4 Things That India Expects From The Modi Government (MoGo)

BJP has come to power this elections after a gap of nearly 10 years. Surely, anti-incumbency was one factor that played a vital role in their victory, but it can't be denied that the people of the country have a lot of hopes with this Modi Government. Let's do an exercise, let's analyze the top four things that the citizens of India expect from the new government.
Here we go!

Better Governance

Okay! I know this is the easiest of points to make, you always expect good governance from the elected government that we as naive, stupid but yet powerful citizens bring to power. The point is, one of the most important aspects of good governance is managing international affairs well enough. We expect Modi to make India shine in the international spectra and make true the much awaited, yet failed, objectives of ‘India Shining’. This government is expected to make its word in the world, be friendly with the super-powers and super-powers-to-be and still not succumb to their pressure and pander to their requirements. This government needs to take a strong stand in the international affairs and do away with its policy of deliberate silence (hopefully Modi speaks a lot more than Mr Singh!), only then can we think of realizing the dream of India superpower 2020. The bitter fact is India has been touted as the next big thing in the world for a bit too long without making any justice to this status internationally. At this juncture, India can at best be qualified as a regional power. For India to be an international superpower it will have to be more participative in the matters of international concern. This is the best opportunity for the BJP to bounce back into mainline Indian politics, do well and finally wipe off Congress (which is always known to come back strong).

Better Handling of issues pertaining to the cultural minorities

BJP has been under a lot of fire in the past to be a pro-Hindutva party. It's high time they did away with these orthodox idiosyncrasies. It is imperative for the BJP to restore its faith among the people of the country as a secular party whose ideologies are not motivated by caste, creed, color, religion and other such baseless crap. MoGo is expected to deal with all these issues with genuinity and fidelity without being biased to any particular section of the people. Modi's public image of being a religious hardliner needs to be over-hauled and should be rebuild on terms of pure secularism. Only if the BJP government is able to make these minority groups feel involved in the development process, Mr Modi can afford an image makeover and can wash-off the sins of 2002 that haunt him till date.

Complete check on terrorism

Cross-border militancy has always been one of the most important issues for India ever since her independence in 1947. Modi with his audacious and tit-for-tat attitude is expected to curb Indian of this menace that has been a roadblock for the country's peace perennially for years now. But whether or not Modi's hard stand be fruitful is yet to be witnessed. Nevertheless, one thing is clear, BJP has been quite clear in its agendas put forward during its campaign and has taken no restraint in portraying Congress's poor governance and mild international stand as one of the reasons for cross-border terrorism. BJP, now in power, would have to do something great to cure India of this disease that has plagued our country for eternity. Considering, MoGo is unable to do so there will be a lot of criticism and thrash talking by the opponents. MoGo just cannot afford it, for they are in a very tight spot. Only results can rescue them and prove it to the opponents that this Modi win was not just a fluke.

Development

Now this has, by far, been BJP's USP this poll season and now that they are at the helm, they will have to do justice to it. MoGo will have a lot of pressure owing to the super-high expectations the people have from Mr. Modi. Modi has left no stone unturned to convey that he believes in development politics. But the question that comes to the fore is whether or not the Gujarat model prove to be a panacea for the nation. His theory of 'one-size-fits-all' can be under strain when implemented at the pan India level. There is no doubt to the fact that Modi has been the protagonist of the Gujarat story but there is a lot of difference between a state and a country, for the sheer magnitude of money, opportunities, people and risks involved make it a really tough task to pull off with the same ease with which it was done in Gujarat. This is a golden phase for India - we have all the ingredients that it takes to fast forward the economic growth. This is the time when India has the highest percentage of Working Age Population (WAP) in the world and this number is only to increase in the next 10 years. The ratio of WAP to dependents is highest which is just perfect. The government at this point of time should try its level best to accrue as much demographic dividend as possible and not let this opportunity slide away. If we are able to channelize our youth into productive work by creating more jobs, better self-employment opportunities and better education, there is no stopping India then.

If MoGo takes care of all of these things with precision, there are definitely good days ('ache din') to come for both India and the BJP. If not, then unfortunately in spite of having everything we would still be counted amongst the backward nations of the world.

 

Pseudonym : h!v

The Great Battle Of 2014 - Demystified

So after a hiatus of close to three months, here I am, pitching in again, throwing some light on one of the most followed upon topics by the people of the world's largest democracy - "General Elections 2014". In this article I won't be all mushy and delicate with my opinions; in fact, there will be some criticism - hope nobody sues me for slandering, but then none of what's written here is fake.

The facts are real; the opinions are rather mine.

The battle for the Prime minister's Office boils down to not just two leading national parties, namely the BJP and the Congress, fighting one another to prove their hegemony. The equation here is far more complex - there are inter party disputes, conflict of interests of parties that are members of the same coalition and there are also internecine conflicts within parties, especially within BJP.

Let’s look at the elections with a bird's eye view, analyzing what's going against the two major parties when it comes to reaching that magical figure of 273.

Image Courtesy:www.indiatimes.com

 WHAT CONGRESS HAS DONE WRONG :

INC has been in the soup lately - for the sake of this article let me call it the Italian 'Scam-Soup'. Congress has been executing one scam after the other so blatantly and consistently that the people's trust on Congress and its leaders has really taken a bashing. So despite its spicy flavor, people are not ready to have the scam-soup anymore. There has been a litany of scams in the past few years - Coalgate, 2G, 3G, CWG...'MadamG' and what not. It seems that the Congress ministers of state are more interested in pulling off these complicated scams, no doubt they hardly manage time for other 'unimportant' works like public welfare and good governance. Truly speaking, the UPA led coalition is in shambles at the moment with a long list of allegations tainting the image of its ministers. The CBI and the CAG, while struggling to get the perpetrators of a scam to book, are soon burdened with another scam - far too complicated and involving much more money than the previous one. It's a mess.

The economy is also struggling and the growth has largely been sluggish - Thanks to the lackadaisical attitude and policy paralysis of our ministers. One of the world's most promising economies until a few years back, almost on the verge of touching the two-digit growth mark, is now snailing at a mere 4-5% growth. And then if that's not enough, the troika of  the leading credit rating agencies of the world - Moody's, Fitch and S&P - are deteriorating India's stand in the international market by relentlessly talking about downgrading India's rating even further. Any more fall in the ratings, would plummet India down to junk status. And that would be a big blow to the economy. From the people's perspective too, the economy is not any better. Inflation is ever increasing, interest rates are rising, and rupee is dipping like mercury in winters and markets in the job are also at their all-time low. All credits to Congress. The giant robust bull of Indian economy is now reeling under pressure and trying to fight its way out of the vagaries of the western economies.

WHY IS BJP NOT A BETTER CHOICE EITHER ?

The BJP is not a stable party within itself. Its party leaders can't manage their own internal politics, let alone they would be able to manage the politics of the seventh largest nation of the world. 'Mr Red', I mean Lal Krishna Advani or the angry old man, has been all hustling and bustling with a 'Modi' elevating as the forerunner in the race to the Prime Minister’s office. Advani has divided the party further into two major factions, the Modi's and the Non-Modi's. At a juncture when the entire so called 'Parivar' of the BJP should be on its toes to curb this menace called Congress, they are busy in these petty fights. Mr  Red, with this attitude, you should not be called the party patriarch anymore. And Mr Modi, please learn to behave like a would-be-PM of the country and get over your tantrums. Your arrogance and 'I’m-the-man' kind of attitude is way too much for the people of this country to deal with. You are surely the people's best bet today but please learn to make people believe in you rather than trying to impose your belief on them.

THE NUMBER'S GAME:

Neither the Congress nor the BJP, by any chance, would be able to reach that 243 mark all alone. They would need the support of regional parties to form a coalition. Now the situation on both sides is pretty worse. The Congress lately lost two of its major allies, the TMC and the DMK. Its terms with the SP do not seem very good either. BJP also is struggling to soothe things with JDU.  Also, the BJP, with it banking on NaMo as the Prime Ministerial candidate, will not be able to get the support of many parties, if at all it appears out as the one with the major chunk of votes.

The bottom-line: Both the BJP and the Congress need to have at least 200 seats on their own to be able to form a coalition at the Centre. If that doesn't happen, the election result can swing in any of the infinite possible directions.

The Con-PM vs The Bha-PM :

This one's a bummer. While we surely know now that Bhartiya Janta Party-PM candidate would be Narendra Modi (NaMo), the Congress is still playing it ugly and has not openly come forward with a name for Congress-PM candidate. It might also be that the Congress is vacillating from Manmohan Singh to Rahul Gandhi and back to Manmohan Singh as their choice. But to expect Manmohan Singh to come up for a third consecutive term, especially when the

country's economy and also the country itself is not doing so well, would be far too much. So most probably it would be Rahul Gandhi (RaGa).

This epic battle between NaMo and RaGa is due for sure, if not now then surely in 2019. But for now, let’s presume its NaMo vs RaGa, which most likely is the case.

Now NaMo is surely the best available choice. He might not be able to do a 'Vajpayee' but he might do very well, even with his arrogance of sorts. Critics of Modi, might say that the pogrom that happened in Gujarat in the 2002 communal riots brands him as an anti-Muslim communist and stands out as the biggest example of his bad governance and administration. Okay, point conceded dear critics. As a rebuttal, I would like to make you aware of the fact that Mr Modi had been at the helm for no longer than 2 months when the riots started. And no CM, just two months old, would have been able to deal with it with strong actions right away. Can this be treated as an excuse to exculpate Modi - a blunt No. But should Modi be given a chance considering Gujarat has not witnessed any other incident of communal violence ever since - a welcoming Yes.

Modi's, arrogance and fearlessness, can also prove to be a big boon for the country, provided its channelized properly. Modi is the one who can take some serious steps in times of crisis with great audacity and conviction, he can re-establish India's dominance in the South East Asia and the subcontinent, propose India's ideas in the international zone and force leaders of other nations to mould or relax policies in India's favor.

But does all this make Modi, the best Prime Minister India could ever dream of - apologies but the answer is a NO yet again. Mr Modi has done some really good work in Gujarat. Not only has he made the state administration and bureaucracy almost corruption free, he has also helped Gujarat gain new industrial significance both in the country and abroad.  But the growth in Gujarat is not, as Nitish Kumar pointed out, all inclusive. The southern parts of Gujarat are blossoming and industrial activity is at its peak, but the drier parts of the state like Saurashtra are struggling. So if the Gujarat-model of development really work for the entire country is still a riddle. Those who champion Modi's idea of development fail to realize that 70% of India's population still resides in rural villages or rural suburbs.

But then again Mr Modi, any day, would be a better choice than the INC’s heir apparent – Rahul Gandhi. This scion of Indian politics’ first family has been remiss in his responsibilities for far too long. We cannot afford shirking of duties anymore. India needs a strong leader given that things are not panning out very well for countries around the world. And if there is no one better than Narendra Modi, we accept him with grace.

 Pseudonym : h!v

Disclaimer: The opinions presented in the article are author''s own. The author does not intend to promote any National Party/Candidate.