Unpartisan Perception of Modi@9
Modi Govt had assumed the powers of governance at Centre 9 yrs back with a new mantra of minimum govt, maximum governance that was partly successful too. Actually the programs started by him needed a govt twice the size permitted. As a result, monitoring of some of his programs lacked the type of supervision that was required. In these 9 yrs, India and Indian govt did try to come out of the shadows of the main problems of the UPA days as followings: -
- The corruption of UPA I & II had corroded the nation.
- The nation was struggling for credibility as fragile 5 economies in the world.
- There was policy paralysis in the country
- The GDP was struggling at $ ~1.8 Trillion at no. 12 in the world.
- The UPA Govt was known to be running on the remote control for 10 yrs.
- The Armed Forces had fallen back by 15 yrs on lack of modernisation plans.
- The honour of the nation abroad was among the worst.
- A quiet change in Religious demography was happening with none allowed to question.
- A pseudo-secularism was being imposed on the nation
- Public & private properties were covertly being diverted to Waqf Board illegally.
- Black money was accepted as a parallel economy with Pak FICN at the core.
- A security compromise was conspired with Pak sponsored Terror Network within India.
- There was a large population of illegal migrants from Bangladesh & Rohingya.
- Indian sovereignty was undermined under Chinese hegemony.
- Indian defences along LAC were ignored for a long.
- Infra Development of the nation was at a snail pace.
- Power generation lagged severely with industrial/domestic requirements.
- The cultural identity of the Hindu majority was undermined as myth.
- The electoral politics had succumbed to appeasement of ‘Muslim Vote-bank’.
- Poverty, unemployment were at their peak, mostly dependent on Govt jobs.
- A large number of women were unable to join the national development plan.
- Financial aid/easy loans for self-employment for poor and youth were non-existent.
- Nation lacked quality academic/vocational institutions for better professionals.
- Manufacturing within country hardly met 15% of requirements, rest were imported.
- Jammu Kashmir had become a bleeding wound perpetrated by Pak Jihadists.
- Development of North-East States had been ignored for very long.
- Common men lacked basic facilities of road, electricity and drinking water.
- Poor health infra and facilities were huge problems for the poor. They desperately needed Ayushman Bharat.
- The nation needed FDI for which a better ease of doing business had to be created.
- There was hardly any vision to make India a tourist destination, a self-reliant nation.
- Farmers had severe problems of getting easier loans, fertilisers, irrigation and marketing.
- There was a lack of Food Processing Plants esp for perishable items.
- Workers in the unorganised sector needed a social security pension scheme.
- Poor, destitute women seldom had any credible welfare schemes.
- A lot many corrupt practices had cropped in the MNREGA scheme. It used to be highly unproductive.
A large proportion of our citizens were unfamiliar with even basic needs and had to be included to the national financial system. The govt systems were unsupportive for development of the youth in education, sports, skill development and creation of employment whether govt, private or by oneself. The govt system lacked transparency and only 15% of funds reached the target projects, 85% were lost in middlemen and corruption. Manufacturing lacked high-end technologies. Most of the high-tech systems had to be imported. National leadership needed a vision for a quantum jump in both ambition and effort to achieve those objectives.
The policy planners were taken by surprise when PM Modi made a start for new India with making of toilets for poor, connecting the poor with the national banking system through an aspirational program of Jan-Dhan zero balance bank accounts and took a challenging task of connecting the left-over 18000 villages with electrical grid and connecting the poor homes with free connections too. For the time in 70 yrs after independence, some part of the population reaped the fruits of development for the first time. He also made his govt fully transparent with no room for corruption that holds good even today after 9 yrs. This was unimaginable for anyone as the earlier govts were known to be marred deep in corruptions.
People saw Modi govt to be honestly trying to work for their cause and thus connected themselves with mass movement with most of the govt programs...be it Jan-dhan account, Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan, voluntarily giving up one of their multiple LPG connections to distribute to poor women under Ujjwala Scheme… and so on.
The main successes of Modi’s schemes that had wide acceptability among citizens include the followings (also read “Successes and Failures of Modi Govt”, https://thecounterviews.com/articles/74th-republic-day-successes-and-failures-of-modi-govt/). The best part of Modi govt in his 9 yrs has been a pro-poor, pro-farmer, pro-Armed Forces, pro-Development and pro-Modernisation agendas essentially in the infrastructure with a firm backing of self-reliance (AtmaNirbhar Bharat).
The author will be failing in his duty not to mention some of Modi’s failures too, both in completing the projects as well as his general approach in political dealings and administration. There is no doubt that he is the most popular leader in the world today. However, it is also a fact that he (or his ministers to be more precise), has become more of enemies rather than an adversary for the opposition parties. One may listen to Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Tejaswi & Akhilesh Yadav, spokespersons of CPI, AAP and some others as well, it is filled with hate speech. Clearly, Modi has not been able to take them together in his journey to new India. There are reasons too in this as most of the opposition parties are tainted with corruption, scams, frauds and hence, incompatible for Modi’s respect. This is the reason that these opposition leaders are joining hands in showing down all achievements of Modi Govt. In a democratic set-up, citizens having party affiliations with those scamsters do join in their chorus wrongly though, giving a false appreciation. Modi must do some course corrections in this regard so as to pass the acid-test in 2024.
Today all pseudo-secularists in the nation take pride in tainting his/his govt as Right-wing Hindu party but most of his achievements are common for all. Today most Hindus look at Modi Govt in reversing the alteration in the religious demography of India but his ministers are unable to introduce the population control bill. India is the sole major economy without an NRC listing, with about 50-60 million illegal Bangladeshi/Rohingya population living without any record. They are threats to both our economy and security. Waqf Board of India has looted maximum public and private properties but Modi govt has been unable to bring any legislation whatsoever to liberate it (read "Waqf Acts of 'Loot-India', https://thecounterviews.com/articles/waqf-acts-of-loot-india/). Similarly, there are many overdue actions of decades where parliament is required to enact laws but hardly any action of Modi govt is visible (read "Urgent Issues Being Ignored in Our Parliament:, https://thecounterviews.com/articles/urgent-issues-being-ignored-parliament/).
Criticism apart, Modi govt has performed exceptionally well on all fronts. He is regarded as an avatar of God for the poor sections of India. It may not be an overstatement to claim that Modi in his 9 yrs has done more than other govts could do collectively in their 70 yrs. It is also a truth that some of the ministers in Modi2.0 are very average, experts in how not to do a job.