Where's the magic, Modi? First nine months report card

Dear Mr Modi,

Exactly nine months today but feels like you have been the prime minister for a very long time indeed.

The freshness normally usually associated with a new government for the first couple of years has all but vanished. Much of this is due to mass and social media which audit every action of the government brutally and often unfairly. But media is a reality you have to live with. In fact one would imagine that handling the media should be the least of your problems. Till very recently you were considered a master at it.

Hence this note.

The election results which brought you into power was misleading. A majority in the Lok Sabha after three decades gives the impression of a gigantic wave which a vote share of just 31 per cent belies. Despite the landslide, you were not the first choice for seven out of ten people in the country. And even within the three who did vote for you, at least one had probably done so with some reluctance only in response to your personal promises of good governance and development.

This arithmetic is not new; several governments have been sworn in with vote share of less than 40 per cent or even 35 per cent. The difference now is that politically the country is more divided today than ever before and the mid-ground has reduced. If all of a sudden you are feeling under siege, it is because those opposed to you outnumber your supporters 2:1. Not a happy equation for someone whose biggest strength just a few months ago was a moral high-ground.

The one-and-a-half year long campaign with more than 250 rallies forced you to make virtually every kind of promise including a few to do with education and security in which typically the PM has no role to play since they are state subjects. And you did so with your characteristic flamboyant style that implied, even if it was not clearly stated, that a revolution was around the corner.

Unable to understand an undefined revolution, most of us saw it from our personal perspectives. Some believed you will create jobs, others thought you would control inflation, still others thought you would build more infrastructure. And so on.

This risk was always inherent in not spelling out the contours of the Gujarat model eldoradro during the campaign. Though we heard many of your speeches we never really got down to hearing exactly what you had in mind. In hindsight it seems that your goal was to run the existing system, the people at large expected unprecedented dramatic change.

Be that as it may, no revolution has happened. From the poorest on the street to the richest in the office the refrain is the same. That nothing has changed. Luckily oil prices dropped helping cool inflation; one shudders to think of what may have happened if global oil prices hadn’t dropped.  

It is not that you have not worked hard or not done the right things. Maybe you have been distracted with election after election or may be you have chosen to do the tough and more invisible things first but somehow the people at large have so far not been touched by the Modi magic. For us it has been a case of having gone only as far as slogan-led programmes can take us. Programmes like Swachh Bharat and Make in India are not irrelevant but even the common man is getting to understand that far more hard work needed to be done to make them into national movements. As of now they remain statements of intent or at best, pointers to what and should be.

Alas however, in one area the change has been significant. And certainly not positive

There has been hyper-activity on the social engineering front. Hindutva, love jihad, ghar wapsi, conversion, haraamzaade, re-appraisal of Mother Teresa, advice on what to wear, how many children to produce and so on. Ideas such as these have kept flowing from the ruling dispensation. Sometimes even from the ministers.

Each such headline carried globally creates the image of an India retreating into medieval times. Watching the 9pm news night after night, it is tough even for us to believe that development and governance are the agenda of the country and not social re-engineering.

Even if Obama’s method was hurtful, his interest was not misplaced. India is a unique example of a successful multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi religious society in a world rapidly becoming isolationist. Whether we like it or not, the world is concerned and that too, in a positive way.

Where the rubber hits the road is global investment of which we have yet to see the beginning. No one wants to invest big money in shifting sands. No matter how attractive the returns. For you to visibly and frequently dissociate yourself from all such rhetoric is no longer an option. It is a necessity.

Sir, nine months is a short period in a long journey. But another three months and you would enter your second year as head of government. You continue to be our best bet but make no mistake, disappointment is setting in. You need to quickly pull out some rabbits out of the hat.

The good news is that the hat is full and there’s a lot to be done. And you don’t have to look far. Just go back to your promise of "better governance, less government". There’s a lot in those four words. Here are three suggestions.

1) Come down on waste with unprecedented ferocity

Begin by closing down a few ministries. Just because the ruling party needs to give ministerships to its people is no reason for wasting public funds.

Prune down staff across the board. Am sure you know that the personal staff of a minister usually runs into a dozen people with undefined roles, all with life-long employment and government housing. Tough to believe that all those are necessary. Reduce decision-making in ministries to not more than three levels.

Shut down money-guzzlers like CSIR etc which have no role whatsoever in a free economy. Just for your information CSIR has 45-odd laboratories operating in a free market environment and still needs Rs 3,000cr every year as support from the tax payer.

Get rid of Air India. Privatise the railways.

2) Destroy, demolish, obliterate symbols of alienation which had been created by a foreign government for which alienation from the people was an instrument of governance

A two-acre bungalow and personal staff of a dozen people in the office is not just waste, it also alienates the ruling class from the people.

Redlights, blue lights, green lights on cars, discretionary quotas, fast track service, gunmen and guards. The list is endless. MMS not being able to eliminate this was understandable.

If even you can’t then the country will turn to AAP. It is in your self-interest to treat this as priority.

3) Revive the bureaucracy. It is comatose

With CBI, CAG, CVC and the Enforcement Bureau constantly looking over their shoulder to catch them when they go wrong and no incentive to reward them if they succeed. Frankly under the current dispensation it is a wonder they sign any paper at all! As a result decisions take months and even years.

Make them feel secure, incentivise them. Involve them. Give them ownership of their initiatives. May be increase their tenures so that there is higher accountability.

Will you manage all of this? Most unlikely. But even if you can’t achieve the impossible, please try to do so.

The people of India are no longer willing to live with incremental objectives.

Preet KS Bedi

(This note first appeared on Preet KS Bedi's Facebook page.)