Too many mistakes, too few words: Critics pan 60 days of Modi sarkar

Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi give too much wings to hope during his campaign and is now struggling to fly that high? Perhaps he is. It is always easier to run for elected office than to occupy it, as Prime Minister Modi is now realising. Campaign trail hyperbole can quickly become a political albatross, as eager critics and impatient supporters begin to carp. Before the elections, people anticipated quick changes as soon as Modi government takes charge at South Block. But that has not happened yet and worse, Modi is now seen as following the footsteps of his predecessor the much-criticised Manmohan Singh. Columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his piece Achhe din, like old times in The Indian Express   questions Modi’s silence on the frequent communal clashes that is happening in Uttar Pradesh. The volatile situation in the state’s towns like Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad is not the nature of “achhe din” that Modi had promised during his campaign.[caption id=“attachment_1641901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI[/caption] “Whether believable or not, Modi had promised a new discourse on secularism: an atmosphere less thick with the possibility of violence, less suffused with the “others-did-it” alibi, less suffocatingly invoking identities for political purposes and less rewarding of politicians producing polarisation."— Mehta wrote in his piece . The message from Modi should have been immediate and clear. He should have ideally made it clear to all in no time that no religious intolerance would be tolerated. This did not happen. “His job is to encourage voices of conciliation and to use his office to transform public culture for the better. This is far from happening. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s silences created the vacuum that anyone could fill. Can this prime minister name one action that sends a loud and clear message about what kind of conduct will not be tolerated? Has he used any incident to create a teachable moment? There is a kind of out of touch complacency, that somehow this small-scale violence will not snowball into something big. But this is a poison that, once unleashed, cannot be controlled."— Mehta writes. Prior to the violence in Uttar Pradesh, the prime minister also kept mum when a Pune techie was murdered by fringe Hindu elements and only made a cursory reference to it in Parliament much later. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in his opinion piece Modiji, You’re Missing an Opportunity on NDTV  writes: “But those words were too little, too late - too little for the gravity of the crime ,and too late to avoid the damage done by his initial silence, which allowed a fringe right-wing group like the Hindu Rashtra Sena to assume quiet acceptance of their misbehaviour at the highest level."— Tharoor wrote. Modi’s silence is all the more damning as he often mocked Singh for being ‘Maunmohan’, as Firstpost, senior editor, Sandip Roy noted in an earlier piece: When PM Narendra Modi becomes ‘Maunmohan’ 2 had mentioned about the two different Modis (PM aspirant and PM) comparing him with his predecessor Manmohan Singh. “Narendra Modi, the candidate, could not stop talking. The need for communication was so strong there were even hologram versions of Modi fanning the countryside talking for him, chatting up a storm at chai pe charchas. Modi the prime minister however has gone silent."— Roy said . Much as the UPA, Modi too is hiding behind silence to duck uncomfortable issues. “The BJP government could make a start by responding to the recently released CAG reports on losses to the exchequer in Gujarat. We have settled into the very familiar pattern of avoiding the obligation to explain."— Mehta writes. While Singh’s silence was interpreted as a sign of his ineffectiveness vis a vis Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, Modi’s silence has been accompanied  by a flurry of activity. While the country suffered from the so-called policy paralysis during the UPA regime, Mehta flags a host of rash decisions in the name of fast tracking economic growth. He cites the example of the quick fix approach taken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to give fast clearance to big ticket projects,  writing , “…setback is that what is passing off as administrative reform in this government is taking more shortcuts. The ministry of environment and forests is setting up the government for a big fall. Its public narrative is constantly emphasising speed over credibility and, rather than projecting a more believable environmental protection regime, it seems to be weakening the protections that exist. This will not just have adverse consequences for the environment and the poor, it will also create greater uncertainty for business as courts will have more reason to look at the government with suspicion on this score”. Speed thrills, but just as easily can kill. The announcements made in the Union Budget also did not cheer the country enough and the steps taken to revive the weak economy were at best seen as a quick fix. Soon after the Budget speech was rendered by the finance minister Modi had said that “this Budget is a new ray of hope for the poor and downtrodden sections of society” and it “will give an impetus to Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation) and Jan Shakti (people’s power)”. All these have yet to translate on to the ground. Even on the international front Modi has to deliver much more. The Brics experience was seen as a triumph due to the institution of the Asian Development bank, but as Mehta pointed out India cannot behave rigidly when it comes to dealing with a much larger international community on matters related to economy and climate. India’s latest stand on the Trade Facilitation Agreement is a marked departure from what the UPA government had agreed upon and it now puts the country into an embarrassing situation. Author MK Venu had wrote in Firstpost : “The Modi government is facing diplomatic embarrassment because of its latest negotiating stand at the WTO which boxes India into a corner with countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina even as some hitherto strong and empathetic partners such as China, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia have distanced themselves from India by agreeing to move ahead with the new trade facilitation agreement signed at the Bali ministerial meeting last December.” Mehta also pointed to a similar position. He said : “But grandstanding on the Trade Facilitation Agreement is bad politics for a number of reasons: India risks global isolation on this issue. We are sending a huge anti-reform signal: that we will use our farmers as a shield not to improve our processes.” When one opens narendramodi.in , the words “Action not acts” stare at you on the home page. Time to work on that Mr PM.