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NARENDRA MODI-TWO YEARS ON LOOKING BACK-LOOKING FORWARD

It was sometime in early 2014, post BJP announcement that Narendra Modi will be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party in the ensuing Loksabha election, there have been plethora of reactions from those who had a pathological dislike of the man.

Among those public reactions, remark by the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the most telling, since he was the incumbent PM of the time. He had reportedly remarked “Modi as Prime Minister will be a disaster for India”.

Despite Manmohan Singh and his ilk Modi was voted to power with an unprecedented mandate on his election plank “Abki baar Modi Sarcar”. And BJP secured an absolute majority on its own for the first time in its political existence of more than five decades (read Jan Singh together).

Modi government at the centre has completed its two years in power since 26th May 2014. Looking back, has he proved the economist from the London School of Economics, former Governor of Reserve Bank, former Finance Minister in the P.V Narasimha Rao government and the former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh comprehensively wrong?!  

Narendra Damodradas Modi, is probably the most written about politician in India- past and present. Surely there are any number of reasons he can be written about. His rise, ever since he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, in 2001, has been admired and hated. Since his first foray into power in Gujarat state politics, there has been no looking back. He kept growing in the eyes of many Indians, including media, industry and business, which led him into the unprecedented victory in 2014 that catapulted him into the most powerful seat of the Prime Minister of India.

For close to 3 decades, coalition politics had come to stay. Never in their wildest dreams nobody envisioned a single party government in India with its own absolute majority. But Modi juggernaut had attempted the impossible and BJP had emerged as the party with absolute majority. Incredible had happened. In the words of Lord Meghnad Desai, it was an event of transformational significance.

Looking back over the two years that NDA led by BJP traversed, we decided to go back to our readers for their thoughts on the journey of this inimitable political torrent called Narendra Modi. In following pages we have a mixed bag of inputs from a cross section of Indians. Hope readers will find it interesting. 

Two Years of Narendra Modi:
The Promise, Performance and Prospects

- Norbert Shenoy

What has changed in the two years since Mr. Narendra Damordas Modi came to power? Well, quite a lot really. And yet there is a cacophony of a chorus deriding BJP rule. There are, of course those who are genuinely disappointed, given the initial tidal wave of expectation of the arrival of a messiah with a magic wand.  But a lot more deride his rule, because their entrenched bastions of vested interests are threatened or over run. The so called ‘netas’,  essentially rent seekers in many crucial sectors of the economy, such as telecom, coal or hydrocarbons are not only ruing the loss of their fiefdoms but are hounded for the humungous loss caused to the exchequer. They are the ones who are busy pulling strings and planting rumours to denounce a regime that has pulled off transparent, scam free auctions in sector after sector, garnering lacs of crores of rupees for the nation. This is no mean achievement. 

The NDA lead by Mr. Modi has presided over an improving economy. Inflation is down, interest rates are dropping, the rupee is stable and fiscal and current account deficits have shrunk. Again, there will be many who will say that NDA just got lucky, with oil prices crashing. But then fortune favours the brave and NDA can certainly take credit for using the crash in oil price to scrap the massive, poorly directed subsidy on diesel. IMF and IBRD (World Bank) expect India’s GDP to grow by over 7.5 per cent, which means ours is the world’s fastest growing large economy. With the ease of doing business improving, at least at the central level, foreign direct investments have surged 37 per cent, from the launch of “make in India” campaign in October 2014 to February 2016. Manufacturing activity seems to be picking up, albeit gradually and startups have become new engines of employment generation. The prime minister in true Gujarathi style has never failed to market India abroad, where he cuts an impressive figure. He has been quite effective in negotiating many an important pact to secure India’s long term interests, be it the one on Chabahar port with Iran, the defense logistics pact with the US, or procuring nuclear technology and pressing for admission into the Nuclear Supplier Group and UN Security Council.

On the reform front too he has covered considerable ground despite the mulish opposition he encounters in the Rajya Sabha. He has made efforts to reach out to the opposition and also to the regional leaders and this has yielded some positive results, though gradually. Today, we have almost all the states on board (except TamilNadu) on the crucial GST legislation. A number of important bills covering Insurance, Bankruptcy Code, Real Estate etc., have been passed. And where opposition to bills like the land acquisition bill, robbed him of a ‘modus operandi’ to pilot the bill, he was creative enough to resort to a ‘modus vivendi’ of giving states a free hand to deal with the issue. This was a shrewd move, but also reflective of a Prime Minister who appreciates the federal structure of the country.

It is true that the colonial and socialist past has bequeathed India a bureaucracy whose direction is hard to change. But Mr. Modi has done a commendable job in galvanizing this bureaucracy at least at the centre, with procedural simplifications and policy initiatives coming thick and fast resulting in quicker approvals for major projects. He has correctly understood that delayed decisions is where corruption finds cozy shelter and has made a fine art of management by exception, by seeking explanation not on decisions taken, but where decisions are not taken. While he has been slowed down by an obdurate opposition in parliament, he with his team of ministers has brought about extensive reforms through executive action. Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), where ten states have already come on board, has infused new life in moribund and debt ridden discoms. The Chaiwala from Gujarath has turned out to be a past master in harnessing technology for economic liberation of the poor. He has articulated his vision of digital India which in turn has spawned a sub-vision of 100 Smart Cities.  Thanks to effective and decisive adoption of unique identification technology, poorer Indians increasingly get cash welfare instead of cheap rations through a leaky public distribution system. Since April 2015, world’s biggest cash transfer scheme has replaced artificially cheap cylinders of cooking gas. And by encouraging people to open over 15 crore new bank accounts linked to biometric data base of over 85 crore people, government is creating a transparent structure for better poverty relief. When it comes to fertilizers, a crucial agri input, government through Adhar based identification, has sought to direct subsidy to the farmer to the tune of around $ 11.5 billion, instead of subsidizing the product, namely, urea. This has resulted in better balance in the use of three fertilizers, nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic. Coming to infrastructure, policy initiatives have removed many constraints that were holding back many infrastructure projects. Construction of national highways has trebled to 10000 kms in 2015-16, from 3500kms in 2013-14. The road network is being stretched to the villages, because poor rural roads destroy more than one third of the agri produce while being transported to the consumption centers.

Well, one could go on with the list of achievements of the NDA led by Mr. Modi. Certainly, it will take time to feel the full impact of the steps taken, at ground level. This nation is fortunate to have one of the finest Prime Ministers independent India has seen. Here is a workaholic driven by the conviction that India is destined for greatness. As he succinctly puts it, India has the three ‘D’s; Democracy, Demography and Demand that will underwrite its progress. A self taught economist indeed. He knows how to fight a good fight. At the hustings he is never tired of feisty debates, but back in the parliament he is the prime minister of the whole nation, who spontaneously reaches out to offer a glass of water to Mr. Bhagwant Mann, AAP MP, who while decrying Mr. Modi for the CBI raids  at Delhi Government Secretariat, suddenly felt uneasy. This then is our Prime Minister. Can we not look at the future with hope and confidence with this man at the helm?

 (Author is a financial consultant & economic thinker)

MODI AND FUTURE INDIA

Dr. Satish Rao

May 2014! History was created in India by the unprecedented victory of NDA under the leadership of Shri. Narendra Damodardas Modi - with the slogan “ Abki Baar Modi Sarkar’ and Modi became the Prime Minister.  The rest is history, and is continuing.

Last month Modi government at the centre completed 2 years.  The majority of Indians will agree that there is a visible new governance paradigm in the country after the Modi govt. came to power.  We always dreamt of a Swatch Bharath. But it was left to Shri Modi to envision and implement. How successful we shall be is a moot point. But he successfully brought it to the public domain as an ongoing project to etch it in national consciousness as Swatch Bharath is our duty.  The govt. has been working towards efficient delivery of services and empowering the poor through various welfare schemes.  Of Course many previous governments also tried to execute various schemes for the public but many failed to reach the target.  As our ex-PM late Rajiv Gandhi once famously said, “Out of every rupee spent on welfare schemes and public works, only 15 paise reach the beneficiary’.  Now with the present government claimed to have not a single case of corruption against its ministers so far, is definitely delivering much more than 15 paise.

With the weeding out of bogus ration cards, a sum of Rs. 36,000 crores has been reportedly saved.  Modi’s call to the nation “GIVE IT UP” resulted in over 1 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies and this   amount was used to provide over 3.7 crore new LPG connections to those without gas connections during 2015-16 alone.

By encouraging actively to use LED bulbs in 500 cities, the nation saved 20,000 MW electricity.  Transparent auctioning of the coal blocks yielded more than 1 lakh crore. The import of coal has also been stopped.  The same happened with 3G and 4G auction also with huge inflow to the wealth of the nation.

The NDA govt. of Modi has so far implemented over 50 welfare schemes. About 5300 villages were given power connection in the last two years.  Improving road connectivity and upgrading our highways was given top priority by this govt. which is very essential as the new generation slogan appears to be “IF THERE IS A WAY, THERE IS A WILL’’.  The Railway networking is also improving well under the able minister Shri.  Suresh Prabhu.

Reportedly our own district of Dakshina Kannada has received around Rs. 10,000 crores for different development works including improvement of highways and roads.

One striking feature of this govt. is that the entire mechanism is with the people of the country through various social media.  The tech savvy Modi and his ministers have been prompt and proactive in using the power of social media in good governance.  As told recently by the Union Commerce & Industry minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, “The govt. is accessible to the people at any point of time.”.

ISSUES & CONCERNS (Jan 2016), in its Open letter to Mr. Modi had written “May be in the history of India (?World) no other person has ever been written in such endearing terms and pathological hatred at the same time.  If those who do not like you are innumerable, even those who admire you are a legion.’’ This is so very true. The scenario of late is slowly and steadily changing in favour of Modi and even his own enemies are becoming his admirers in India & abroad. It was the very same United State of America, who earlier denied VISA to Modi, but gave him repeated standing ovation when he addressed the joint session of U.S congress in early this June.

There are comments about his foreign  jaunts but that is also essential to build up the resources in India and the image outside.  And he manages them both so prudently.

Some BJP functionaries are talking about a “Congress- free India”, though they claim that ideologically it means “building a strong India”. However one should not think of decimating that grand old party totally – though it appears to be literally heading for that.  For an effective democracy, we need an effective opposition party as a watchdog.  Let Modi’s good rule continue for decades, but a good opposition party is needed. The tragedy with Congress is that inspite of the clear writing on the wall, they don’t want to accept it.  Let this dynasty rule end and the left over true congressmen can rebuild the party before it dies a natural death.

There is no doubt India is emerging as the new power & force in the world under Modi now.  India richly deserves it – as the Vishawaguru.  Let us all progress as Vishwamanavas for the prosperity of the whole mankind:  Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.

(Author is Prof. & Head of Department of Psychiatry, KSHEMA, Mangalore)

Celebration @ two years.....

Dr. G.R. Krishna

The NDA govt alias BJP govt at Delhi is celebrating its 2 years of existence. It is time to take stock of things,It's plusses and minuses. Of course 2 years is too short a time to asses/estimate the performance and results of any govt particularly in a complex country like India with its contradictions.

Perhaps it was a turning moment in Indian politics, that a regional leader like Narendra Modi could emerge as a national leader to gain a thumping majority to BJP in the Lok-sabha on the brand name called "Modi".

Now, on the international front and diplomacy, PM Modi's worldwide travels have enhanced the image and prestige of the country India/Bharath. Our friendship with USA is deepened with Obama-Modi frequent hand shakes.India acquired new friends like Switzerland, Mexico and some of the gulf countries. Each one of these may be of great strength to India in future. 

Of course Modi's ‘Bhai-Bhai diplomacy’ with Pakistan did not work,the later being a known backbiter and stabber to India. The China, the dragon is intolerant of growing popularity and strength of India. Of course, Modi's approach is the only alternative to contain and continue with the disgruntled neighbours!

The campaign "Make in India" has acquired a national appeal to attract and make India the investors friendly country. It has also given a sensitivity to the quality and prestige of Indian products. Same way "Swatch Bharath" campaign has assumed the proportion of national movement for cleanliness and environment consciousness. These two movements have given goals to cherish and dignity to live with for Indian masses.

Coming to controlling and redeeming black money,the governmental efforts are not fully successful nor appreciable, may be the newly acquired friendship with Switzerland through an MOU may help India in unearthing atleast some part of black money which is hoarded in Swiss banks and N.B.Cs.

Coming to the malady of corruption, the disease is so ingrained in Indian politicians and the Indian bureaucracy, P.M Modi, along with some honest colleagues in the cabinet and Parliament, is trying his best to clean the stables. However the problem defies immediate results and it is a long way to go!

On the development front and economy, the govt is quoting/boasting the so called impressive growth of 7 points plus; but alas! All is not well. The growth rate index is only one facet of the economy. The uncontrolled prices in the wholesale as well as retail markets and galloping inflation have worsened the citizens lives and drastically nullified the effects of the so called growth rate. "The Reduced interest rate mechanism" to enhance the investments and to increase productivity is not fully working. As a result the real benefits of the growth and welfare are not reaching the masses. 

There is also a perception, which appears to be true to a large extent, that the disparities between rich and poor, the privileged and the masses are widening, ney alarmingly widening ;unless the govt takes care of it on war-footing, this govt with all its positives have to count it's days in it's existence, if not for the come back.

The PM Modi's singular focus on development has given a new fillip and new thrust for the whole nation to strive at. However, some extreme right elements in the govt and the fellow organisations of BJP are doing enough damage to weaken the PM by their irresponsible, loose and irrational comments. These comments have given the handle to the emaciated opposition to accuse the present govt at Delhi of causing the 'communal divide' in India. PM Modi has to doubly take care of this menace of extreme rightism and extreme leftism.

Inspite of its stability and clear direction at the centre,India presents a bewildering scenario of complex realities and contradictions: inspite of sharada and other scams, Mamatha is back to power in Bengal with increased majority.

Jaya Lalitha's coming back to power in Tamilnadu continuously (second time) reversing the trend is a proof of success for the welfare approach in the ruling. Nitish Kumar coming to power in Bihar,with an unholy ally like Laloo Prasad is a tragedy in Indian politics. Orissa is one state where stability and progress continue to march forward under the great leader like Naveen Patnaik. Of course U.P is a political enigma where Mulayam, Mayavathi and BJP with the emaciated Congress play the chess and dice, unpredictable for the results!

On the other BJP's impressive victory to power in Assam is a great welcome in view of the extreme importance of the state for its political sensitivity. Also BJP's improved performance in Tamilnadu and Kerala help it to make the party truly a nationwide-party. AAP govt in Delhi is an oasis. Time only has to tell whether oasis dries up or spreads its water current far and wide.

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are going through the pangs of separation. The central govt has to evolve a strategy in tackling and caring the newly born states.

In short 2 years is too short a time for judging a govt,in a country of India's proportions,dimensions, realities and contradictions. However, credits shall be given to PM Modi for unifying the whole country with national stability. He has given a singular focus and direction of development to the country. Perhaps, after Pandit Nehru,Indira Gandhi and Vajpayi, Modi is the only leader in this country as a brand name for the national development and unity. In the contemporary world scenario India and PM Modi has to play role of commanding statesman not only in politics but in the development of the whole world. 

(Author is a well known commentator on socio-political affairs)

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