INDIA SUMMARIZED

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – or, as in Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s case, with the slow spin of the wheels of his election rath yatra , which hit the road on Tuesday. The places that book-end the rath yatra, which kicks off Modi’s campaign for Assembly elections due later this year, symbolise the message of Gujarat as an investment destination, which Modi is looking to emphasise. Bechraji, where the rath yatra was flagged off, is home to a Rs 4,000 crore investment that Maruti Suzuki recently formalised with the Gujarat government. Sanand, where the yatra will wind down, is home to the famed Tata Nano plant. But in a larger sense, the widespread expectation among a cross-section of BJP supporters is that the final destination of the rath yatra isn’t merely Sanand, but faraway Delhi, and in particular the office of the Prime Minister. Modi himself has avoided feeding the frenzied speculation about his aspiration for the higher executive offic...