Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing what he can to impart a sense of brisk energy to his political colleagues in government as well as to the bureaucracy. There are initiatives galore. Wherever we look, ministers seem to be coming up with ideas which they believe to be doable. The most eye-catching of all, of course, is the PM’s own exhortation to the faithful. Mr Modi has urged them to get back to him with what is feasible in 100 days — by convention, a government’s “honeymoon” period after which tough questions begin to be asked — and get cracking on those.
In addition, he has emphasised 10 points. These embrace sharpening the investment climate, seeking out foreign direct investments all round (except multi-brand retail, presumably because the BJP manifesto has embargoed it), even in pristine areas such as defence, passing the goods and services tax bill (proposed first in the NDA government led by Vajpayee and pushed hard by Manmohan Singh, but to no avail, thanks to the stubborn resistance put up chiefly by BJP-run states), e-governance to bring about greater transparency, education, and agriculture, besides showing solicitousness to the concerns of states on the economic front.
Much of this is unexceptional, and none of it is quite new as a thought. So, there is a little bit of motherhood and apple-pie element in the pronouncements made so far. We can only know by and by if the four-day-old government can sustain its energies over the full term of its occupancy of the crease, and bat steadily instead of essaying revolutionary sixes and fours. That is a necessary requirement of good governance, or sushasan, the expression beloved of the BJP.
On the economic side, the RSS, which appears to carry much influence with the present government, has come out saying quite openly that running the economy is the government’s lookout and it has no plans to do micro-management, and that all it would like is for the government to pay heed to India’s economic sovereignty in a broad sense. Prime Minister Modi should be encouraged by these sentiments. Indeed, it is not inconceivable that the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail is also given a re-look. Mr Modi had hinted at something like this during the election campaign.
While the PM is seen emphasising good governance, and civil servants are urged to act with despatch and with transparency, the research surprisingly shows that some 30 per cent of the ministers in his government have criminal charges facing them, some quite serious ones. One of the accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots of last September is also a minister. This is hardly reassuring.
