To
be honest I have/had decided not to comment or react on transitory matters of
life, especially on controversial topics like politics. But old habits are very
hard to curb or resist and as these are very interesting time in politics, so
this writing. However I will not deliberate on party lines.
To
avoid bias, lets us not label/accuse Modi Govt. with having, majoritian/ communal
attitude or working with specific agenda against constitution etc as propagated,
true or false, by opposition. Also let
us give some credit to it for some strong new Initiative and success like –Swach
Bharat, Ujjawala Scheme, Expansion of North East Rail Network, Building Border
Roads, and control over inflation and so on.
If
we analyze these successes, they are mostly depending on government and /or not
running against established vested interest of society.
So
failures are where it tried to rein in these vested interests. Like
demonetization, which was sabotaged in the beginning itself and by this time, any
of the stated goals of exercise has not been achieved, and has proved to be a
disaster. CASH is once again king.
GST is work in progress and many of the well intended measure to plug tax
evasion have been kept in abeyance, either due to technical glitches or under
pressure from vested interest.
In
short, it has failed to break nexus between –Politician- Bureaucrats and
Industrialist/ Traders.
Having
discussed performance, I observe that, Central idea of government (not
governance) policy initiative is United strong India, emphasis on efficiency
etc. Some time it failed to understand or control side effect of a policy
approach. While it emphasized winning election and succeeded, governance got a
bad deal. While absolute majority has
given push to efficiency it has reduced scope for compromises in federal
structure. Here, lies its failure to understand India’s plurality and federalism. For example, while RSS, BJP and for that
matter Hindu wants unity in Hindu, their policies and action are causing
trouble for Dalits. Dravidian is against northern approach to Hinduism. In
whole scheme of push for “Indian Culture”, women are supposed to play
supporting role only. Further Upper castes
Hindus wants unity among Hindus but are not able to digest facilities for
Dalits. Over all present structure does emphasis on meritocracy while last 70 year society or government trying
to move towards inclusive and representative governance structure at the cost
of efficiency?
Success
in 2014 for BJP was built around a rainbow of “promises/ acche Din” for every
section of society from Industrialist to Farmer. Four year down the line Govt.
may be trying to do good things but expect citizen to change their own
attitude. Instead of WELFARE State looking after citizen, it wants citizen to
change/ sacrifice for a strong nation. A classic case is AADHAR which started
as entitlement for citizen to become a surveillance tool for state. Problem is
for a ordinary Indian, family caste and society comes first and Nation is last.
Earlier
also, such attempts by Indira Gandhi has failed.
The
million dollar question is whether in 2019, beyond disciplined cadre of RSS,
common citizen would like to favor and vote for such idea or go back to “Jiyo
aur Jino Do” attitude of yester years.
