Kushan Mitra
It has been three years since the most dramatic of general elections in recent memory, and definitely the most significant election for a majority of young Indians. Narendra Modi’s stunning victory was made possible thanks to a combination of promise and superb political organisation by Amit Shah. However, there is no doubt that the ineptitude and the massive corruption that preceded the BJP victory played a major role, and the BJP’s bullishness in Parliament through 2012 and 2013 has unfortunately played a part in the stalling tactics favoured by the Opposition in Parliament today, despite its reduced numbers.
There is no doubt that the BJP-led Government of Prime Minister Modi has made missteps. From delays in the passage of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other legislative issues, the needless controversy about the imposition of Aadhaar, a failure to combat Pakistani-backed terrorists in Kashmir valley, a failure to prosecute the rampant corruption and crony capitalism under the UPA, delays in disinvestment and the lack of a strong decision on Air India, count among them. Yet, while many from dubious online media sites love nothing more than to highlight the failures of Narendra Modi and love blaming the Prime Minister for every ill under the sun, they revel in every misstep by taking a perverse pride in wrong decisions.
And while hundreds of self-appointed ‘political analysts’ will continue to call some missteps a “blow to Modi”, the outright salaciousness of some of them with a desire to move back to the corrupt politics of patronage is unmistakeable. Recent tweets by ‘journalists’ on the lynchings in Jharkhand, desperate to communalise the issue, is just a sign of that. While Twitter’s recent moves to ‘control’ content have been puzzling, the social media site still allows pro-Islamic State accounts to flourish. Police forces across India should take note of these tweets and status updates and move to prosecute these individuals.
Yes, there have been mistakes, nothing as egregious as the imposition of Aadhaar across the board. While a national identity card is in practice a great thing, and I do not agree with with many of those who oppose it, one must come on the same side as those who have questioned the digital security practices and privacy concerns. These are valid issues, and the way to tackle them is not file cases on these individuals. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) should borrow a page from the Election Commission’s playbook and hold an open hackathon which will help secure the system.
There are other mistakes, big ones like the failure to combat violence by vigilantes, whether they are gau rakshaks or garden-variety neighbourhood ones who target young couples. The failure to move towards large-scale policing and judicial reform is largely responsible for this. There is corruption in law enforcement and law upholding. If people do not have faith in the police and the justice system, how can that form the basis for a modern, developed society? This has been a fault of successive Governments and one can only hope that Narendra Modi and his Cabinet make this one of their key policy changes in the coming hundred weeks.
There are also massive challenges on the economic front. While the passage of the GST Bill has been a great achievement of Narendra Modi and his Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley, there is no guarantee that the implementation of the GST will be smooth. Indeed, one could argue that some Opposition-ruled States will work overtime to put roadblocks towards the implementation. Furthermore, the Government’s ambitious social programmes which have reaped heavy electoral dividends for the BJP in States like Uttar Pradesh, will have to be funded, and for that the disinvestment process cannot run in the slow lane. Even though the partial divestment of HUDCO and forthcoming additional offers for certain state-owned giants are going to continue, the process should really be sped up.
And then there is the issue of Air India, saddled with massive amounts of debt. Thanks to poor decisions over the past three decades, the airline seems like an albatross around every Government’s neck. It makes one wonder why Indira Gandhi ever nationalised the airline. With a debt mountain in the range of $8 billion, it is unlikely that any private buyer would want to touch such an asset with a bargepole. Yet, private consultants continue to feast themselves like vultures while the airline limps on. There are solutions to this imbroglio, none of them necessarily pleasant, but coupled with a burgeoning private airline sector and his immense political capital, Modi has leeway to deal with the issue.
And that brings us to our final point. There continues to be massive political and economic challenges for Narendra Modi, but more than Manmohan Singh and the UPA in 2009, Modi and the BJP have the political capital to push through reform and change. And the Prime Minister’s greatest asset in addition to his political capital is the lack of any nationwide credibility of any Opposition leader. The fact remains that no matter what Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi tries to do, his own missteps before 2014 and a brilliant campaign by the BJP following that, have unfortunately buttonholed him into the role of a ‘clown prince’.
