dalits into the larger Hindu fold, the entrenched structures of caste prejudice continue to play out in the lives of Dalit communities both in rural and urban Gujarat, despite the incremental material improvements in the lives of many. Gujarat stands fourth in the country in the number of atrocities against Dalits in the country. Mevani and his followers are affiliated to Navsarjan the oldest NGO in Gujarat advocating Dalit rights and offering legal services to members of the community facing atrocities. Mevani articulates Navsarjan’s demands for justice for the Una victims, and urges the government to provide alternative livelihood options for landless Dalits, and finally pleads for a more committed implementation of the land re-distribution scheme initiated several years earlier. Combining the critical issue of land rights to the larger problems of discrimination and atrocities against Dalits has been Mevani’s singular contribution to the present campaign. Mevani reminds us that the 1950s land reforms in the state of Gujarat have been skewed against the interests of Dalits and other marginal communities. An argument long endorsed by sociologists like Ghanshyam Shah who also argue that corrective measures such as land redistribution among landless Dalits carried out between 1962-1998 have been implemented shoddily. Most redistribution remained on paper and only a few landless groups got actual possession. The demand for land resonates deeply with the vast majority of Dalits who remain small or marginal farmers or those who survive on traditional caste-based occupations, such as scavenging, tanning or weaving. Yet the hope for 5 acres of land for every landless Dalit remains elusive. Gujarat’s Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill 2016, which became a law in August 2016 has, finally, removed the social impact assessment and consent clauses to facilitate ease of acquisition. The rush to implement the law was triggered by demands for lands for industrial development and more significantly for the 1,500 km Mumbai-Delhi industrial corridor. The wasteland or common grazing lands redistribution schemes also remain mired in intra-caste rivalries between Dalits and OBCs. Mevani argues that the demands for the 5 acres of land are actually for the implementation of what is due to landless Dalits. For him, land rights on paper need to translate into actual possession. Yet, there is debate whether land by itself would address larger problems of livelihood, particularly, in the face of prolonged agricultural distress and suppression of wage incomes. For Mevani, however, the possession of land allows the imagination of alternative livelihoods particularly for those engaged in traditionally stigmatised occupations, such as scavenging or tanning. It may well be a long and arduous battle for land and dignity for marginalised Dalits in Gujarat but Jignesh Mevani has drawn larger attention to the question of ‘inequality’ in a rapidly developing state. His invocation of the Ambedkarite notion of ‘graded inequality’ in the Hindu caste structure together with his focus on the structural inequalities generated by a neo-liberal economic regime are in essence a call for solidarities around questions of economic privation and marginalisation. Mevani reminds us that ‘graded inequalities’ impedes the forging of sustainable solidarities against oppression. Little wonder then that he has been able to persuade the OBC leader Alpesh Thakore and the Patidar maverick Hardik Patel to come together in mutual recognition of the shared experience of economic hardship. In an election in which appeals to religion and caste seem to be dominating political discourse, Mevani’s appeal for such solidarities offers hope for a return to a less divisive politics. (Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Opinion: Jignesh Mevani leading. What did he promise?

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Opinion: Why Modi takes Netanyahu to Ahmedabad?

Opinion: Jignesh Mevani leading. What did he promise?