For long, Narendra Modi (#feku) has made tall claims (now what’s unusual about that) about how successful his Gujarat Tourism campaign has been. Figures revealed yesterday show that the facts are way different from the exaggerated claims!
In a story in the TOI yesterday, it comes out that Gujarat attracted merely 24.4 million domestic tourists in 2012. As per Modi’s statement as reported on the the Gujarat Tourism website (www.gujarattourism.com), the number of tourists grew by some 16% last year. For someone not familiar with tourism numbers, one gets the impression that the visionary that Narendra Modi is, the micro-manager that he is, he has managed to leapfrog Gujarat into the big leagues, perhaps even make it #1, by sheer genius. That is why I was surprised to read yesterday that Gujarat is actually placed a lowly 9th in the list of Indian states on the basis of tourism. And here’s what is even more shocking. It got merely 12% of the tourists that the number 1 state – Andhra attracted in 2012 (206 million). Yet another false claim. Yet another exaggeration. Yet another lie. This is becoming quite a hobby for me now – tracking down the Gujarat CM’s lies!
Full report here Times of India blogs
