Modi regime has done well, but more is needed
A more accurate analysis of the performance of the Narendra Modi Government's first year in office will be possible if the evaluation is done from the prism of where it has reached from what it had inherited, along with a balance sheet of expectations and delivery. While the two are inter-connected, given that high expectations arose out of the mess the Congress-led UPA had left behind, it is also true that these hopes rode on Mr Modi's track record of good governance as the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the emphatic promise of change he made repeatedly throughout the 2014 election campaign. When the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government came into office exactly 12 months ago, the economy was not the only crisis. A series of high-profile scams had dented the country's image. Worse, the Prime Minister's office had landed in discredit, with enough to indicate that the then Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, was not in control. The result was a debilitating policy paralysis.
The year gone by has seen the emphatic re-assertion of the office of the Prime Minister and Mr Modi's hold over Government and governance. No one can say that the Prime Minister plays second fiddle to a power-centre outside the Government. There may be some snide remarks from the Opposition that the BJP-led regime is taking directions from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, but there has been nothing to suggest that the RSS has determined the course of daily governance or that Union Ministers have been demonstrating loyalty more to an extra-constitutional authority than to the Prime Minister. The primacy of the Prime Minister is essential because, from thereon, flows good governance. A weak Prime Minister is the fountainhead of every governance failure — including corruption and other serious forms of irregularity. With an assertive Prime Minister at the helm, decision-making has made a comeback.
Since the broad economic indications over the past year — inflation, foreign direct investment flow, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, ease of doing business etc — tell the story of a turnaround in the making, the Opposition has latched on to perceptions instead of facts to claim failure on the Government's part. The suit-boot ki sarkar jibe falls flat when viewed from the slew of social security initiatives, such as the insurance and pension schemes for the last man in the line, the Modi Government recently launched. The other in the list announced earlier is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. If these have the potential to mark an unprecedented social change, others such as Make in India, Skill India and Digital India can trigger large-scale employment in the months and years ahead.
But there have also been hiccups which the Modi Government will need to address if they are not to derail its ambitious plans. The land acquisition Bill remains the biggest problem.The Opposition has to an extent created an impression (even if flawed) that the Government is out to snatch land from farmers on the pretext of development. Mr Modi and his team should more effectively counter this propaganda before it begins to stick as a metaphor for the anti-poor/pro-rich image the Opposition is out to construct of the Government.