Politics is the art of making the impossible possible. In one of those seemingly impossible manifestations of this theory, the Marxist-Communists are praising the BJP-led ‘Gujarat Model’ which they despised for decades. This change of stance, points in the direction of acceptance of the failure of the ‘Kerala Model’ and the course correction.
Gujarat Visit
The Chief Secretary VP Joy along with his staff member Umesh NSK are on a visit to Gandhinagar, Gujarat from 27-29 April. The CPI(M) led Communist government of Kerala had given nod to a two-member high-official team to visit and learn the successful e-governance model of Gujarat. The Kerala team is having a closer look at the Western state’s project dashboard system used for monitoring services and getting feedback from the people.
After fully seeing the working and impact of the monitoring system, Kerala Chief Secretary heaped praise on it and said, “The systems are working very smoothly. I am very happy with its working. It has been done in a good manner. The system is good as officers can track their own performance and it also ensures that services are delivered to the people. It also helps in receiving feedback which will be used for implementation. It is a good digital system”.
Gujarat | Kerala Chief Secretary VP Joy visits Gandhinagar to study Gujarat model of governance
"We've just seen the dashboard monitoring system. It's a good and comprehensive system for monitoring the delivery of services, collecting citizens' feedback and others," he says pic.twitter.com/75TXm58qfl
— ANI (@ANI) April 28, 2022
Appreciation of the functioning of a state being run by the party that they consider as arch-rival is a rare site in politics. And appreciation at the very top level of government shows the urgency of course correction and the complete collapse of the hollow PR popularised ‘Kerala model’.
Read More: The complete failure of the Kerala model
Failed ‘Kerala Model’, Course Correction and Ideal State to learn from
Kerala popularised as God’s own country was badly hit by a pandemic caused by the Chinese-origin Coronavirus. The Communist-led Kerala government failed to contain the Virus sent into the world by the Communist-ruled nation. The Vijayan government failed miserably to minimise monitory as well as loss of human life. Furthermore, the state has been slowly becoming a haven for Islamic radicals and a lot many youths have been swayed away to join the Islamic State (IS) to fight for the Jihadist cause. The Communist government must have realised the urgent need to course correct in all these failing spheres and who better to learn from than the state which had been wrecked by the Islamists for centuries and has largely tackled it. This makes Gujarat the ideal state for Kerala to learn one of the best models of governance.
Read More: A Comparative Analysis of BJP and PM Modi’s Favorite ‘Gujarat Development Model’
The Communists especially in Kerala have been intolerant towards even the existence of BJP or RSS supporters and political murders of contrary ideolog are common. They hate the ‘Gujarat model’ and many communists courting the Islamist vote bank had termed it as a ‘Hindutva model’ or ‘fascist model’. So, learning from the BJP-led state means that the communists have no other option. For them, the Gujarat model emerged as the last resort to pacify the Keralites who are angry with the so-called Kerala Model.
It is good to see that finally, the Kerala state government went out of the way to learn one of the best models of governance.