In 2009, when BJP had a debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, I published a blog and called for a change in the leadership in BJP at National Level. I particularly rooted for Narendra Modi, who at that time was famously the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and had impressed everyone with his development model for the state. I saw Modi as someone who is a go-getter, has a thinking head on his shoulders and is different from the other typical politicians, in the sense that he has more focus on doing measurable work, as compared to immerse himself in political tricks and trade.
As the 2014 LS elections were approaching, Modi suddenly anointed himself on the top, projecting himself as the "Prime Ministerial Candidate" for the BJP, giving a clear snub to the veteran L. K. Advani. Many other senior leaders of the party that belonged to Advani's generation were not happy, but as a voter, I was happy and this was exactly what I had envisioned.
When Modi's election manifesto was out, I had my curious eyes on what his vision for the next five years would be, and what he spoke about hit exactly the right spots to strike the perfect chord with me.
It was also a time when Anna Hazare's protests against corruption had taken momentum and PM Manmohan Singh's administrative and leadership skills were found wanting. So, I had decided to vote Modi for the upcoming elections, and here are the primary reasons why:
1. 100 Smart Cities:
He spoke of creating 100 smart cities in India. Development in India has always been slow and it looks like it's taking ages. If a government sets such measurable target, like developing 100 smart cities for the next 5 years, it's moving in the right direction to not only expedite urban development, but also aim higher than our normal expectations.
2. 100 IITs:
Foundation of any nation building lies in it's education system. IITs have been the premiere institutes in India who have immensely contributed to the society, but has been a privileged and hard to access in country as vast as India. Having more IITs was a step in the right direction, to boost the talent, create job-creators and take India to the next level of modernisation.
3. 100 Most Backward Districts:
Identifying 100 most backward districts and empowering the local leadership to make it a role model for development was also a welcome step. In a country as large as India, some areas are easily ignored and over the years stay deprived of the development that it so rightly deserves. Indian constitution has also organised it's leadership very thoughtfully, by dividing areas into smaller regions and giving representations to each by means of Panch, Sarpanch, MLAs, MPs etc. This would also awaken such local leaders and encourage a healthy competition.
4. Public Toilets:
I am not sure if this was mentioned in the official manifesto document, but he vehemently spoke about this, and Sanitation, Hygiene and Cleanliness has always been conveniently overlooked by all governments of the past. If more Public Toilets are built across India, that would be the best thing to happen in a country where public defecation is very common.
5. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan:
This is also in conjunction to the previous point. India as a country as always been famously filthy. Our roads are littered with garbage, gutters stinking and public areas in the worst of conditions that can be highly unhygienic for the people. Again, this was ignored by governments and even the people didn't consider this a serious issue. When the government stresses on such issues, it automatically peculates in the minds, thus changing attitudes.
6. Special Courts for Corruption:
As I previously said, it was a time of rampant corruption, and a leader with a clear plan to tackle the corruption menace would earn brownie points. Modi was on record in an interview talking about his plan of action regarding corruption: he said he will first identify all the elected MPs who had a corruption case or allegations, have speedy trials and ban the ones identified guilty and those not proven guilty will be free to continue good work. This way, he said all MPs will be clean and that is where the cleaning should start- on the top.
7. Bullet Trains:
High Speed Trains, I feel is very much necessary in a country like India, where cities are spread far across and travelling to economically strategic cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and others takes a lot of time, which is the second currency in business. Cutting the travel time with high speed public transport was going to be a boon and a catalyst to the growth of our economy.
And so, I voted Modi for the above reasons, and he was elected as the Prime Minister of India. It was now time to see how he puts those promises to action.
Modi did take up most of the things I mentioned in my list. The list of the identified smart cities were out and money sanctioned. New IITs were announced, though I am still not aware if we have been able to get 100 new IITs. But, I did see a IIT Goa in my own state.
Regarding developing most backward districts, there was not much transparency on what actually happened, but I did hear from one of our local MLAs that he was given funds form the MP to develop backward villages which he utilised for good. However, this still doesn't answer the question if 100 most backward districts were indeed developed, and there is no way to know that.
Public toilets were erected and this is something that should be lauded, but at the same time there is a long way to go in terms of maintenance of hygiene in such toilets.
Rahul Gandhi was been very vocal and critical about Swachh Bharat and it has always been criticised of being a failure. In my opinion, this is true. Swachh Bharat is a failure, and we are still a filthy country. It is true that Modi himself doesn't sweep the roads, but only poses with a broom for a photo-op, but even that doesn't take away the fact that Swachh Bharat failure should also be attributed to the attitudes of our people. We still find it okay to throw the empty packet of chips from the bus window, we feel find it okay to spit on the roads, it is still okay to litter the public places, it's okay to take the pets to answer their nature's call on the streets. This is something that should be done together- by the citizens. The fact that government is talking about is, is for me, a success. HOWEVER- there is one problem I see in Swachh Bharat. A major project under this Abhiyan was the Ganga cleaning project. It was disappointing to see that Uma Bharti was given the charge of this, someone who is not equipped enough nor has the vision and ability to delegate and make this happen by consulting the right people. This really makes me think about the seriousness from the government's side on taking up this issue.
The Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train project has kicked off, but is taking it's own sweet time. It was also marred by political challenges, with the state governments changing in Maharashtra, playing the political cards, the leaders decided not to prioritise and cooperate with the central government thus delaying the project even further.
What was most disappointing was, Modi was completely mum on the special courts to eradicate corruption. Modi's silence on this raised a question about if there is a willingness to work on this or whether it was only an election rhetoric.
So, the first tenure was a mixed-bag scenario. Then there was Demonetisation that looked like a masterstroke in the beginning, but in the end it turned out to be doing more damage than good. The GST implementation, which was also proposed by the previous Congress Govt, was implemented and the transition process was not executed well. Even though Modi was talking about ease of doing business, his govt's policies made it even more difficult to run a business in India. Also, the feuds between Modi and the RBI Governors, with 2 RBI Governors resigning unceremoniously, is also not a good sign. One ray of hope in this was, the Modi Govt's boost and push for the Startup Ecosystem and the Startup India initiative, was making it the best time to venture into a startup in India.
Come 2019, and it was time to decide again. Though it was a clear mixed bag as I already explained, we still didn't have the smart cities, a few IITs, no bullet train, no special courts and a few public toilets, unemployment at the rise and many problems still the same as in 2014, I again decided to vote for Modi for the simple reason: India is a vast country and delivering on those promises in a country of varied backgrounds can be challenging. We have given him only 5 years, and it's too early to judge a leader with such a vision to deliver the big picture in just 5 years. He certainly deserved another tenure.
Modi @ 10:
And so, we are at a juncture where we will vote again and decide whether to give Modi a third term. When I assess the situation and look back at the last 10 years, here is how I see it, and I, in all my likelihood, will not vote for Modi's 3rd tenure for these reasons:
1. Lack of Scientific Temperament:
Modi established Ministry of Ayush: a ministry dedicated for alternative medicines like Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Accupuncture and Accupressure. When a government promotes alternative medicine, it automatically undermines the modern medicine, and is not good in the long run for the healthcare. I have seen how this has already affected the society, with people following Sadhguru, Ramdev Baba and others, and avoiding taking treatment for serious diseases like heart disease and cancer. It is only when they reach at advanced stage that they turn back to modern medicine, but unfortunately, sometimes its too late to do so. I have heard about such cases in my own circle, and it's not a good sign.
2. Soft-target only one religion:
It is not necessary to name the religion, but it is quite evident that Modi government has an agenda against a particular religion. How come all the policies and ordinances are passed which are pointing towards ill-practices of only one religion? Triple Talak? The CAA? People are now more vocal about loudspeakers being used for Azaan. The pink revolution and cow protection act? There are many more, and if we pay close attention, it looks like a well planned agenda being executed.
3. Democracy or Dictatorship?
The whole debate on whether we are going towards Dictatorship and away from Democracy seems to be true. I will cite only a few examples. Rahul Gandhi questioned the ruling government and alleged that the opposition is being gagged. When he was back in India, he was disqualified as the MP in a highly systematically executed plan. We, the voters have to shrewd enough to just keep a track of events that has led to this disqualification, to conclude that it was vendetta politics. Recent arrest of Arvind Kejriwal is also no different.
It also looks like the government is controlling the Supreme Court, ED, EC, the CBI. If not, then how on earth, the Ram Mandir case, that had not been able to come to a consensus, saw a decree in favour of the temple during Modi's tenure? How, in December 2023, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India unanimously upheld the Indian Government's decision to abrogate Article 370?
4. Hindu Rashtra from the back-door?
It is very evident that Modi government is trying to paint a picture of a Hindu Rashtra, the idea that is often endorsed by the RSS, and that too with a back-door entry. The Bollywood has started making films that run the idea of the government. The debate of the name India and Bharat. With Akshay Kumar and Kangana leading from the front, now many others have followed with movies that speak the govt's narrative- Sawarkar's biopic, Vajpayee's biopic, Kerala Story, Article 370 and many more in this list. By no means, I say that Vajpayee and Sawarkar don't deserve a biopic. In fact, I have utmost respect to Veer Sawarkar and Vajpayee, as much as I have for Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and all others who equally contributed to building this nation. What is questionable is the compromise of the effort in research conducted into depicting the real personalities like Veer Sawarkar and Vajpayee, and using it to just portray nationalism and glorify the ideologies of current government and project the opposition as villains. The caricaturish potrayals of the characters tells us that it's not about the art and film-making. There is a persistent effort to convey through this movie a message about Nationalism, cultural superiority and celebrating leaderships as something that can never go wrong.
And it is quite evident that these movies are executed at the behest of the government, when PM Modi publicly goes to meet the makers of such movies and lauds their effort. PM Modi also used the narratives created by such movies in the recent Karnataka elections.
5. The Influencer Awards:
When a government announces awards for the social media influencers, it is scary nevertheless the potential threat it can bring by celebrating the "achievers" in this unorganised and unregulated industry. But when the questionable influencers are rewarded even if they spread the idea of pseudoscience and superstitions and fake history, it does even more damage. The government is awarding these influencers for the obvious reason, that their content is helping the govenrment in their attempts to paint this picture of a new India that is to the liking of the government and RSS. And by awarding them, the government is speeding up the process and in turn helps its own agenda.
6. A Step Backwards
In a society when the self-proclaimed spiritual leaders like Bageshwar Baba is celebrated, we know that we are going back as a society. When one watches Bageshwar Baba's videos it doesn't take rocket science to realise the problems with it. But the fact that he is celebrated in a big way, is a reflection of the damage this government's actions and rhetoric has done to the common sense of the common man.
And for the above reasons, I feel Modi government needs to be stopped, before it gets too arrogant take India decades behind. A country will flourish and go towards modernisation only when it embraces pluralism and learns to live with different communities. Singapore's success story is an example to follow. There are certain good things that Modi government has done, like the Ujwala Yojana, Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao, the Low cost housing scheme, Mudra scheme, Vishwakarma scheme among others are quite beneficial. But the other side is far more denting and detrimental to the society.
