COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Thursday, June 14, 2018.
Gujarat chief
minister Vijay Rupani does not have any official email address, nor has he
appointed any official-level committee to implement the announcements he has
made over the years. This has been revealed in a Right to Information (RTI)
reply, received in response to an RTI application filed by Mujahid Nafees, an
Ahmedabad resident, who happens to be convenor of the Minorities Coordination
Committee (MCC).
An upcoming
NGO which has mobilised minorities across Gujarat over the last couple of
years, MCC, a non-political body, has been successful in raising developmental
issues with the Gujarat officialdom. It has offered different types of
programmes to "wake up" the administration towards the minorities'
needs. These range from writing post cards to the chief minister and holding
meeting with the Gujarat chief secretary, to holding mass meetings and rallies.
In its reply
RTI, the General Administration Department (GAD), which happens to fall
directly under the chief minister, has said that the Gujarat government has
"no record" of those who meet Rupani, nor does it have any
information about "the expenses incurred by the Chief Minister's Office"
on those who come and meet the chief minister.
It further
said, there is no committee to implement the announcements made by the chief
minister, adding, the department does not have any information about what all
the Chief Minister has announced during the three year period ending March 31,
2018, for which the information was sought.
While the GAD
also refused to part with the mobile number, along with email ID, of the chief
minister, Nafees commented, "Big advertisements to go digital in everyday
life do not seem to have made any difference to the chief minister of India's
'model' state, Gujarat, where the chief minister, who, we now know, does not
even have an official email address."
"Also,
the replies suggest, the announcements made by the chief minister, who has been
hand-picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, appear to have not implemented at
all, with their execution remaining limited to paper, as the state government
has officially admitted that it does not have any mechanism to implement them",
he added.
Nafees' RTI
plea follows his efforts to convey developmental concerns of the minorities
directly to the chief minister through email or directly meet him. Despite his
efforts, he failed to get an appointment, nor did the officialdom part with any
email address of the chief minister, where Nafees could send the concerns.
The ten pleas
made by the activist in his RTI application included the demand to provide
details of the announcements made by Rupani between April 1, 2015 and March 31,
2018, details of committee formed, if any, to implement them, and how these
have been implemented.
Known in the
officialdom for his administrative acumen, Rupani lately, however, is said to
be feeling politically uneasy, with reports in vernacular media suggesting that
he may have resign from his high post. In fact, quoting sources around Modi, a
report said, ahead of the 2019 elections, the BJP high command may have a new
face as chief minister.