Modi accused of starting auto ‘rat race’

It seems the BJP strongman has made it a habit of enriching Gujarat at the cost of other states.

And,in this case at least,that has not gone down well with other states,in particular Tamil Nadu,which had played host to these foreign companies in the first place. In fact,the attitude is one of being ‘cheated’.

Accusing the Gujarat government of starting a “rat race” by luring industries from other states,a Congress MP from Tamil Nadu today sought Centre’s intervention in stalling the reported moves of Ford India and Hyundai to go out of the state for expansion projects.

“The recent move by automobile majors to shift their expansion projects to Gujarat will dent the image of Tamil Nadu as the automobile capital of the country,” Congress member K S Alagiri said in a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

He said the Centre must persuade the automobile majors not to take their expansion projects outside the state as Tamil Nadu government is addressing the problem of power.

Alagiri said the companies are blaming power problems and industrial relations in the state for their moves. “Both these issues are not insurmountable problems”,he said.

Barring a few stray incidents,the industrial relations in the state have been satisfactory and there have been no strikes or lockouts in major industries in the state for the last several years,he said.

He said that a large number of ancillary industries have come up around the plants of these automobile companies.

“They will be starved for orders in near future”,he said.Alagiri accused the Gujarat government of starting a “rat race by luring the Tatas to set up the Nano plant two years ago. Now they are courting Hyundai and Ford to set up their expansion projects in the state”.

He said in future,Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would urge even the software industry to shift their base from Bangalore to Ahmedabad.