The Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel was sworn in as the CM in May 2014. Previously she had held various ministries in the Gujarat Government and has had a political career that has spanned decades. As her government completes two years, she speaks to MyIndMakers in an email interview about her tenure thus far, the challenges ahead and on the rumors floating around the rift in Gujarat BJP.

1. You are the first woman chief Minister of Gujarat. It has never been easy for women to be in leadership roles. How has your experience and journey been so far?

My foray into the public life was more out of the curiosity rather than any aspiration to make it big in the political arena. During the early 1980s, Gujarat faced back to back droughts which had put human life in severe danger. BJP, then had started ‘Nyay Yatra’ across Gujarat and I just joined a few of those yatras out of curiosity. By then the incident of saving the drowning girl students of my school was widely covered by the media, had caught attention of the state BJP leadership. I was approached by them to join the political party only to be refused by me initially. However, after much coaxing and assurance that my children both at home and at my school would not be affected, I agreed to join the party with the only motive to serve society and make people, especially women, aware of their right. Today, it has been close to 30 years that I have been in public life.

The party was kind enough to give me Rajya Sabha membership from Gujarat in the year 1994 which was my first instance of working with the government. After representing Gujarat in Rajya Sabha, I fought my first electoral battle in the year 1998 from Mandal and was made part of the government with the responsibility of Education department given to me. As Education Minister, my long-term experience of being a teacher came handy which helped me transform state’s education sector to a great extent. However, during the process of bringing reforms in education, I was time and again advised to not put in much effort as Gujarat never re-elected the Education Minister. Today, I proudly say that I broke the jinx by getting re-elected since then – twice from Patan and once from Ghatlodia, Ahmedabad.

During all these terms that I have been part of Gujarat’s Constituent Assembly, I have been handed over responsibility of some of the most crucial portfolios in the government, many which were completely new to me. Having handled Education and Women and Child Department, when I was given charge of Revenue, Road & Building, and Urban Development among several others, it came as a challenge to me. Taking the challenge head on, I started doing my homework pertaining to the department from grassroots level – right from understanding problems faced by people to the limitations of government in resolving the same. Today, I can say with great sense of pride and conviction that reforms introduced in these areas have been appreciated and welcomed by the people.

Following the phenomenal victory of BJP in Lok Sabha elections 2014 and accession of Narendrabhai as Prime Minister of India, when I was given the responsibility of Gujarat in the new role of Chief Minister, I felt honoured and privileged to have gotten the opportunity to serve people of Gujarat in a different capacity altogether. The journey from being a farmer’s daughter to being the Chief Minister of Gujarat has actually been a journey of connecting with citizens of Gujarat and making efforts to spread smiles across the state. All this can happen only when you belong to a political party that values your credentials and shows faith in your ability irrespective of your gender, caste or background.

2. From the rather tumultuous 90’s, Gujarat had seen relative stability politically under Narendra Modi as the CM since 2001. 2 years in your tenure as the CM, do you think that stability remains? Do you see any real challenge to the BJP from the Congress or any other parties?

One of the major factors behind Gujarat’s unprecedented growth journey is the political stability that BJP Government has provided to the state. People of Gujarat have been continuously voting for BJP because they are aware of the fact that we deliver what we promise. The only major challenge that any government faces is to how to improve our own working style and enhance our governance so that more and more people can take advantage and gain benefit. For us, development is the only agenda with focus on ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and we are working in that direction. When you believe in your work, you do not see any challenge from your opponents.                                                          

3. In the last 2 years what has been your single biggest challenge running the state of Gujarat, and what will be the single biggest challenge in the months to come?

Any elected government’s foremost responsibility is to establish good governance and during this process it is but natural that one would face difficulty and hindrances for several reasons. According to me, the single biggest problem was the apathy of people towards hygiene and proper sanitation. At a time, when we are living in a digital era, it is shameful and equally painful that women in our rural areas have to defecate in open. My government took cognizance of the social and physical impact it has on people and launched intensive social awareness campaign to make Gujarat open-defecation free by ensuring that every house of every village/town/city has a toilet. In the short span of two years, today Gujarat boasts of having constructed maximum individual toilets in the country. In the urban areas, more than 4.97 lakh individual toilets have been constructed whereas 12,58,486 toilets have been constructed across the villages of Gujarat with 6188 Gram Panchayats registering 100% toilet facility in their respective villages.

‘Toilets for all’ is a very basic and small scale initiative but has major impact on the society. When I hear women talking how construction of toilets has given them a sense of security and respect, I feel gratified and content. The biggest challenge for me will continue to ensure proper sanitation facility for each citizen of Gujarat unless we don’t make Gujarat - an open defecation free state. Apart from this, water and health are the top priorities of the government. While Gujarat has the largest water pipeline network in the country, work on installation of gates on Narmada dam will be accomplished by March 2017, several months ahead of the scheduled time. Once gates will be installed, we will be able to ensure adequate water supply for irrigation & drinking purpose throughout the year. And, for health we have launched several initiatives including free breast/cervical cancer treatment, diabetes screening/treatment, Mukhyamantri Nidaan Yojana, School Health Program. I am delighted to share that under free breast/cervical cancer treatment program, more than 82 lakh women across Gujarat have undergone screening and a little over 1000 who have been detected with either of the cancer are being treated at Government health centers. Similarly, over 47 lakh people throughout the state have undergone diabetes screening and those detected with this disease are being provided with guidance and free medicines to keep their sugar level in control. Under School Health Program, we screen and treat school going children for any ailment they suffer right from weak eye sight to heart disease. From last year, we have embarked on the mission of ensuring that no child of Gujarat grows up with the deformity of Cleft Lip/Palate and Club Foot and more than 1000 children have been successfully operated and are now living a normal life. Ensuring health, water and sanitation has been the focus of my government and with the support of people we are achieving better results with each passing day.

4. Under Narendra Modi as CM, there were many media driven reports of malnutrition in certain segments of the population. Now, we understand that many reports on Gujarat particularly under Narendra Modi were exaggerated but what are the facts on that?

Malnutrition is a challenging problem not only for Gujarat but for the entire country.  Earlier reports that portray Gujarat in bad light release their research done on very limited parameters. In a government, when we talk about malnutrition, we discuss tackling the issue beyond height and weight of the child. While measuring malnourishment among children, overall health has to be taken into consideration.

In Gujarat, as part of the first phase of booting out malnutrition, we have carried out screening of nearly 45 lakh children who have then been classified in 3 different zones depending on the their nutrition level. Children who are found extremely malnourished are admitted to hospital and provided treatment along with nutritious food. Similarly, children who are malnourished but above the danger limit are monitored from their home and provided nutritious food.  Issues like malnutrition are the responsibility of both government and society and thus I have time and again asked affluent people from among us to come forward and boot out the social evil from our state.

The result of the intensive drive against malnutrition is gladdening. And just few days ago, I have launched the second phase of the fight against malnutrition by initiating statewide ‘Bal Amrutam’ and ‘Mission Shakti’ program from the 39 priority talukas of the state. During the second phase, malnourished children across Gujarat especially from priority talukas will be provided special nutritious food prepared by Amul dairy and thereafter monitored every week. ‘Mission Shakti’ is another initiative to combat jaundice among infant, adolescents, young girls and pregnant women wherein they will screened and if detected with symptoms of jaundice, will be provided free treatment through National Iron Plus Initiative. I can guarantee that the next report on malnutrition from any credible organization will reflect outcome of Gujarat Government’s effort to eradicate this social evil.

5. Reservation to the economically backward in the forward castes is a bold step. But will it hold under judicial scrutiny?

When we announced the decision of granting 10% reservation to Economically Backward Class for unreserved classes, we categorically said that we will defend our move in court of law. Moreover, I personally don’t see any legal challenge in the order as the quota is not limited to any specific caste. It is just about modifying open-category, which according to me does not violate the Constitution.

6. You have always been a social reformer even prior to your political career. You famously went on a hunger strike and called the police to stop the child marriage of your own nephew. That is an incredible story. Please tell us more about it. 

I have always believed that for any community to prosper and move ahead with times, change has to come from within. Also, if you turn a blind eye to anything wrong that is happening in your community, family or surroundings, you’re in a way supporting it or wronging your own people. The incident you mentioned happened in my extended family where I had to stop my nephew’s marriage while he was studying in Std 12. When I got to know about the marriage, I urged elders in my family to discontinue the marriage as it is against the law. When they refused to budge, I warned them that I would go on hunger strike in the village but they did not take it seriously. My father who always encouraged all his children to get educated was also strictly against practices like children. What ticked me off was that when I was propagating the message of abolishing child marriage and encouraging education among children throughout Gujarat, an incident like child marriage in my own extended family was just not acceptable. I decided to stop the marriage anyhow and lodged complain with the police. Thereafter, family members were called to the Panchayat Ghar and had to give in writing that they will call off the wedding. After this incident, good thing that happened was practice of child marriage was completely stopped in my extended family and community because they feared that Anandiben would again come with police and embarrass us.

7. In spite of the Patidar agitation, we saw the BJP perform reasonably well in the local elections that followed, do you think that the BJP will carry the momentum in the 2017 elections?

Our organization is very strong and our government has delivered on its promise. People of Gujarat know what is best for them. There is nothing for BJP to worry in Gujarat.

8. The Vibrant Gujarat summits have been successful in attracting businessmen from all around the world in the last decade, are we seeing the MOUs translating in to investments on the ground?

Recently, a reputed international daily reported that Gujarat has left Chinese states behind by attracting Rs 83,000 crore FDI in Capital Investment. Moreover, Central Government and World Bank’s joint study ranks Gujarat at the top when it comes to Ease of Doing Business. All the figures have been derived only because of the investment happening on ground. While we have been on top, we are consistently trying to improve ourselves so that we facilitate better services to the investors.

9. Prior to this, you had been a state education minister as well, what are the reforms in the education sector that the government is aiming to carry forward?

When I was the education minister, my aim was to improve educational infrastructure in the state which was in shambles prior to the year 2000. Another thing that was affecting the education system in Gujarat was discrepancies in the transfer system. Today, Gujarat is one of the few states that has transparent system when it comes to transferring teachers and infrastructure too has improved. As for improving literacy rate in the state, we have been carrying out ‘Shala Praveshotsav’ and ‘Kanya Kelavani Yatra’ since the time I was the education minister and have successfully brought down the dropout ratio in primary school to less than 2% across the state. For improving quality of education, we have initiated ‘Gunotsav’ to assess quality of education imparted in primary schools and results have been endearing with each passing year. To ensure that no child of Gujarat is deprived of education, we provide free books, uniform and scholarship to students from Std 1 to 12.

When it comes to higher education, earlier students of Gujarat had to travel to other states to pursue their aspirations because of the lack of facilities in the state. Today, I can proudly say that be it engineering, medical, para-medical, commerce, arts or diploma, there is an ocean of opportunities for the youth of Gujarat and we are still trying to improve. Mukhyamantri Yuva Swavalamban Yojana is one such initiative where students from modest families can pursue their ambition without having to worry about finances. Until now, more than 10912 students have been provided assistance under MYSY after its launch in September last year.

10. There have been various media reports based on so called 'sources' that Gujarat may be seeing a change of guard soon with you being replaced. Is there any truth in these reports?

There is no truth in the reports floated by media under the veil of sources.