Before leaving for China on Tuesday, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was going there as he had been invited by the Chinese government.
Before leaving for China on Tuesday, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was going there as he had been invited by the Chinese government. One would expect Modi to concentrate solely on garnering investment for Gujarat during his five-day visit. That, of course, is high on his agenda but if sources in the government and the BJP are to be believed, the party has assigned Modi the task of promoting all BJP-ruled states as models of governance.
The sources explained that this was a damage-control exercise made necessary by some goof-up by the team that had accompanied the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivaraj Singh Chouhan, on his visit to China in September this year. It is to be noted that Modi is the third BJP chief minister to go to China, after Chouhan and former CM of Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa.
Sources in the state government also close to the party leadership indicated that when Chouhan and his team were in China, some embarrassing comments were made by the visitors. The Chinese newspapers had reported negatively about the M-P CM’s visit.
Hence, the BJP has given the task of salvaging the party’s image in China to Narendra Modi.
“The chief minister and his delegation of government officials and Gujarat industrialists will be meeting not only business representatives but also leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.
This is because in September this year, the M-P CM had visited China for 9 days and some coldness had developed because of some statements given by the Madhya Pradesh team,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.
The official further said that some adverse comments by the M-P team about China had been published in the Chinese media.
“Now the BJP wants Modi to undo the damage by projecting Gujarat as a model state run by an effective BJP administration,” he said. Talking about the Gujarat government’s other plans, the official said that Modi’s delegation may also propose mega projects for port development and other infrastructure building schemes.
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