The chief minister is going to the US to inaugurate new chapters of the Gandhinagar-based Non-Resident Gujarati Foundation on July 4, the American Independence Day. ``People don't gather in the US on any other day of the year like they do on July 4. The CM has to attend two seminars in New Jersey and Philadelphia,'' explains Patel's Principal Secretary P K Laheri.

``Couldn't the visit be postponed to a more conducive time?'' the chief minister was asked before he left for Mumbai. He said that his programme had been fixed long back and cannot be cancelled now. ``If there is an emergency, I can always rush back,'' hesaid, and added that he had already cut short his visit from six days to three so that he could attend the Chief Ministers' meeting called by the Prime Minister in Delhi on July 7.

The talk in political circles is that the coming Lok Sabha elections in September and a pressing need for party funds is the real reason behind the awkward timing of Keshubhai's US visit. The BJP has considerable influence among the Gujarati NRIs, who are a prosperous community in America.

Predictably, Opposition leaders have criticised the chief minister's foreign tour and pointed out that unlike Farooq Abdullah, Parkash Singh Badal and Ashok Gehlot, he hasn't even cared to visit the border areas of Kutch and Banaskantha to boost the morale of the people and the defence personnel deployed there.

Keshubhai, however, pointed out that Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya had already visited the border belt twice. Besides, ``I am in constant touch with officers of all three defence wings'', he said. More important, the CM'soffice seems to believe that a border visit by Patel is not a safe proposal. ``See, what happened to former CM Balwantrai Mehta when he went to Bhuj in 1965 (His plane was shot down by the Pakistanis). VIP security is not easy to organise,'' said Laheri.

Opposition leaders are not impressed. ``Keshubhai need not become a `shahid' like Balwantrai Mehta. The least he can do is visit the armed forces deployed on the border and boost their morale,'' fumes Rashtriya Janata Party leader and former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, adding, ``Gujarat is a border state, Kutch is highly sensitive. We are the only people to have lost a CM to cross-border firing. Going to America in these circumstances is an act of irresponsibility.''

Chabbildas Mehta, another former chief minister and senior Congress leader, says it is the ``moral responsibility of the CM to be on the spot when the defence forces are on alert''. At a time when the country is facing a critical situation and Pakistan has made ``a heavy concentrationalong the Kutch border -- 22 brigades I have been told -- the CM should have postponed his visit'', Mehta said.

Vaghela recalled that, in 1971, Hitendra Desai, the then chief minister, had the entire state united as one. ``Instead of visiting America, Keshubhai should have been meeting soldiers, see what problems they are facing, attend to those and assure the men that the entire State is behind them. This is also the time to address citizens, assure them that the state's borders will be defended, and instill national pride in them,'' Vaghela said.