The Indian version of the World Economic Forum organised by the CII here got the Davos flavour on Monday when Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had to face the wrath of social activists as he arrived to address a session of the India Economic Summit at a five star hotel here. Despite noisy protests Modi went ahead to participate as a special guest and addressed the plenary session on ‘Competitiveness of Indian States: Sharing Best Practices.’ CII remained unfazed. Its secretary general Tarun Das said, ‘‘Such protests happen in Davos, it is now happening in Delhi.’’ While reasoning out the presence of Modi in the summit, Das said, ‘‘Gujarat is an important State for economic activities, and CII and WEF as an institution feel that we should involve States in India.’’ In the midst of commotion and noisy scenes, Ali also urged Bajaj Auto’s Rahul Bajaj to join the protest but he declined. While talking to scribes later, Bajaj said, ‘‘Modi is an elected Chief Minister of the State and CII has every right to invite him. Only weak and stupid people don’t call people with different views.’’ I am not impressed with demonstrators, he said. Barring Godhra, Gujarat has been one of the best States for investment and if you want controversy to continue, I am not in favour of that, he added. To clear the confusion regarding the presence of only Gujarat Chief Minister, Das said, ‘‘We had invited other States too. While Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir expressed their inability to participate, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parikkar opted out at the last moment after confirming.’’ However, Modi declined to comment and even refused to refer to the protests. Later, while answering to a question he said, ‘‘What happened one-and-a-half years ago is something which should not have happened in a civilised society.’’ But now all citizens in Gujarat, whether they belong to the minority or majority communities, had the ‘same rights’ under the Constitution of the federal government. ‘‘If anything regarding discrimination comes to my notice, I will correct it.’’ About the plight of muslims in Gujarat, Modi said they had the highest per capita income each among all Indian States. He also noted that Parsis, one of the ‘smallest’ minorities in the world were safest in the State. He reiterated that his State was peaceful and Ahmedabad was one of the peaceful cities in India and even in the world.
