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Modi Gets It Right: COME MAKE IN INDIA, By Poonam I Kaushish, 16 August, 2014 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 16 August 2014

Modi Gets It Right

COME MAKE IN INDIA

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

Was India’s 68th Independence Day celebration different from its earlier avatars? Absolutely. Unlike earlier occasions, festivity was encompassing, tri-coloured balloons, loud-speakers pelting patriotic music replete with syrupy speeches resounding to the chorus of Mera Bharat Mahan and Vande Mataram!  

 

Topped by a vintage Prime Minister nee Pradhan Sevak Modi at his electrifying best, a stark departure from the sedate Sarkari traditional speech. From his white-kurta-saffron-green turban, for the first time in over 30 years, India stood testimony to its primus inter pares speaking extempore sans the bullet-proof glass enclosure.  People waiting for the new template of Modi's style of governance to emerge were not disappointed.

 

He used the Modisque 'direct marketing' format to connect with people and politicians, soldiers and sages, bureaucracy to bachchas, entrepreneur and employee, manufacturer to mechanic, youth and yokel, woman to worker et al. Besides, succinctly encapsulated what ails the country in classic Indian attitude: What’s in it for me, “Mera Kya, “Mujhe Kya?”

 

Some of the themes were familiar…Castigating snooty Lutyens Delhi, ‘outsider’ Modi made plain he would demolish “dozens of Governments” within the Sarkar even as he announced several plans, from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana to help poor open bank accounts, debit card and insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh.

 

Along-with evoking economic nationalism to work towards “Make In India,” Zero Defect in goods, Zero Effect on environment, women’s safety and toilets  construction and using technology to get people closer. Extolling MPs to develop a model village in their constituencies by 2016 and proclaiming the end of the Planning Commission with a creative nouvelle National Development Reforms Commission.

 

In one fell stroke Modi rubbished followers and detractors alike that he had turned mauni baba like his predecessor leaving everyone clueless about his ideas of reform and vision for a new India. From financial inclusion schemes to stressing on need to enhance manufacturing, promoting Brand India and ensuring a better developed rural India, channelizing the youth’s talent etc.  

Predictably, the Opposition came down like a ton of bricks for Modi’s pedestrian speak, “what kind of PM stands at Red Fort and talks about toilet building and cleanliness? Or simply getting to work on time?” But chaiwala candid and confident workaholic Modi cared tuppence for the supercilious.

Refreshingly missing were the usual meaningless invocations of revered nationalists, While previous Independence Day speeches have made a mention of rising crime against women, no PM has had the gumption to ask parents why they don't take their sons to task.

Undeniably, in our caste-creed-centric moribund politics Modi’s claim of putting a 10-year moratorium on caste and communal violence is a tall order as also making Bharat Swacch by 2019 sans water and toilets notwithstanding his appeal to construct one for girls in every school. Shamefully, 1 in 3 of the world's malnourished children live in India with 1,500 dying every day and risking the future of another 6 million.

True, three months is to short a time to either sing paeans of Modi or write his obituary. And certainly Modi is no magician who can cure India of its 60 years ills expediently, despite his brand of politics. Today, all eyes are on whether his Sarkar can bring down food prices by October, truly eradicate corruption, how he fine tunes various welfare schemes and usher swift mechanisms to deliver justice?.

 

People want more efficiency, faster development. Indeed, tall expectations for any Government to deliver even as industrialists are being pumped to invest in new horizons of growth. Serious attention is being given to remove bottlenecks. The Indian Railways has been asked to resume building of 230 over-bridges to help expedite goods transport.

 

The mint Government is busy undertaking military and its modernisation. Projects related to security are getting top billing. One rank, one pension has been cleared and being implemented. Business which needs less than a hectare of land is exempted from environment clearances. The much-maligned CBI is being given a free run to catch the corrupt venal politicians, babus, industrialists etc. Spare none is Modi’s mantra, “Main paisa na leta huin na lain ne doonga!”

 

Administratively too, perhaps he is trying to superimpose his Gujarat governance model on New Delhi’s well-lubricated system. Whereby, he is the BOSS and lets nobody forget this. Be it his Ministerial colleagues, MPs Partymen and surprisingly even the RSS. From appointing PS to his Ministers, telling officials to contact him directly in case of encumbrances, keeping media at arms length, monitoring and dissecting minutely every minute of governance.

 

His leaders are taking orders from him and executing those orders. All Ministers have to attend the open darbar at BJP headquarters and listen to Party workers and solve their problems.

 

Stories abound of how he caught an Union Minister’s son red-handed taking bribe whereby the father and son got a dressing down. Of stopping a Minister dead in his tracks as he was on the threshold of entering a party thrown at a five-star hotel by an industrialist, calling a habitual late-coming Cabinet Minister to get her to attend office on time etc. His message rings loud and clear: It’s my way or the highway. 

 

In fact many compare Modi’s work style to Indira Gandhi. Asserted a Modi bhakt, “He has the same style of management of power, the same panache to reduce the political leadership into, if not spectators, bureaucrats.” No matter Saffron Sangh leaders are busy projecting that governance will speed up soon.

 

What they don't say is more important. The Parivar is busy trying to detect, if any, ‘landmines’ have been left behind by the Congress regime. The new Government looks with suspicion at the bureaucracy, the vested interests and power lobbies. The fears and insecurity, while handling power, are certainly factors in holding back the Government from taking important decisions.

 

That its not going to be guns and roses was apparent when it failed to get the Insurance Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha and had to refer it to a Parliamentary Select Committee. On the National Judicial Commission Bill too it faced obstacles underscoring that even with its 281 MPs; the BJP can’t take everything for granted in a Parliamentary democracy.

 

Presently the Government lacks transparency which could snowball into grave concerns over time. Post passage of the National Judicial Appointment Bill the balance between the Executive and the Judiciary is likely to be shaken sooner rather than later.

 

At another level, Modi detractors feel the NDA Government is overwhelmed by the power it has won. Perhaps, if one were to total all the Union Cabinet’s  decisions, political, diplomatic and administrative actions taken by the fledgling  Sarkar since coming to power, Ministerial speak and press releases it might become clear that Modi is certainly finding the challenge to run India much greater than what he perchance thought initially.

 

Arguably, the more noisy and potent democracy is, in some sense it is a greater sign of life of the democracy! All in all, the shrewd Modi has grasped that nations live or die by the way its leaders respond to the challenges they face. Only that leader survives who rises to meet the moment, has the wisdom to recognize the malaise and resolve it before it is too late. Jai Hind! ------ INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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