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HAVING WON THE electoral battle decisively in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party must now get down to the task of governance and kick-start the State economy that has ground to a halt in the last one year or so. The five crore people of the State may have shown the Congress(I) in no uncertain terms that it did not pay to take an ambivalent attitude, either to the riots or Hindutva, but they will now look at the Chief Minister elect, Mr Narendra Modi, to restore the State's gaurav on the economic front as well. They may not brook ambivalence on this front for too long. There is no disputing that the State has taken quite a hit on the business front as almost all its major economic initiatives and issues of governance went into a wait-and-watch mode in the long run-up to the polls. While the only saving grace on the foreign investment front was the announcement of the Rs 3,000-crore LNG terminal by Shell Gas BV at Hazira in April, the State is set to look at another port project to announce to the world that it has come out of investment blues yet again.

Perhaps, the first major business announcement by new the government would be the Rs 3,130-crore, 5 million tonnes-a-year terminal being put up by LNG Petronet at Dahej which includes a Rs 500-crore solid cargo jetty. However, these announcements of concession agreements — whether they be for the Hazira or the Dahej projects — cannot be interpreted as fresh initiatives as both have been in the making the last three years. What the new government will have to do is to create an investment- friendly climate in the State and assure investors that communal unrest will not be allowed to rear its ugly head again as it was on this issue that substantial investments, initially earmarked for Gujarat, found its way to other States, mostly those in the South. Just as important would be for the Modi government to ensure a continuity of policies where efforts are made to ensure that projects as advanced as the Rs 6,000-crore Positra SEZ, which has been threatening to relocate to Maharashtra, do not move out of the State as this would indeed send a wrong signal to potential investors. All this will not be easy as staring him in the face would be near empty coffers as the last few months saw the treasury go for overdraft a number of times even as its accumulated debt portfolio threatens to breach Rs 40,000 crore by the end of the fiscal.

For Mr Modi, who had himself referred to his earlier stint as a one-day match, clearly it is time to settle down to the rigours of a five-day test match where audacious stroke play will have to give way to a more circumspect approach. Having said that, he will need a liberal dose of bailing out as the State is already caught in a debt trap with interest dues set to cross Rs 5,000 crore for the first time this year while the revenue deficit is galloping beyond the Rs 10,000 crore. A businessman remarked the other day that Mr Modi never had the time or space to govern last time around, but surely he will have enough of both once the Tenth Gujarat Assembly comes into being. Of course, the question would be whether the period of catharsis is finally over for the people of the State as it readies itself to get back to the familiar rough and tumble of dandha where striking a profitable bargain would once again become the leit motif.

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