Then take the famed Narmada dam. Gujarat was better at building some part of the water distributive infrastructure than MP. Water flowed into this system and Modi made full use of this PR opportunity. But unlike some other governments, Gujarat pushed on. They fought and won the battle to get the height of the dam raised. Again the forces preceding Modi had an important role to play in this, but he made them stronger. And Modi became even more popular.

But Modi’s energies were not only seen in activities where the vote-related PR value is high, but also those that electorates normally do not care much about.

The social sector is not something that is politically sexy. By all accounts, elections are not won or lost due to improvements in the social sector. But here as well the Modi government came up with a simple yet powerful innovation. Many women and children in Gujarat (as in other states) are highly under-nourished. The Central government adopted the mid-day meal scheme in primary schools and implemented it at the all-India level. But the mid-day meal typically consists of nutrients rich in carbohydrates and to a lesser extent proteins. A large part of the under-nutrition in children is however due to the lack of micronutrients in their diet, and women and children not in the school-going age do not benefit from the mid-day meal.

Consequently wheat flour supplied through the PDS is fortified with iron and folic acid. Moreover vitamins are mixed in edible oils (reportedly this costs merely three paise per kg of oil). As a result, reportedly, the number of women and children suffering from anaemia has reduced considerably in less than two years of the scheme’s operation, and reduced night blindness and other malnutrition-related diseases.

... contd.