What a session it was, for which Modi deserved and received standing ovation

“There is no government in Delhi,” said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at Young entrepreneurship meet held at Ahmedabad’s Grand Cambay hotel when he was asked a question on central government during panel discussion.

Shri Modi was asked about what kinds of labor reforms he propose to bring in Gujarat, and whether he thinks the central government would allow state to deal with the subject of labor reform. Reacting to this, Modi smiled and just said, “there is no government in centre.”

Earlier Modi had said that the centre was not allowing Gujarat to deal with labor reform because it was a union subject.”We say that suppose if one state – West Bengal, doesn’t want to go into labour reform then let it be like that, but we have an industrial state here and if we need to do labor reform but we are not allowed to do so and our file in this regard is pending in Delhi.”

Modi also said, “India is a big nation and one can’t treat everyone with one yardstick. Let keep the basic structure same, and let continue our national unity intact, but allow the states to do more on their own in many other fronts. Even in Gujarat we have diversity. We can’t treat all in one way.”

Expressing his thoughts in same session, Shri Suresh Prabhu made important point that if Gujarat was not growing in agriculture at the rate of 9%, the Indian agri. growth could be just 2% and not 3%.

“China is not democracy, but it has given free hand to its cities and provinces.They can discuss and bring investment and do much at local level. Now when Mr. Modi is proposing huge foreign investment, he can assure everything that is in four walls of Gujarat, but then there’s Foreign investment board sitting in Delhi over that.

Earlier in the programme, Modi said about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he was a good person, but he could be feeling shame these days.

When one young man asked Mr. Modi about whether Gujarat has single window for contribution of idea, he replied:”You need window when there are gates and walls, but here we have no gates, no walls, everything is open.”

Modi added that he is available to all kinds of communication platforms including Twitter and Facebook. When one youth pointed out that his Facebook account was stagnant and not updating, Shri Modi said that several people had opened an account on his name in Facebook and some of them were throwing dirt also, but amid all these problems, he continues to be available on that platform.

During discussion, Modi said that the state should not run on any one person’s whim. The state should be policy driven, and there should be stability so far as the government is concerned.

During the discussion, one Mr. Punit rightly mentioned that three incredible things Mr. Modi invoked among the people of Gujarat were Pride, hope, and energy. Punit said, the people in Gujarat feel proud about their state, they think they are part of the government, the other thing is the feeling of hope which is rare amid this atmosphere of total hopelessness in system, and the last thing is energy which is reflected in the people here. If there’s no energy, the state can’t do so much.

Modi earned standing ovation of youths in the end of the program.