Modi's personality remains his greatest accomplishment in Year One
One year on, Narendra Modi's greatest accomplishment still remains himself. That he is prime minister of the world's greatest democracy, having challenged the odds of birth, privilege, his own actions in Gujarat and indeed his own party, remains the most powerful statement of what an iron will can achieve.
He has an extraordinary connect with those who voted him to power, and it remains his greatest source of strength. He began his second year in office as prime minister as he began his first year - by reaching out directly to the people, through an open letter to his fellow citizens with the promise to be "always in your service" and a direct message to his followers which set Twitter abuzz in the morning, dividing the social media fraternity into the haves and have-nots. His tweet may have been grammatically incorrect: "Its been a year" instead of "It's been a year" but that is something only English language journalists (not Modi's favourite people anyway) will agonise over.
From Gujarat chief minister to India's prime minister, from candidate Modi to first among equals Modi, it has been quite a remarkable transformation. Delhi, expecting a rank outsider who would take time to understand the Byzantine ways of the capital, has found that the Delhi Durbar had been replaced by Modi's drawing room. Despite complaints about lack of access from Delhi journalists, the truth is he has perhaps met more senior journalists informally for off the record briefings - most recently organised by Arun Jaitley at his home in the immediate aftermath of Arun Shourie's scathing criticism - than most previous prime ministers. At these briefings, the prime minister has seemed relaxed, in command, loquacious, never in a hurry (barely glancing at his watch) and even jokey (the obligatory jibe about news traders is levelled every time there is an uncomfortable question).
He has, to the surprise of those who expected a provincial chief minister to be at a loss on the world stage, embraced the global arena with what posh people would like to call an unseemly gusto, visiting 18 nations in 11 trips (he has also visited 20 states in keeping with his promise of cooperative federalism). His selfies with world leaders, his addressing of Barack Obama by his first name and his tourist-like awe at seeing new places have struck many as being unbecoming of the leader of the world's largest democracy.
But then old India is not used to people in power enjoying its many benefits. We are accustomed to seeing our leaders celebrating poverty and apologising for the perks power brings in a largely deprived country. The Nehru-Gandhis have perfected this art of expensive simplicity - as Sarojini Naidu once said of Mahatma Gandhi, that he didn't realise how much it cost to maintain him in poverty. They publicise their visits to Dalit homes but never tell us what they do on their foreign trips - or indeed where they go. Modi has no such qualm - he is happy to share his awe because he has nothing to hide. There are no relatives waiting to sponge off him and no associates in a hurry to cash in on his status. As he swings by from nation to nation, deepening and widening his knowledge base, he can convince himself and most of India that he is doing so as "Pradhan Sewak".
It is the same uninhibited glee he shows whether he is inaugurating the hospital belonging to one of the world's richest men or welcoming Bollywood stars and global CEOs to 7 Race Course Road, even as Rahul Gandhi revives himself by accusing the Modi government of being a "suit-boot ki sarkar". It is, but Modi believes he has earned that privilege.
And that indeed is Modi's greatest achievement - channeling the can-do and will-do spirit of an increasingly young nation which believes in a meritocracy. The Make in India campaign, the Swachh Bharat mission and the Jan Dhan Yojana are all part of this aspiration. Expectations are high, patience is low - those who admire Modi's chutzpah also want him to deliver on his promises. They want his ministers to display some talent and his bureaucrats to show some imagination. They want to see the same spirit of innovation that they saw in the campaign to elect him prime minister, a campaign that largely bypassed his party. The promised infusion of talent (so far restricted to Niti Aayog which seems as defunct as the Planning Commission) and the out of the box ideas (so far in evidence only in his social media outreach) are yet to happen. There is also a disappointing lack of statecraft, the very quality his trusted adviser Arun Jaitley said the Congress lacked, which is coming back to haunt a government which seemed so unassailable in Parliament.
If there is an average of 12 tweets from the prime minister's office (PMO) every day, they want to see at least one game changing achievement at the end of one year. There is a great danger that an increasingly bedraggled and dispirited nation waiting for acche din will fall out of love with a prime minister whose clothes never crease and whose energy never wanes. No matter that we haven't had such an engaged prime minister for a long time, who doesn't forget a single occasion to connect with people - whether it is to wish Class 12 CBSE students on Twitter or talk about the menace of drugs in one of his seven Mann ki Baats. In Year One, Modi has shown India what self belief and hard work can achieve. Now he has to help over a billion people unleash the same energy and determination in themselves.