A day after Narendra Modi sought to ‘rebuild’ political bridges with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK supremo ripped apart the BJP PM candidate’s much hyped Gujarat model of development saying Tamil Nadu was far more developed on all fronts.
In a scathing attack on Modi at an election meeting in Krishnagiri district on Thursday, Jayalalithaa, citing statistics to highlight the growth of Tamil Nadu, said, “We are concentrating on the development of our State through various schemes than advertising ourselves.”
Her reference was to the publicity blitzkrieg launched by the Gujarat government projecting Modi’s model as a benchmark for the rest of the country.
In recent days, Modi has criticised both the AIADMK and DMK of having done nothing for Tamil Nadu, which they have been ruling by turns since 1967. However, on Wednesday he sought to indirectly reach out to Jayalalithaa saying that he shared an excellent personal rapport with her.
A day later, Jayalalithaa took on Modi saying it was only her government that was showing the way to other States when it came to addressing public issues and implementing welfare measures. She added that the Human Development Index placed Tamil Nadu way ahead of Gujarat. While 11.3 per cent of the TN population lived Below Poverty Line, in Gujarat the figure was 16.6 per cent.
As for infant mortality, in Gujarat (ranked 11th) 38 out of 1,000 children die within a year of birth as opposed to 21 per 1,000 newborns in Tamil Nadu. The Chief Minister added that only 10 per cent of Gujarat’s graduates were engaged in the manufacturing sector while the figure was 14.3 per cent in TN.
Tamil Nadu was ahead in terms of foreign investment and food production, she added. Jayalalithaa also assailed Gujarat’s industrial progress saying TN had 39,996 industrial units compared to 22,220 units in Modi’s State.