Does Modi remember his performance in Surat?

In August 2006, Surat was flooded by the release of water from an upstream dam. A report on the Unicef website describes the state of the city: “3.5 million people, including women and children in Surat, were marooned on Monday by the swirling waters of the Tapi river, which flows in the middle of Surat city.” There was “no drinking water, no food, no milk, no electricity and no telephones”.

There was also no state. I was working in Ahmedabad when I heard of the flooding. My parents lived in Surat, by the edge of the river, and their phone was dead. There was no transport going into Surat and I hitched a ride on a bus carrying a magistrate and about a dozen or so government workers he had with him to save his own family.

There was no access to the city because of the flooding and I spent the night outside. The next morning, I swam and waded my way to the bridge on the Tapi just across from where our house was. There was a company of soldiers with one small tin boat. That boat was being used to carry out corpses and there was no rescue work I could see. For the next three days, every day, I came and stood by the end of the bridge hoping to be able to get across but there was no means to do so. There was nobody from the government around. On the fifth day, as the water went down of its own, I made my way and met my parents walking the other way. They had been on their terrace without food and water all this time.This was, remember, in the middle of Surat, the second largest city of Gujarat.

In that year, 2006, [url=http://www.livemint.com/Search/Link/Keyword/Narendra Modi]Narendra Modi[/url] was himself Gujarat’s minister of finance, home, industries, the giant irrigation projects of Narmada and Kalpsar, mines and minerals, energy, ports, petrochemicals, administration, besides others. Now he has also taken on the task of saving north India from its disaster.

I have no problem watching him strutting around Uttarakhand spewing his gospel of micro-management and pretending his touch fixes everything.

I am only worried he has himself begun to believe the pap he ladles out to his supporters. I wonder if he remembers his performance in Surat.

http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/jiBS6L6Jd8bkfH1GXDU9gO/How-we-respond-to-the-pain-of-others.html