Pravasis fire Gujarat salvo

NEW DELHI: Money, expertise, intellectual capability -- the NRIs have it, and the states want to leverage the same for benefit.
While the absence of states to the east of India, notably UP, Bihar and West Bengal was glaring, the state-NRI interactive sessions on the concluding day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas were well received.
The NRIs'' session with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi witnessed a virtual stampede with the riots in the state again threatening to take the centrestage.Interrupting Modi''s address, a few NRIs condemned the incident as shameful. "The incidents in Gujarat had made the Indians in Europe hang their heads in shame," said Devsmita Patnaik, who teaches dance in Paris.
As a few more joined her, several others countered them. "I don''t agree with her," said Anjani Kumar of Bihar, who practises medicine in the UK. Kumar asked them to take the Godhra carnage into consideration before making such remarks, which "spoil India''s image".
However, an unfazed Modi was very much the man of the moment as he brushed aside questions related to politics. He, later, told mediapersons that those "trying to tarnish the image of the state should first improve their credibility".
During his address, the CM focused on his vision of turning the state into what he termed as "Gujarat Unlimited".
"People recognise CM as chief minister but to me, is no more than a common man," said Modi. He urged the Gujarati community based in Houston and Texas, who face a similar situation of water scarcity, to provide their inputs about modern harvesting methods.
He called upon each NRI to sell India as a tourist destination.
While M M Hassan, the minister for information and non resident Keralites'' affairs, presented new possibilities that the Kerala government had thrown open for the diaspora, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot urged NRIs from the state to develop schools, colleges and hospitals in their hometowns.