One of the harsh criticisms on Modi government has been that demonetisation was badly prepared and handled and took few months for the nation to settle down. That it hurt businesses. Made people suffer. The same allegations were hurled on GST implementation too. Factually such claims appear right but do they stick deep down? Were they poorly conceived and delivered as hurled by detractors?
Imagine for a moment Modi alerting RBI to begin printing of new notes while asking them to stop printing currencies that were to be demonetised. Again imagine ATMs across nation being upgraded for new notes with a direction to all the banks. What could have happened if precautionary steps were taken as part of preparation? Simple. News would have leaked of the impending demonetisation and with adequate notice, all to be demonetised currencies would have been converted as legal money with all the available loopholes in the banking sector. A sure shot for failure of demonetisation that would have helped compulsive law breakers and criminals escape being hurt by the whole act.
The criticism on GST was somewhat analogous. Government should have prepared well. So the transfer was smooth. The fact that an inter state democratic GST council has to go into the nitty gritties and not an arbitrary Govt on the matter was immaterial. The claim of Congress party that it conceived GST and needs to be credited became irrelevant. What mattered was that a most progressive unifying financial law of the nation needed to be discredited with Nelson’s eye towards its huge benefits. The contribution of GST in removing multi taxes, red tapism and lesser taxes was made immaterial. The economists of repute hailing theses two milestones in Indian economy are disputed by the hardly school passout opposition politicians. Some logic this.
Many detractors of Modi government desire immaculate conceptions from Narendramodi. Perfect schemes. Perfect projects delivered to the highest standards. Standards that did not exist in free India till May 2014, when Narendramodi assumed as Prime Minister of India. Welcome indeed. But when you begin to compare the previous governments, they get defensive and hurl abuses. It’s irrelevant to compare previous govts. Why? Because the dynasty will be exposed and needs to be protected.
I think it’s fair to question about the immaculate conceptions of projects and schemes of the Sonia Govt, the Nehru/Indira/Rajiv dynasty and even the other stints of Vajpayee, Narasimha Rao, Morarji Desai, etc? Did anyone deliver any project or scheme that delivered painless, perfect results they were intended to? Did they surpass Modi on any parameter? We will have a brief look into Nehru as PM.
Nehru was a romantic at heart trying to discover India of his dreams. With a filthy rich background, freedom struggle was another of his pastimes. After he dethroned Sardar Patel for PM with the help of Mahatma despite an overwhelming majority supporting Patel and none for him, he lacked passion to be practical in dealing with challenges facing him. Most successes were given on a platter for him and he believed he was entitled to all of them. From Congress Presidentship onwards. Competent leaders were ignored as seen on the issue of article #370 which Ambedkar saw as a threat to an integral India. The five year plans were excercises in governance and PSU were gigantic ideas that failed to deliver as desired. In 1949, RBI Governor C D Deshmukh commented on the state of affairs : India was spending sterling balances as if there was tomorrow. These balances fell from £ 1254 million in the end of 1945 to £ 621 million at the end of 1949. Govt led by Nehru lacked all prudence. His impractical nature was proved when India showed her gullibility in international affairs when she miserably lost war with China. Worst was the lack of ambition and vision for India of Nehru made him refuse the offer of membership in UN Security Council. Not just ambition, Nehru showed pathetic desire to see India on world sports too when his government refused to provide sports shoes to FIFA World Cup 1950 bound indian footballers. Irony that many football stadiums across India are now named after him for the lasting damage inflicted due to Nehru’s preoccupation with matters of romance.
While Lal Bahadur Shashtri term was shortened by his death under mysterious circumstances in Tashkent, Indira Ghandy proved she can be practical in matters of personal ambition. She played the Nehru tested gimmicks of rhetory, made dramatic nationalisation of banks claiming it would transform the lives of the poor. Media was quick to hail the decision as banks came under the direct control of politicians and bureaucrats. Nepotism, corruption , NPAs, loans to the favoured, cash disbursal over phone, inefficiency rocked banks along with red tapism. Inflation soared. By any account .5% gdp rate for over three precious decades after independence was a crime inflicted by Nehru dynasty on people voted for them. Nations like China and Japan went into top gear. India remained lethargic excited about freedom but unable to build on it. The silver lining was there arose a new race of bourgeois who were connected to the powerful in power and made enormous easy bucks. Your foreign travel was limited to $ 500. Your passport took six months to arrive. Your driving license was a hazzle and needed touts for clearance. PDS was considered a reform as essential items were scarce. Hindus were divided on caste basis while politicians pretended to be forward and modern. Derision of heritage and mocking of culture were the marks of the modern Indian. Sadly Change was hard to come until PM Rao was forced by IMF & WB to launch liberalisation as Indian economy fell into a mire. Nearly 45 years had been wasted by then by the Congress dynasty. No media showed guts to expose the rotten state of affairs except for a brief period post emergency. These were the high standards of Congress governance. Not a single scheme was successful and found its logical end. Latest was the flop show called MNREGA meant to remove poverty but became another gem in the scam filled crown of the Sonia Govt. Imagine the many lakhs of crores siphoned off from exchequer by the dynasty.
Real Change always brings in pain. Especially change that are genuine and transformative. Even a school kid now knows the phrase “no pain no gain”. Every nation that has hauled itself to progress went through sacrifices, tears , sweat and blood for the sake of her posterity. A vision for the future inspires them. A desire to ensure a better life for kids and grand kids forces them to do that extra and not treat efforts as pains. It was all about the joy of securing the future for the family, the society and the nation. When you love your family, society and nation, no effort or sacrifice seems big. It was all love’s labour. But in India, people were taught otherwise. Everything has a short cut and can come in easy. Yes free lunch is available and nobody pays for it. Preposterous.
In India, since independence, had leaders who were born with a silver spoon or those who forgot their past and were addicted to the pleasures of power and wealth. They did not REALLY mean what they called anything as a lofty purpose of the government nor were serious about their rhetory. Rhetory was just a mind game. People trusted and worshipped these leaders totally as if they were monarchs and loved them truly. As a result, the Congress Govt was re-elected again and again despite no visible improvements in economy with double digit inflation and a dismal .5% gdp for forty odd years. Forget immaculate conception, there were no conception or serious efforts to raise the standards of the people. People were dished out dramas. And majority remained pathetic though by one stroke the UPA brought many people above poverty level by reducing the criteria for determining such level. Non stop hoodwinking.
While the previous govts lacked determined intent, the Modi Govt with intent and character of purpose that brought in structural reforms to the acclaim of foreign nations and international institutions obviously had hurt people. Businesses run totally on black money were in abundance and were destroyed. What was the solution here? Let black money prevail so such businesses thrive? A nation to progress should respect the law of the land. And a law enforcing government needs to be lauded. The hunting down of Modi Govt by those who thrived by breaking laws are now hoping people will resist change and bring them back to power so they can rule and relaunch their perfect immaculately conceived scams, rhetorics, vote bank politics and nepotism. So, they question the long term vision of the Modi Govt that demands sacrifices from the people so India can stroll in this new century. They are totally nervous and shattered to hear that India with Modi may overtake USA as the world’s second largest economy in a few decades. With such development will come inclusiveness and a race of enlightened people. It’s not Modi these detractors fight against its the India of tomorrow, progressive and strong they are fighting against.
It is now a contest between desire to see India on top of the world and to bring back old India as a weak nation soaked in corruption and nepotism. It’s a race between deliverance for India and her people, and to bring back the immaculate conception of scams by Sonia’s coterie. The dynasty creates scams on govts to taint them and smears them with mud hoping some will stick. St Kitts scandal on VP Singh was an example. While Sonia’s government destroyed the files related to their scams. NFL scam was one scam that disappeared from the radar.
Last four years have been tough times for the Lutyens and Seculars. Many have been exposed. They were not pampered as during UPA or Congress rule. Some many have hurt egos. They are thirsting for revenge. Along with many parties’ greed for spoils of power they are ready for a perfect tango. The threat arises from the couch of these who long for the luxuries of life without working for it. You ought to have heard of journalists who were allotted Govt land worth crores of rupees for a pittance. It pays to pay eulogy to the dynasty.
Lastly, the criticism on Modi Govt was about his frequent tours. If his tours were wrong, so are all the numerous trips a CEO or a marketing head of a corporate does. He was found always in the company of Heads of state and travels back during nights not wasting time. Recently Canadian PM Justin Trudeau arrived on a seven day tour and met PM Modi only on the last day. Was there any instance of Modi travelling as he did? Aight seeing for six days and work on the last day?
To recollect a few earlier trips by some leaders. Manmohan Singh visited 65 nations during the first two years in office. Deve Gowda attended G15 summit with his wife,son, Daughter, eight grand children and two daughters in law. Speaker Meira Kumar, President Prathiba Patil, PM Rajiv & PM Indira spent 100s of crores for their tours mostly with huge entourage of family members. But Modi’s success is a thorn in the flesh of the opposition which immaculately conceived ideas to extract the maximum from exchequer for personal benefit. How can Modi travel so much on tours? Guys he was not on tours, he was travelling on work. Unlike his predecessors.
India had not seen intent as now, ever before. Propaganda against Modi is really a propaganda against our India. Some believe that their immaculately conceived ideas of extraction of the wealth of India is under threat so demand immaculate conception of schemes amid programs by Modi Govt. When you take effort you may be prone to errors and may be branded imperfect. When you don’t, you may be considered perfect. Right?
The choice before India is the immaculate conception of scams and nepotism of Sonia Congress and her coterie and an imperfect but totally filled with honesty and right intent of the government of Narendramodi. The pain may be there with Modi but nothing ever substantial was ever achieved without pain. What’s your choice dear citizen of India?
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