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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