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An index released by the Finance Ministry was meant to stir a debate on methodology of allocation of central funds to states. No doubt, it has triggered the debate, but not as intended.
In a run-up to elections to five assemblies, everything now boils down to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's supporters and baiters.
The reason is simple--Gujarat is categorised as less developed states and ranked 12 among 28 states in the ranking of development, prepared by a panel headed by Raghuram Rajan when he was the chief economic adviser in the Finance Ministry.
And what could be a better place to wage a war of words than twitter.
Sample these:
"(Though Modi& his bhakths (faithfuls) won't agree) Raghuram Rajan report demolishes Mod's claims of development in Gujarat," writes one Anand Dubey with a twitter handle of @Anand-Congress.
One A Rathour writes--"Now, I have reasons to like this guy. He's doing his job#Raghuram Rajan."
Deepak with a "swastik" symbol on his account tweets--"Who'd believe Rajan for ranking Haryana above Gujarat in development."
There were some who took a dig at Modi. Sample this--"Since Gujarat is not a front ranking state as far as development is concerned, will it affect asmita (identity) of Gujarat if Modi asks for a package".
Gujarat was ranked lower than Goa, which topped the ranking of developed states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Karnataka, Tripura.
According to the recommendations, each of the 28 states would get 0.3% of total Central funds. This will take care of 8.4% of funds. Of the remaining 91.6%, the committee has recommended allocating three-fourths on the basis of needs (underdevelopment index) and a fourth on performance.
