Verbum ergo sum - I talk therefore I am
The editorials agreed that Narendra Modi is long on talk and short on delivery.
The result is that reality lags behind expectations, says DARIUS NAKHOONWALA. Pix: The Hindu edit on 26 May, 2015.
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You don’t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
Narendra Modi completed 365 days in office on May 26. But the assessment of his first year started at the end of March.
This rendered the final denouement a Big Bore. Everyone said the same thing, and it was best summed up by the Hindu Business Line which said in its editorial that “while his popularity remains very high, the mismatch between expectation and reality has caught up with Modi, his approval levels dipping below the 80 per cent-plus levels he enjoyed this time last year.”
Its down-market cousin, the Hindu, however, devoted two edits to Mr Modi’s first year, one to home and the abroad. Since no one ever says anything about the foreign policy of any prime minister - remember the Gujral Doctrine nonsense? - let’s stay with the home game.
And this is what the Hindu, sounding like Mr Doolittle in My Fair Lady, had to say. “Mr. Modi marketed himself as everything his predecessor Manmohan Singh was not…he wanted to offer much more than a concrete programme of action; he wanted to present a vision of the future, a vision of India taking its place as an economic superpower in the first world… but the achievements pale in relation to the expectations... the comparison being made is not between the last year of Dr Manmohan Singh and the first year of Mr Modi but between Mr Modi’s words and his deeds, between the promise of achche din and the harsh, unchanging realities on the ground.”
See? Wasn’t the Businesss Line edit crisper?
The Times of India sounded a warning: “Electorates can be unforgiving and the looming danger for NDA is that a couple of years down the line people will forget the years of UPA misgovernance and measure the NDA against its promise of change and achche din….As we head into the NDA’s second year its biggest enemies - in no particular order - are complacency, hubris and time.”
The Indian Express - I really worry about its teeth which seem to have been pulled out - wrote a pallid edit. “In the last 12 months, arguably the biggest achievement…is that the story of India has been enlivened… Since Modi took charge last year on May 26, he has invested effort in addressing negative perceptions… (But) too much seems to ride on him, and him alone. The government doesn’t seem to be working to any systematic or long-term plan. While it looks intent on accomplishing individual projects, it doesn’t appear to be paying enough attention to the big picture.”
The Telegraph went off on a single point, devoting the entire edit to it. “Can remaining corruption free be the end of governance? …integrity is the minimum requirement of being in power... there is some significance in the fact that the maintenance of a minimum requirement becomes a subject to be trumpeted. (But) Does this suggest that Mr Modi's government has nothing else to brag about after one year in office? … The truth is that Mr Modi has precious little to boast about. Having promised dramatic changes, he has only achieved change in one sphere: the removal of corruption. A minimum standard is the theme of maximum boasting.” Yo! Man, gimme five.
The Pioneer, poor thing, had to be loyal and wrote out a long list of things that had been done but even it eventually felt enough was enough and issued this warning. “But there have also been hiccups which the Modi Government will need to address if they are not to derail its ambitious plans…The Opposition has to an extent created an impression (even if flawed) that the Government is out to snatch land from farmers on the pretext of development. Mr Modi and his team should more effectively counter this propaganda before it begins to stick as a metaphor for the anti-poor/pro-rich image the Opposition.”
The Economic Times focused on the government’s intolerance. “Dissent has acquired shades of treason, instead of being treated as inputs to broad-based decision-making. The Opposition needs to be engaged, not merely confronted. These should figure in the agenda for the next four years. Voters don’t care about anniversary tallies.”
The Business Standard made the excellent point that “it is not his (Mr Modi’s) office, nor even those of the "big three" ministries on Raisina Hill, that will determine the success of this government… It is the second rung of ministers…who will do so...The second rung of "implementation" ministers, who collectively are those most responsible for India's economy, will be better served learning from the past year, so as to ensure that no publicity blitzes will be necessary on May 26, 2016.”
So there it is folks: Everyone is agreed that Mr Modi is long on talk and short on delivery. The question is whether he will reverse this tendency.
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