It would be rather fruitful if the Modi Government keeps a check on its overconfidence from subsequent wins and communicate more with its people using media
A slew of commentaries and television pieces appeared in the national and international media, recently, to mark the third anniversary of Narendra Modi taking the helm of India. Most of them commended him for steering the Indian ship through a particularly rough time, globally. Crisis upon crisis in the Arab world and democratic mayhem in the West coupled with an adversarial China and an unclear economic outlook, complicate matters. Despite persistent law and order issues, India has pretty much kept on sailing in the turbulent waters. But some of the articles and commentaries make the same point: ‘Could India have done much moreIJ’ Te answer is universally — ‘Yes’.
While some of these commentaries might have weak spots and a lack of understanding of how the Indian political system or bureaucracy works, they do make a point that even this columnist made a month ago. Narendra Modi is, possibly, the first Prime Minister India has had in decades — in some respects the first since Rajiv Gandhi — who has the political mandate and political capital by virtue of both his popularity and enduring image as a corruption-free reformer as Chief Minister of Gujarat to actually deal with and implement deep-rooted structural reforms in the Indian economy. Yet, three years into his helmsmanship, Modi has just about started to address the Rs50,000 crore Air India question. There have been no attempts at labour or industrial reforms, let alone any improvement in policing and judicial reforms. What is worse for Modi is that his extremely loud opponents in the media and politics miss no opportunity to point out his missteps. Even if sometimes these opponents are deeply discredited individuals themselves, their ability to make noise must be noted.
Part of Modi’s problem is that he has been a very infrequent communicator to the media, and other than the occasional scripted interview and opportunities in the foreign media, his outreach to the media has been extremely limited, to the extent of even avoiding speaking on platforms at media events. This, coupled with the fact that there is no politically appointed Press and media officer in Modi’s team, has made much Government reportage of events in Prime Minister’s Office extremely speculative. While the Government often communicates through huge political rallies that are televised, Narendra Modi would be served well by a capable Press officer and opening up to the media. For one, it would let Modi communicate some of the clear successes that his Government has achieved, such as in power, India’s renewables sector, Digital India. Social reform, particularly with regards to the distribution of gas connections to the poor has been a story that paid immense political benefits, as well the dramatic increase in India’s banking sector, but these have been poorly communicated. This is odd, given that Modi missed no opportunity to talk up his successes in Gujarat.
Better communication skills could have alleviated some of the confusing and contradictory statements that appeared during demonetisation. While the move to Goods and Services Tax regime is a dramatic simplification of India’s indirect tax code, communication to companies and individuals who will be impacted by the new tax code has been borderline abysmal and many expect chaos in the coming months.
Thankfully, the Government has been proactive in Parliament of late, as the Opposition has rolled over, particularly, after their humiliation in Uttar Pradesh. But there needs to be a move beyond sheer optics. There is no doubt that this Government is very good when it comes to optics and on what the public wants to see and hear. The fact that the Government has not been blamed completely for the spurt of public violent incidents, is remarkable.
That brings us to the other overwhelming problem for Modi; how to deal with the people who believe that 2014 was a ‘cultural’ victory of ‘us’ versus ‘them’; and not the mandate to rid the country of crony-capitalism and drive forward through economic and social reforms. Visit any foreign country and foreign investors are bewildered about the ‘beef’ debate, particularly that people have been murdered or beaten on the issue. And for a Government so clear on optics, the sudden move to drastically organise the bovine trading sector, and its instant deliberate misinterpretation by certain members of the media, was bad optics. This strengthens those who believe that this Government is not doing much work to raise living standards and is not doing much either towards reforms — making foreign investors particularly incredulous.
There is an urgent need for strong comments from the leadership in this country towards these domestic issues. Some may argue that such incidents have been taking place in India for years. That is no excuse. We do live in an era of instant media gratification — and once a video is shot on a mobile phone, thanks to the dramatic improvement of 4G cellular networks over the past few years, it can be viral within minutes. The media coverage is also instant, as are the standard commentary pieces attacking Modi. While it is disingenuous to blame Modi for all the failings of law and order, it must be said that he must come out strongly against mob attacks and that the Government should enable their law officers to go after these criminal elements.
Simply put, the lack of policing and judicial reforms are holding Indian society back and the lack of labour and industrial reforms are holding the Indian economy back. Now, there are still two years left, Modi and the BJP should not treat 2019 as a shoo-in. Overconfidence in what voters will do laid low Hillary Clinton and has been equally devastating towards Theresa May.
Voters are an impatient lot nowadays. While the Modi Government has been blessed with some capable Ministers and bureaucrats, this Government should seize the opportunity it has been given and drive some dramatic reforms in the coming months. There are still several major systemic issues in India — not least of which is one of Modi’s favourite talking points — India is a country of a lot of young people. That is true, but these young people, a disconcerting majority of them male, are impatient, under qualified and angry.
The demographic ‘dividend’ that many keep talking about can rapidly become a demographic timebomb, and when it comes to the sex-ratio it already is. The only way to address it is for rapid and irreversible reforms — and reforms that are strongly communicated to the outside world.
(The writer is Managing Editor, The Pioneer)