Sunil Karanth
“Blow to Modi!” – How often have we heard about this statement while watching Indian prime time news channels? In my case I can say it even comes in my dreams. This vicious propaganda by the media against Narendra Modi finally seems to have affected the Prime Minister’s hard core supporters. From eminent citizens to the man on the street, many are disappointed and angry. Here was a man who promised the “achhe din” but sadly according to the Aam Aadmi “bure din” still exists. People are experiencing the same quality of life which existed during the UPA days.
Recently my uncle told me and I quote ”Modi government has decided to tax recurring deposits, lower the interest rates. How can a retired person live?” Before I could respond my cousin intervened and told that his colleagues are now increasingly speaking against Modi government. In a year the hard core loyalists had turned into hard core critics. He also mentioned about the failure of Modi establishment to prevent ISIS flags from being waved in Kashmir. I retorted saying Modi government can not be held responsible for stray incidents of waving terror flag in a big country such as India and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not ruling J&K as a single largest party but in a coalition with the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).
The sad part is I could not defend the Modi government on economic revival or ending tax terrorism of middle class by bringing black money into the country or for that matter receiving Rs.15 lakhs ($24,000) in aam aadmi (common man)’s account. The worst part is that aam aadmi is of the view that Narendra Modi is not even an effective “Chowkidar”. The controversies surrounding Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje, Pankaja Munde, Vinod Tawde, Vyapam scam has dented the government’s clean image. Merit of allegations against these individuals may be questionable or the Vyapam scam started and grew under Congress rule, but the damage has been done.
According to Madhu Kishwar (an avid supporter of truth who had the guts to speak the truth and publish a book about 2002 Godhra riots defending Narendra Modi) one of the important factors for Narendra Modi’s success as chief minister of Gujarat was in choosing the right person for the right job. However as a prime minister Narendra Modi has not fared well on this factor. In fact he has not been able to live upto his image of a doer for which he was adored by the masses when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The important ministry of Finance and Information & Broadcasting has been given to Arun Jaitley who has proved till now that he is the wrong person for the job.
Finance Ministry has fared poorly till now in reviving the economy. Information & Broad casting Ministry has shown incompetency (deliberate) in cleaning the corrupt and biased media. The names of Sonia Gandhi and Arun Jaitley are so sacred for the media that it is afraid to tell these two names in the context of any wrong doing. All this made me think, if Narendra Modi has really failed or are we judging him a bit too early?
The Congress party has ruled India for 49 years, out of which the (United Progressive Alliance) UPA which was in power for 10 years was alleged to be the worst. Manmohan Singh, the technocrat known then as the finance minister who turned India towards the path of economic progress had done a complete U turn as a Prime Minister and will be known as a puppet who did nothing when the nation was being plundered under his watch. Is Narendra Modi walking down the same path as that of Manmohan Singh? “The 56 inch chest “ which was a prized possession of Narendra Modi and honestly considered necessary in Indian politics to do the right things, seems to have reduced to a mere “35 inch chest”.
However the comparision of Narendra Modi & Manmohan Singh is on unequal grounds. Comparing 1 year of Modi government with 10 years of Singh government will be a gross injustice to the former. Analysis and criticism of Modi government’s one year in power is fine but declaring that the government is doomed to fail shows the analyzers intellect in poor light. Narendra Modi led NDA has been elected for a period of 5 years. So he still has 4 more years left to fulfill the promises he made to the aam aadmi. The Narasimha Rao government’s achieved huge success in steering India’s economy in the right direction but lost the perception battle which resulted in losing the elections. Hopefully Narendra Modi government will be able to successfully improve Indian economy and change the perception battle (even among its hard core supporters which it is losing pathetically at the moment) and win the elections in 2019.
Note
1. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 USD= 63.65 rupees
This blog was written by Sunil Karanth in his personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of PerformanceGurus.net
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