Narendra Modi: Messiah mirage

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is piqued that his government is not yet hailed as messiah of the poor. That the poor have availed benefits of Rs 1400 crores so far from just two schemes of accidental and life insurance should have led to any other government hailed as a messiah, but not his, lamented Modi recently. Exuberant tone and tenor of Modi of the past is indeed betraying whining signs with 2019 date with people approaching quick enough.

INDIAN economy in the last quarter clocked a 6.3 per cent growth. It was on the back of 5.7 per cent shocker of the first quarter of the current fiscal. Within minutes of flash of the number, the Modi Cabinet dawned in full force to force awaken people about the dream run of the economy under the leadership of the Prime Minister.  There is no break from the pattern. 

National gloom arguably in the last years of the Manmohan Singh led government had been also on account of the economy ebbing, with last growth number registering 4.7 per cent. A few months in power, a prescient Modi government had revised the GDP calculation method in the fag end of 2014. That helped the last UPA growth number swell from 4.7 per cent to 6.5 per cent. If we just forget the prescient revision of norms, the last GDP growth number would come to about 4.5 per cent, which would be lower than the worst of the UPA's. About four and a half years ago, the reason for national gloom is now indeed a cause for national celebrations if the spin doctors of the Modi dispensation are to be believed.

"More than 15 crore poor have benefited from just two schemes of the government, which insure life and accident for 90 paisa a day and Rs 1 a month contributions. The poor have benefited with Rs 1400 crores so far. If any other government had done so much, it would have been hailed as a messiah," Modi gushed at the HT Leadership summit recently.

The media certainly seems at fault to have missed out from hailing Modi as a messiah ! This is the way the BJP looks at the media, that it should blow trumpet and sing paean. But that will be too much for asking, as contemporary history bears an undeniable proof.

Modi had cashed in on the aspirational dreams of the poor to break free from their existing conditions. He sought to pursue Make in India and Skill India with vigour. Both have gone adrift on a high sea now. If dream jobs were not created by the industrialists following the command of Modi, he sought to smoke out the rats sitting on mounds of black money. Demonetisation was unveiled. The Modi managers argue that demonetisation helped informal economy become formal. And, thus, all talks of job loss are hogwash.

"I have a report of the CMIE (Centre for monitoring Indian economy). I can bet you on your claims of job loss," PM's Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC) chairman Bibek Debroy had blurted out when asked after the first meeting of the panel on concerns of employment loss in the country due to demonetisation. The CMIE within a month came up with its latest data, stating that 15 lakh people lost jobs in immediate months after demonetisation. The NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) data would come in after a long time to give an actual picture of employment. Since then the PM-EAC has held two more meetings, but Debroy has not yet come out to face the media. He obviously lost the bet hands down.

FORMER Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who is wrecker-in-chief of dream world of Modi

government, argues that the only way to find the extent of damage done to the economy on account of demonetisation is to look at anecdotal data in the absence of NSSO statistics. "Post-demonetisation, the small and medium enterprises in the unorganised sector bore the brunt of demonetisation. Those who lost jobs went back to their villages. That becomes evident from the Modi government making additional provision of Rs 11,000 crore under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Since the MGNREGS is an employment avenue of the last resort, it 's evident that there had been extensive job loss," Sinha told this blogger.

By all accounts, the Modi government in its tenure will not be touching eight per cent GDP growth. Economists agree that India needs to grow at eight per cent growth for 21 years in a row to lift its people out of poverty. By forcing India to a six-seven per cent growth path, Modi has arguably condemned the poor to remain poorer for far long time.   

There's, indeed, reason for Modi not yet been declared a messiah.

Modi's brazen take off

A walk through Jantar Mantar at stone's throw from Parliament may give a measure of India's restlessness. It's firmly etched in history after being host to many events, which later caused upheavals in India's polity. 

During one such walk, a booming woman's voice poured in torrent from a distance. A little closer, the verbal torrent turned coherent. A little more closer, victim of the verbal torrent appeared in sight. He was being led away by Renuka Choudhary, a minister in the Manmohan Singh led UPA government and a Congress spokesperson. 

The "victim" was in his 20s and later it emerged that he was a research scholar in JNU, New Delhi. And, he became a target of the verbal torrent released in seething anger by the woman, because he had asked a question during an open-air TV discussion, which was being recorded there.

"Your party supports division of Andhra Pradesh. Will your leader, Narendra Modi, support division of Gujrat, since your party favours smaller states," he had asked.

The answer apparently abruptly ended the TV discussion, but verbal torrent ensued. And Renuka Choudhary, apparently sensing that the young man could get in more trouble, forcibly led him away. Even significant moments after the man had been out of sight, the woman was still seething with anger.

Nirmala Sitharaman

About four months later, she was sworn in as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce. She is Nirmala Sitharaman. 

In the last two years, a lot of people started believing that the TV discussions in late evening shaped opinion of the people. Though this blogger does not watch any TV discussion, on and off one man had been seen with all the shrill in the most noisy news channel. He would shout down all voices against Narendra Modi and BJP.  He showed that his lung was better than that of intemperate anchor, who demands answer on behalf of the nation each night.

That man with most shrill voice is Piyush Goel. He, too, was sworn in as Union Minister of State for power in the Narendra Modi Cabinet. 

Though Modi declined taking son of Rajsthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Dushyant Singh, in his Cabinet on the ground that he would not have anything about dynasty, Goel is son of late Ved Prakash Goel, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet. And, therefore, he is also a product of political dynasty.So, Modi not having anything about dynasty falls flats on close scrutiny.

The faces of BJP beat reporters would invariably turn dull at the sight of Prakash Javdekar. He would most sincerely defend Modi from opposition barbs. He would be too plain straight without any spin to elicit interest from reporters. He too became a minister with dual charge of Information and Broadcasting and Environment.

And, Ravishankar Prasad, as chairman of media cell of the BJP, would most sincerely defend Modi. He, too, is into Modi Cabinet.

Former Miss India contestant and India's most famous "saas and bahu", Smirti Irani had been on all news channels for the past one year to defend Modi dutifully. She surprised all with her Cabinet debut, that too as Union minister for Human Resources Development.

That she is not even a graduate has taken much of the print and air space should not cast aspersion on her ability, because even Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha is just 10th pass. But unlike Jayalalitha been a political heir of the founder of AIADMK M G Ramachandran, we still do not know what Irani is in that sense. 

"She is very articulate in Hindi and English.." was all that Ravishankar Prasad fumbled when asked on the controversy. But India has millions of people who are very articulate in two languages.  

When former Union minister Jairam Ramesh threw his barb "Modi talking of

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

sanitation is like Asaram Bapu speaking about chastity", calls apparently came to BJP spokespersons to attack the irrepressible minister. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi apparently ignored instructions from Gandhinagar. Making his case more worse, he red-flagged induction of JD (U) leader Sabir Ali in BJP with his "Dawood Ibrahim" tweet. He could not make into the Modi Cabinet.

A pattern emerges that all those who valiantly defended Modi in the media are now in his Cabinet. And that invites the criticism, that Modi yielded to favoritism and bias while picking his team.

That the Modi team is young and lean is all accepted, but ministers like Dharmendra Pradhan, who is an illiterate as far as the business of oil and gas is concerned, is looking after petroleum ministry tells the larger story of brazenness of Modi in picking his men.

Afterall, the decisive 2014 mandate is not at all for the inner circle of Modi. Rather, the mandate is for a stable and strong government. And, Modi has given opening hints that he had been quite exclusive in picking his team. That surely is not a good omen, as has been admitted by most die-hard admirers of Modi, who admit having been led down.

A close Modi watcher explained that Modi had been like this only, as he had picked the likes of Anandiben Patel, Saurabh Patel, etc., who were unknown in Gujrat till they became ministers after 2002. One of them is now chief minister of Gujrat. But India is not Gujrat and running a Central government requires working closely with states. However, Modi, arguably, is taking forward his Gujrat model in New Delhi literally.

Incidentally, Modi, who seeks to emulate India's most admired Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been far off in at least picking the men for various challenges. Vajpayee had B C Khandoori who heralded road connectivity. He had Pramod Mahajan who brought in telecom connectivity. Jaswant Singh steadied Indian ship through uncertain waters during the US sanctions against India after the nuclear test. Yashwant Sinha captained economy with aplomb.

Ironically, the RSS laboratory ignores history of medieval India most, while singularly remaining obsessed with ancient India, in shaping intellectual base of its products. Had it been otherwise, Modi would have known that the glory of Akbar had been due to his fine generals, who expanded his frontiers, and ministers, who perfected the statecraft. 

It's early days for Modi government and it will serve him well if he could find people who would be more than proponents of "Yes, Minister". India has enough of sycophancy. Another spell could break too many hearts.