Its final. There are two Gujarats just as there are two India’s. Except, for the two Indias, there are two names – India and Bharat. And all of us know which is which. One is the one that got caught at the Taj and the Oberoi ( the author included); the other got mowed down at Victoria Station (oops, Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal I mean, and that belongs to another India all together – but that story on another day!) So what shall we call the two Gujarats? Gujarat and Andhirat? Gujarat and Bhukhirat?

Yes of course I know that our vibrancy is at its peak as you read this. I also know that the first Gujarat is there, that they will benefit, that they will grow richer. And as more and more SEZs get sanctioned the Andhirat/Bhukhirat will continue to suffer, loose the fish catch which is their livelihood, the land from which they eke a living, the relatively unpolluted air in the villages  which they need to do the back breaking work which allows them to vaguely hold body and soul together.

And I know that there will be, like every year before this, large lies in assessing our vibrancy,  thousands of crores worth of dud MOUs that will never be tom-tommed by the government or the newspapers.

Where is the proof, do I hear you ask? Well here we go.

We are told that it is with the mandate of the Right to Food that the State’s Food and Civil Supplies Department sets its targets. Schemes roll off the tongues of officials like Nanos will roll off the assembly lines in Sanand – Anand Smart Card Project; Grahak Bhandar Yojana; Food Fortification and Food Helpline being some of these. Wonderful. So every Bhukhirat citizen sleeps on a full stomach at night, right? Wrong.

According to the Hunger Index by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Gujarat ranks 69th, along with Haiti, a country known for its food riots. Our state is placed in the ALARMING category vis a vis hunger.

42.4% of tomorrows glorious citizens in our State are already stunted due to malnutrition. This means that they will have less that normal intelligence and physical strength as they become adults. So in twenty years half of the State will be below par in every which way. These are results of the National Family Health Survey. The survey also found that more than half the people are anaemic. This leads to tiredness and lack of concentration and stamina. More below par adults.

RTI applications and public hearings also found that there are millions of bogus ration cards, huge siphoning off from the public distribution system meant to take food to the deprived and fortified food fortified more with insects, cockroach droppings and vermin than with vitamins.

On the investment side, the auto pilot that our growth is supposed to be on has hit the same chaotic traffic that makes driving in Ahmedabad a reckless nightmare. While it is easy to come to the State and be dined but not wined, and to sign MOUs, the proof of the pudding is surely in the number of MOUs that get converted to actualities. According to the State Industries Commissioner himself, the number of MOUs that have upped and disappeared over the last three years are 130, worth over Rs 68,270 crores. Of this Rs 5000 crores worth of projects were joint ventures with the State government itself!

And put all those facts together and we have even more startling possibilities. Even if half the MOUs being signed come through, in ten or fifteen years time Gujarat/Bhukhirat will have half of its adults stunted mentally and physically, and they will be the work force to run these enterprises. Alternatively, millions of people will be imported from states which do not have stunted children turning into stunted adults. Either way the story looks grim.

Perhaps, then, the rich and powerful will at last turn towards Bhukhirat and not only towards Vibrant Gujarat.