In Narendra Modi's Vibrant Gujarat: Donkey gets Rs 220/day and Health Worker gets only Rs 116/day!!!

(Times of India) In 2011, Ahmedabad was largely responsible for making Gujarat the state with the highest malaria deaths in the country and the sixth among states and union territories in the number of malaria cases registered. That same year, the state recorded the fourth highest number of dengue cases. A majority of these belonged to Ahmedabad.

One of the main reasons for the sudden rise in malaria and dengue cases in 2011 was a two-week strike by many of AMC's 1,400 contractual link workers who were demanding a small salary hike over their measly honorariums of Rs 1,500 per month and the little money they earned from some extra work!

Today their salaries are fixed at Rs 3,500 per month. These link workers perform most of the important tasks such as conducting door-to-door surveys for mosquitoes, collecting blood smears, distributing malaria-control medicines, and keeping tabs on fever cases and even the health of pregnant women and newborn babies. These link workers visit every home and sometimes travel by bus for their work.

Yet these workers seem to be less valuable than the donkey which transports bricks from one part of a locality to other.

"A donkey fetches Rs 220 for a day's work of transporting bricks in the city. An AMC link worker is paid Rs 116 a day to fight diseases. That's how the AMC treats its foot soldiers,"

said Jayshree Makwana, a community health worker with the AMC. She further said that under a new incentive-based payment system, the workers are paid only for the work they do.

"Our basic Rs 1,500 honorarium has been discontinued. The maximum that we can earn under the new scheme is Rs 3,500 a month. Can you run your house on that money?" Makwana said.

The state health department's decision to treat link workers in villages on a par with those in the cities also irks urban link workers.

"If we do not find a pregnant woman or a malaria patient in our area, we have to hire buses to find one in different areas to earn some money," said Anita Chudasama, a link worker. In rural areas, on the other hand, a link worker just has to attend residents of just one village.

After Karnataka Results: "Iron Man" Narendra Modi cancels all public engagements!!!

(Business Standard)  Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi may have been described as the most popular leader by members of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but party leaders have noted that he limited his exposure in a state dogged by infighting and corruption.

The Gujarat chief minister was supposed to take part in the parliamentary board meeting, the highest decision making body of BJP, after the Karnataka elections results were announced, but on Wednesday morning Modi informed senior leaders of the BJP that he won’t be able attend the meeting. It has been a normal practice for the BJP leadership to meet and discuss election results each time when polling takes place.

While Modi had earlier confirmed that he would take part in the parliamentary board meeting once the Karnataka election results were announced, but he decided to stay away at the last minute.

From a position where BJP had over 120 members in the legislative assembly in 2008, the party reached a position where it has just 40 seats. 

“We came to know in the morning that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will not attend the parliamentary board meeting,” said a senior leader of BJP.

It is not the first time that Modi has missed attending the crucial parliamentary board meeting on the issue of Karnataka. While senior leaders of BJP were busy brainstorming at the party headquarter to decide which candidates should get tickets for Karnataka election, Modi decided to skip the meeting on two occasions. BJP leaders had earlier came out in Modi defence saying that since he has not been involved in Karnataka politics, there was no need for him to attend the meetings.

During campaigning before the polling, Modi had initially informed BJP leaders in Karnataka that he would be only available for one public meeting in Bengaluru on April 28, but the play had to be altered because of demand from the cadre. Modi held three public meetings but other development mascots of BJP -- Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar – stayed away from the entire campaign.

Karnataka elections 2013: A Narendra Modi flop show?

(FirstPost)  or all inveterate Narendra Modi worshippers, the Karnataka election results should be a shocker. The man with the magic wand has failed to deliver in a state where the party required a miracle most. After all here’s a man who is supposed to have phenomenal following among the middle class, the youth and in urban India. He lords over social media and draws passionate support like not even film stars do. And yes, he, some would vouch, talks the new language of politics – growth, development, governance and what not.

It now appears Modi did not even create a ripple in the state, forget a wave. 

Voters in Karnataka have just separated the hype from the substance, and the myth from the man. The BJP has lost miserably in the state. Its failure in urban Karnataka has been spectacular. Obviously, the ‘goundswell’ support for the party after Modi’s election addresses was more social media imagination than reality. It now appears he did not even create a ripple in the state, forget a wave. If any reality check was required on the Modi phenomenon, the results offer that. He is not a leader with pan-Indian acceptability as his diehard supporters would have us believe.

But why are we discussing Modi in the context of the Karnataka elections at all? Well, why indeed! That precisely is the point. To be fair to him, he addressed only three meetings in the state and it was a lost cause in any case. After a chaotic stint in power in Karnataka, the dismal performance of the BJP in the assembly elections was on the cards. The real question was not the defeat per se, but its margin. Modi could not have changed that.

So what is all the hype about? Anyone with rudimentary understanding of current Indian politics would be aware that electoral behaviour has matured beyond hero-worshipping. The Gandhi surname no more attracts blind loyalty and votes, not even in the Gandhi pocket boroughs. There are too many competing interests at play to care about personalities. Modi, given the political ground realities, would find it difficult to be a pan-Indian vote magnet. The voter has grown up. He is less likely to be carried away by hype now than earlier.

Immediately after Modi’s campaign in Karnataka, there was the usual hyperbole about his impact on the voters and party workers. His own publicity machinery was at work again. Had the BJP won it in the state, the success would have been attributed to his superhuman powers. Now that it has lost, should not the blame be on him too? The Modi fan club is resembling more and more the Gandhi family supporters. The basic trait – personality worship – remains the same, only the deities are different.

Let’s get real. Modi’s myth-makers are doing him more harm than good. The more they make him an unreal politician – without normal weaknesses and strengths – the more is the risk of him unravelling quickly.

Karnataka: Counting Live Trends

Karnataka: Huge and Near Record Voter Turnout: Are Exit Polls Wrong?

Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha said the total turnout "is 71.29 per cent, which is much better than last time in 2008 (64.78) and the 2009 Lok Sabha. Only 1979 the turnout was very marginally higher.

Remember most of these exit polls were completed by 3 pm the latest when polls closed by 6 pm. The period 3-6 pm saw a big surge in voting.

So Wednesday, it is possible that pollsters end up red faced and may dive for cover. Enjoy as the ballot boxes open and unleash a Tsunami.