It’s been mixed two months. And
May 26 to July 30 – cannot be the timeframe to judge a government’s acts.
Whatever have been there - the
developments in these two months - cannot be the elements of writing the script
for the coming five years.
But, then, in Indian politics,
where morality has become an unknown entity, even one week is more than enough
to give the opponents the arsenal to attack when the acts fall short of the
promises made.
And it has been the case.
In the run-up of the General
Elections 2014, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) had run an intensive campaign,
and Narendra Modi had overwritten every established norm of election
campaigning by his hardwork.
And central to his hardwork was
his promise of delivering India
from the bad governance of the United Progressive Alliance government. He
pitched for making India Congress free. He gave the Indians the dream of good
days.
Now, anyone who could think
analytically was not looking at this promise as a panacea, a miracle to change
all that was bad in the excising sociopolitical system. It was always going to
be a long-term process.
But the problem is, such
analytical minds are not even .001% of the Indian electorate who voted the BJP
led National Democratic Alliance government to the power with an overwhelming
majority.
They won’t understand the
intricacies of the financial quagmire that the Manmohan Singh government has
the pushed the nation in.
They need delivery of the promise
and the beginning was to be made with sending out the signals about it.
Yes, electoral and political
history of India
tells us the Indian voter has been very patient, even turning a blind eye to
his exploitation by the political class.
But, the situation is rapidly
changing now – the clear majority to the BJP is a testimony to that – it tells
the Indian voter is thinking in decisive terms now to vote beyond the practiced
electoral planks of caste, sectarian and ideological affiliations – had it not
been the case, the BJP, which was largely a Hindi-belt political party with
North India presence (Karnataka being an exception for different reasons),
could not have won the clear majority on its own, and could not have got votes
from almost every part of the country – and that should be the ‘wake-up call’,
the warning for the political class – because the voter bought what Narendra
Modi was trying to sell – and the voter can easily switch to the next shop next
time – the NDA loss in 2004 polls, the UPA win in 2009 polls and the UPA’s
humiliating loss in 2014 polls – should be more than enough to tell where the
air is blowing.
Yes, the patience of the Indian
voter who has voted Narendra Modi in to the prime minister’s office cannot run
out in just two months – but its needs signals to sustain its allegiance –
because Narendra Modi needs time to deliver – that could run in years.
And the signals have been unclear
so far. They are ambiguous. They are of mixed nature, with the bouquet having
some highly commendable acts and some positive developments but overpowered and
outmaneuvered with rising prices and the talks of ‘bitter pills’ to reform the
economy.
Yes, the economy reform, that is
a must, but the voter needs unorthodox efforts from the government as well. The
political class needs to look sincere of practicing what it expects from the
people. The central and the state governments need to be austere, need to
reduce tax burden on energy and oil products and need to look pro-people while
reducing the social security net by removing subsidies. It needs a gradual
approach where the voter also gets avenues to better his life, to become
financially more independent.
Government is talking of reducing
subsidies and ‘bitter pills’ but it is not talking on how it would deliver the
people out of poverty and subsidy-dependence – and this messaging is bad for
the government – Narendra Modi needs to work on it – the voters who have voted
for the government need to get the signals from him and his government.
