CII joins Modi to organise business meet in Zurich

Friday, 15 August 2003, 19:30 IST
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AHMEDABAD: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Gujarat government have decided to bury the hatchet caused by a public spat over the communal violence of last year. In a conciliatory gesture, CII will organise a business meet in Zurich under the aegis of the World Economic Forum when Chief Minister Narendra Modi visits Switzerland this month. CII director general Tarun Das met Modi with a view to reviving the relationship between the state government and his lobby group. "We are working with the Gujarat government in a number of areas," Das said late Thursday. "The purpose behind meeting the chief minister was to review the progress of the joint projects as well as to chart out new initiatives," he added. "CII will promote Gujarat as an ideal investment destination through its offices across the globe," Das said. The new initiatives include exploring the possibility of corporate sponsorship in promoting sports in Gujarat. CII has set up a unit dedicated to the issue of water management and water conservation, which will focus on the state as Gujarat has been facing water shortage in recent years. Some CII members had criticised the Modi government for its failure to put down the communal violence last year and demanded what steps the government had taken to restore investors' confidence in the state. CII western council functionaries Anu Agha of Thermax Ltd and Cyrus Guxdar of AFL Ltd had blasted the fovernment for "using police force against minorities" during the communal clashes. While Modi was invited to a CII meet in New Delhi this year, Rahul Bajaj and Jamshyd Godrej chose to attack him publicly over the violence that ranged almost three months and left some 1,000 people dead. A stung Modi retaliated by sidelining the organisation, even as its rival Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) emerged out of its shadows to grab the centre-stage. FICCI was then entrusted with the responsibility of staging "Vibrant Gujarat", the Gujarat government's global investors' meet, to be held September 25-27 in Ahmedabad. CII had to be content with organising the gems and jewellery and textiles conferences in Surat. The conciliatory gesture is timed with Modi's first foreign visit since winning elections in December 2002. Modi will visit Geneva to bring back the ashes of Shyamji Krishna Verma, the radical freedom fighter who died in 1930. Verma inspired Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the fountainhead of Hindu rightwing politics, to join the freedom movement. Modi will also visit London and invite investors to "Vibrant Gujarat."
Source: IANS
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