In an interview with Aaj Tak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about his first act as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. In the interview, he said that after the disastrous Bhuj Earthquake on 26th January 2001, he worked as a volunteer to help rescue and rebuild. Then, on October 7 2001, he took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. After taking oath, his first act was to visit the sites most affected by the earthquake. He said, “First I had seen the ground as a volunteer. Now I was seeing it as a Chief Minister.”
After visiting the site for a few days, he called a meeting of all his ministers, bureaucrats to take an update on the progress. He said his officers told him the estimated dates of March for completion of the work. He instead asked them what they can accomplish by 26th January 2002, the one year anniversary of the earthquake. He asked them to prepone the deadlines to 26th January 2002 as the entire world will be watching on what is the progress in one year.
PM Modi said he was expecting the media from the entire world to come to Gujarat and look for a story and he wanted to be prepared for it. According to him, he knew the media wanted to criticise but since he mobilised his entire machinery and was able to push his people to achieve the 26th January deadline they did not get any scope to do so.
This interaction with Aaj Tak gives an important glimpse into his thought process and into the idea behind his first act as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. PM Modi was aware of the priorities and what was the image and work he wanted to project to the world. So he acted accordingly because he believed that the first few days are the most important in terms of the momentum of work and also the image of the administration.
The interview is a part of a series of interviews he has given to different channels during the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. PM Modi has filed his nomination form the Varanasi constituency, a seat he has held for the last 2 terms. The voting in that constituency will be held on June 1st in Phase 7 of the voting. The results of this election will be announced on June 4th.
-Namit Pandey