Kerala & Tamil Nadu Vs Gujarat

Kerala model is no Gujarat model at all. Kerala model is simply the Kerala model and the best Gujarat model under Modi's two terms can do is only lag way behind. In fact, at position number 12.

In fact the Rajan committee didn't surprise anybody - Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa have been working at it for year. For instance, while Kerala had reached Infant Mortality and Maternal Mortality rates and the number of pre-natal hospital visits comparable to that of Western Europe and Japan years ago. Tamil Nadu has been assiduously working at improving its indicators, which remained stagnant for some time. Today, Tamil Nadu and Kerala together show that they are ahead of everybody else because of sheer hard work by the state.

Did they ever make a song and dance about it? Or went on a million-dollar publicity blitzkrieg? Did anybody know that Jayalalithaa government restaurants in Chennai (Amma Unavagam) feed about five lakh people a day for a price that won't even get you a cup of tea in Gujarat? That people don't talk APL and BPL in Tamil Nadu?

Or did Oomen Chandy ask the Congress high command that he be made the Prime Ministerial candidate because during the recent hyperventilation of the rupee, his state brought in an additional 30 percent in foreign exchange over and above the Rs 55,000 - 60,000 crore that it attracts every year. This money is not speed money, or simple "remittances" as some economists believe, but mostly the returns on the state's investment on its human and social capital over several years.