One year back Narendra Modi came to power in India with the overwhelming support of the media and the corporate sector. These two elements continue to extend its support to the government though the former has become skeptical to a certain extent about the PM and his government. With the media and the corporate world showering praises on the government there is little virtue in following the same line in this article. Here we try to emphasize more on the shortcomings of the government which is what would be more beneficial for a better performance of the government in the future.
By and large the greatest failure of the government was on the communal front. Fringe elements in the Sangh Parivar took the government for a ride with the expectation that all their misdeeds will be condoned. To a large extent all the wrong doings of the extremist elements in the Sangh Parivar were over-looked and the Prime Minister failed to put a break on them. Activities like Ghar Wapsi and burning of churches became a matter of common occurrence while the PM maintained his silence on the issue.
What is now being trumpeted about as the most important achievement of the government is the success of Narendra Modi on the foreign policy front. In this context it should be understood that what major economic powers expect from India is cooperation on the economic front, i.e. in the fields of trade and investment. This, the present government is only too eager to grant in abundant measure. The foreign powers are least bothered about India’s policies on inflation, poverty eradication, agriculture development or employment which are the matters of concern to the common man in India. The foreign governments are getting from India what they want most and they extend a hand of friendship.
Inflation has been brought under control in India. But this success is more due to a decline in international crude prices than any initiative that was forthcoming from the side of the government. If the international crude prices go up or there is turmoil on the agriculture front arising out of a poor monsoon there is the danger that the inflation rate may again go up in the country.
In the matter of poverty eradication the UPA government had achieved great success during its ten years in office. One of the factors that facilitated this was the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme operated by the UPA government. Since taking over power at the centre it has been the endeavour of the NDA government to dilute the operation of the Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Rahul Gandhi’s return into prominence during recent days was primarily on top of his agitation against the Land Acquisition Bill which was modified by the new government. This bill has been projected as being anti-farmer and the opposition parties have been successful in gaining a lot of mileage providing support to the agitation against the land bill.
The government has so far been very unsuccessful in getting legislation passed in the Rajya Sabha where it doesn’t have a majority. Its handling of opposition parties and efforts to win their support in passing crucial legislation in the upper house has been a dismal failure. Even though the government swears by the slogan of cooperative federalism very little action in this direction has been visible. The government has antagonized the TMC in West Bengal and has failed to garner the support BJD in Orissa or AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.
One of the promises of the BJP before coming to power was with regard to creating more employment opportunities in the country. The party’s strategy of creating more employment opportunities was by promoting faster economic growth. In the matter of improving growth performance of the economy the record of the government has been a failure so far. Moreover the party seems to be creating havoc with the employment guarantee scheme which is the other factor that would have improved the country’s record on the jobs front.
The shortcomings of the government extend to the education sector. The HRD Ministry has taken steps which put a question mark on the autonomy of the country’s premier technological institutes like the IITs. Research bodies and centers of higher learning are sought to be filled up by people having RSS backing which sets the clock backward as far as India’s progress in science and technology is concerned. Unnecessary controversy was created over the teaching of German language in schools as they were sought to be replaced by teaching of Sanskrit.
The government also takes credit for having dealt with corruption. It is true that certain elements in the UPA government had acquired a bad name for the government in the field of corruption. But it was only a few high ranking leaders who were responsible for corruption in UPA. By and large the small fry in the administration who are responsible for the corruption that a common man has to deal with in his day to day dealings with the administration still flourishes and the government has not been able to deal with these elements. There is also no progress in implementing the Lokpal legislation.
Key posts in government relating to Lokpal, CVC, etc. are lying vacant and the government is not finding it possible to get suitable candidates to fill them up. Several posts in the university set up are also lying vacant for want of suitable candidates.
We have identified a large number of areas where the performance of the Modi government was not up to the mark. If the government is able to deal with these problem areas, may be, it will be able to come up with a better report card next year.
Our attempt here has been to identify the weak spots and not to join hands with the broadcast media and the corporate voices in glorifying the government’s performance. A critical evaluation was considered more appropriate than a more balanced evaluation of the performance of the Modi Sarkar during its first year in office.
