IN governance, performance most often is about creating popular positive perception than actually delivering verifiable outcomes. And that may be a reason why governance is seen as an art and not science. That leaves enough space to talk about with broad numbers from a high pedestal, and, so, there is an avalanche of commentaries on two years of the Modi government.
TWO years back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech full of melodrama to the Parliamentary party meeting of the BJP had promised to share the report card of his government with them in 2019. Five years must have looked quite a long time. So, Modi amended his promise, and shared the report card of his government -- not with the BJP MPs, but the people -- from the ramparts of the Red Fort after a year passed off since his assuming the charge. A year after, Modi launched "Vikas parv (Development festival)".
His MPs are a miffed lot. Those striking discordant notes with the Modi government from the ranks
"It's we who face people. It's we who will seek votes in 2019. The Modi government came to power because we won elections, and not due to his ministers, who para-dropped from the Rajya Sabha to seats of power," one BJP MP was heard loudly telling one aide of a minister.
The BJP MP Hukum Singh was more acerbic when Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh sought to suggest that a web portal to electronically link all markets will come as a boon to the farmers. "The farmers are throwing the onions to garbage after failing to get remunerative price. They're being offered as low as 50 paise a kg for onions in Nimanch in Madhya Pradesh. What will these farmers do with your web portal," Hukum Singh blared in the Lok Sabha. Radha Mohan Singh predictably paled.
But when the Prime Minister never tires talking of his App and web portals, his ministers would only follow the suit. So, the likes of Smirti Irani and Piyush Goyal blurt out several Apps of their ministries when the MPs in the Lok Sabha seek to know answers to basic issues.
IN 2003, a group of bureaucrats sought to please the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. They
The bureaucrats wanted to caution. They knew it would be suicidal for a ruling political alliance to become part of such a brazen campaign for such a long time when large parts of the country form an oasis of darkness. Yet, they did not have the nerve to express their reservations to a man who was known as a bully. In 2014 people delivered verdict, and stated unequivocally that they did not believe at all in the idea of "India Shining".
The self-adulation bug had bitten Vajpayee in the fourth year of his tenure. Modi would have made people believe that the event of his mere occupying the 7, Race Course Road had changed the fortune of India for better. Last month, he launched a 10-day long campaign -- Gramoday se Bharatoday. This month his government launched 15-day long "Vikas parv".
The April campaign failed to enthuse people in the rural parts of the country. The agricultural growth last year was 1.1 per cent, and the average for last two years has been 0.5 per cent. The Monsoon, unseasonal rains and hailstorms have played havoc with the farming community. One fourth of the population of the country is under the spell of drought, which has affected 1.25 lakh villages. The suicide by farmers has taken the form of an epidemic. Not only farmers, but even the cattle-stock is bearing the brunt of the failure of the government to reach waters to parched regions.
MODI in his maiden address to the Lok Sabha ridiculed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In the next two years, the Opposition kept alleging that the Centre had not been releasing funds under MGNREGA to the state governments. Former PM Manmohan Singh too alleged that the dues to the states amounting to over Rs 10,000 crores remained unpaid. The next day when Union Minister of Rural Development Birender Singh was asked on Manmohan Singh's allegation, he claimed that there was no outstanding at all.
That he was bluffing was known when the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to release the outstanding MGNREGA dues to the state governments. It was the Supreme Court again which ordered the Modi government to take immediate steps for the drought affected regions and the people. The rural parts of the country have to look up to the Supreme Court for deliverance from the pain. For Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, it amounted to the judiciary destroying the legislative and executive wings of the democracy "brick by brick". He would not admit that the non-performance of the government always invites the judicial scrutiny.
The swagger of the growing number of youth in small towns of the country suggest their lack of faith in the system. They feel that they have been let down. That they possess degrees but no jobs frustrate them. The engineers are taking up clerical jobs. The doctorates are seeking jobs of police constables. Those with master degrees do not mind wearing uniforms of security guards in the metropolitan cities.
The jobs are hard to find by is the story of the day in the country. The economists concur that the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth in the range of six to eight per cent only allows status quo. They argue with empirical evidences that for India to add more jobs the GDP growth must surpass eight per cent. But the higher growth trajectory is arguably not possible with a "tough task master" leadership, but deep and strong structural changes, which Modi has not yet shown stomach to undertake.
POSTSCRIPT
It's stupid to expect change in two years' time. But the path on which one embarks for a long journey may suggest the outcome. In the first two years' of the Modi government, a few sectors have arguably outperformed, which include the Railways, Road and Shipping, Power. But there is a long list of outright non-performers, which include Agriculture, Rural Development, Water Resources, Telecommunication, etc.
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