The document provides critiques of Narendra Modi's first year as Prime Minister of India from various commentators and publications. It contains 37 articles that are generally critical of Modi's performance. Some of the main critiques included are: - Modi failed to deliver on many of his major promises like bringing back black money and depositing Rs. 15 lakh in every citizen's account. - Economic reforms have been incremental rather than bold or radical as promised. Growth, jobs, exports, and industrial production are lower than expected. - Agriculture is in distress with falling growth and increasing farmer suicides. Social sectors like health and education faced budget cuts. - Relations with neighbors like Pakistan and China have

1. May 2015
One Year of the Modi Government:
A Compilation of Critiques
AICC Research and Coordination Committee

2. Modi Has Underwhelmed India 1
The Bloomberg
2 Promises Unmet
KapilSibal, The Hindu
Slogans Vs. Reality: 12 Simple Facts on Modiji’s 12 Months 4
Dr. Shashi Tharoor, NDTV
5 The A-Z of ‘Acche Din’
Dr. ManiShankar Aiyer, NDTV
How Modi Let India in Just One Year 7
SanjayJha, Huffington Post
9 Mr. Modi’s War on Welfare
G. Sampath,The Hindu
Farm and Factory 11
HartoshSingh Bal,The Caravan
14 Wasting 282
Mihir S Sharma, BusinessStandard
Narendra Modi’s Popularity Wanes in India as First Year Nears End 16
Rahul Bedhi, The Irish Times
18 After a Year of Outsize Expectations, Narendra Modi Adjusts his Plan for India
EllenBarry, NewYork Times

3. The One Thing That has Saved Modi from Being a Complete Flop This Year 24
Girish Sahane, Scroll.in
25 India Wants Delivery, Not Just Intent
IndiaToday
The Most Visible Part of the India Growth Story Has Been Modi’s
Increasing Ability to Laud Himself
27
Monobina Gupta
29 Modi’s One Year Anniversary: Where are the ‘Good Days’ he Promised?
Shashank Shukla,Oped Space
Modi’s 1-Year Report Card: Anti-farmer and Pro-corporate Sarkar 30
KavitaChowdhary,BusinessStandard
31
A Promise Broken: PM Modi’s Maximum Failure on
Minimum Government
Seetha, FirstPost
Doordarshan Singing Praises Won’t do Any Good 33
SandipanSharma,FirstPost
34 After a Year in Office the Real Modi Needs to Stand Up
Dheeraj Nayyar,dna
22 One Year of Narendra Modi Sarkar: Expectations Were Unrealistically High
PratapBhanu Mehta, The Financial Express
Promises That he Can’t Deliver 20
FirstPost

4. Fishing for Compliments: Modi Govt’s Publicity Blitzkrieg Smacks of Desperation 38
AkshayaMisra,FirstPost
40
One Year on, Modi has Battered Many Constitutional
Principles – But the Biggest Victim is Fraternity
Harsh Mander, Scroll.in
One Year of Narendra Modi Sarkar: Not a Good Year for the Farmer 42
Ashok Gulati,Financial Express
43 Healthcare Under Modi: In Need of Critical Attention
DineshC Sharma, dna
An Education in Acronyms 45
Anjali Mody,The Hindu
47 India’s One-man Band
The Economist
In Service of Corporates and Hindutva – Modi’s Disastrous First Year 49
PrafulBidwai,KashmirTimes
37 One Year on, Modi Government has Proved its Critics Wrong
Aakar Patel,Scroll.in
After One Year, India Expects Modi to Deliver 35
SanjayKumar, The Diplomat

5. 1
Modi Has Underwhelmed India
Bloomberg
When Narendra Modi swept to power in India a year
ago, critics said they feared his strongman tendencies.
They needn't have worried. In his approach to eco-
nomic reform, he's been anything but forceful.
In 2014, voters gave Modi a mandate for radical re-
form and a big parliamentary majority to carry it out.
Granted, his government hasn't been idle -- it's done
a lot of smallish things, many of them valuable -- but
it hasn't been bold. That is what India needed Modi to
be. Now, at the end of his precious first year as prime
minister, it might be too late.
The government calls its approach "creative incre-
mentalism," which is more apology than rallying cry.
Officials count off their achievements: milder restric-
tions on foreign direct investment, cuts to fuel subsi-
dies, more planned spending on infrastructure, moves
to curb corruption and inefficiency in government.
That's all fine. The drift and malaise that marked the
last years of the previous, Congress-led administration
have gone, and there's more optimism about growth.
Even so, it's all a bit disappointing.
Measures like this aren't going to get India growing
as quickly as it should. New forecasts say the econo-
my will expand by almost 8 percent next year -- faster
than China -- but they're flattered by cheap oil and
based on a questionable new methodology. Profits
and industrial production are down. Exports have
fallen for five months running. Job growth is slow.
After outperforming other emerging markets in the
first six months of Modi's tenure, Indian stocks have
returned to earth.
More and stronger economic reform is needed, but
Modi doesn't seem eager. It would be within his pow-
er, for instance, to restructure and privatize inefficient
state-owned enterprises and banks. It isn't happening.
The window for such actions is closing. The opposi-
tion was cowed and disorganized after its trouncing
last May; it has since regrouped, and smells blood.
Lately, the long-ruling Congress Party has stymied
Modi's efforts to amend a restrictive land-acquisition
law, and stalled a bill to create a nationwide goods-
and-services tax (a measure it once pushed, by the
way). Favorable macroeconomic conditions could
easily shift, narrowing Modi's options still further. His
moment may already have passed.
What can he do to prove otherwise? For a start, deep-
en and extend the changes he's already made. The
rules on foreign direct investment should be relaxed
further. Rather than trying to convince investors that
they won't be ambushed by the taxman, the govern-
ment should make such assaults impossible by sim-
plifying the corporate code and lowering rates. Banks
aren't lending and private infrastructure companies
aren't investing because of an overhang of bad debt:
The government should address this directly, by creat-
ing a "bad bank" to get those loans off the books.
If radicalism at the center is hard, Modi can do more to
encourage radicalism in the states. He's said he wants
them to compete to attract investment by amending
the land and labor laws that stifle enterprise. Good
idea. Yet states governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata
Party already account for almost half of India's GDP.
They need a push. A more concerted effort to press
forward needn't stop reforming states such as Rajas-
than from going even further. Modi, who dominates
the BJP, could do more to prod the laggards.
Distracted by details, the prime minister has failed to
act as an effective campaigner for further reform, a vi-
tal role that only he can play. His successes have most-
ly been piecemeal and have relied on his own close in-
volvement. Individual measures wait for his attention
and everything slows down. The jolt of energy that the
rest of the government needs is never applied.
In his first year, Modi has spent too much political
capital to no coherent purpose. Before it's too late,
that needs to change.
Date: 24 May, 2015
Courtesy: Bloombergview
*****

6. 2
Promises Unmet
Kapil Sibal
Mr. Modi sold promises and dreams during his cam-
paign speeches but the reality has been vastly differ-
ent.
Narendra Modi believes he has transformed India in
the last one year. In his speeches abroad, especially to
NRIs, he has repeatedly made this point, though he
chooses not to do so in India. Mr. Modi catapulted
to the position of Prime Minister by selling a dream
of bringing succour to the lives of the marginalised
millions. At the end of one year, we need to assess the
transformation he promised.
Business as usual
Mr. Modi promised that when he came to power, the
economy would grow at 10 per cent or more. He prom-
ised to put in place procedures to ensure ease of doing
business. After one year, it is business as usual. In fact,
a recent study reveals that profitability of 2,941 major
companies in the quarter ending December 2014 de-
clined by 16.9 per cent compared to the correspond-
ing quarter of the previous year. Indeed, key drivers of
corporate profitability, namely investment, household
consumption and corporate dividends, continue to
be weak. Many analysts have in fact downgraded the
earnings forecast all the way till March 2016.
Latest figures from the Finance Ministry (March
2015) indicate that 2,099 mega projects involving an
outlay of 18.13 lakh crore are stalled with the Proj-
ect Management Group directly under the control
of the Prime Minister. The government’s claim about
reversal in the economic fortunes of India is hollow.
It is because of the abysmal performance of the cor-
porate sector and the non­professional way in which
state­owned banks give loans that PSU banks are deep-
ly crisis­ridden with bad loans and restricted assets
reaching a gigantic Rs. 7,12,000 crore (13.2 per cent of
total advances), a figure higher than our fiscal deficit.
Mr. Modi, instead of making outlandish statements
beyond our borders, should focus on, or at least have
his Finance Minister deal with, the reality of econom-
ic stagflation that is bleeding us.
Before the elections when inflation was a real prob-
lem, Mr. Modi continuously proclaimed that when in
power, he would ensure inflation was controlled and
households did not struggle. His government was
fortunate to see the crude oil price fall. From $108 a
barrel in May 2014, it is now $60. This helped the Fi-
nance Minister reduce the deficit and the wholesale
price index came down. Unfortunately, the inflation
that touches the aam aadmi was not addressed. The
average price of select items consumed daily by peo-
ple is higher today than a year ago. The price per kilo
of wheat flour, pulses, milk, mustard oil, vanaspa-
ti, onions and potatoes has increased, in some cases
by 10­15 per cent. In September 2013, when the ru-
pee depreciated to Rs. 66 a dollar, Mr. Modi had said,
“[Due to] the failure of Manmohan Singh, the rupee
has landed in hospital, where it is battling for life on
a ventilator.” Today, it continues to be on a ventilator,
hovering around Rs. 64 to a dollar.
Mr. Modi made promises knowing that fulfilling them
would be a tall order. Amit Shah has now admitted
that the vow to bring back billions of dollars of black
money was just a chunavi jumla (electoral gimmick).
Statements like these shake people’s confidence in the
credibility of politicians. There are huge procedural
wrangles in bringing back black money. The promise
to put Rs. 15 lakh in every citizen’s bank account from
the recovered black money was an unethical and dis-
honest attempt to garner votes. Now that they are in
government, both the Finance Minister and Mr. Modi
realise the difficulties and no longer talk about it.
Mr. Modi also promised to remove corruption. On
April 21, 2014, he said he would personally ensure
the removal of criminals from Parliament. We are yet
to see that happen. In fact, the Lokpal Bill, an emo-
tive issue that caught the attention of the people, saw
the BJP supporting the Aam Aadmi Party to up the
ante against the United Progressive Alliance. Now, the
Prime Minister appears to have forgotten about it and
is even silent about its introduction in Parliament.
Date: 24 May, 2015
Courtesy: The Hindu

7. 3
Foreign policy failures
Despite the hype, on­ground delivery is not visible
here. Mr. Modi’s policy on Pakistan has been a failure;
he does not know how to deal with Pakistan. He would
have us believe that all is quiet despite the fact that
incidences of cross­border intrusions have increased
and Nawaz Sharif has expressed anguish and alleged
that the Prime Minister has let him down. There is no
change on the ground and yet our Foreign Secretary
went to Pakistan in March under the garb of a SAARC
meeting. No breakthroughs followed.
Mr. Modi recently returned from China. In his elec-
tion campaign, he had said it was shameful for the Ex-
ternal Affairs Minister to go to China despite repeated
Chinese incursions across the border. The incursions
continue, but Mr. Modi himself happily visited China,
despite the Chinese reaction to Mr. Modi’s Arunachal
Pradesh tour in February. On the issue of incursions,
the Finance Minister said recently, “As far as China is
concerned, on the line of actual control, China has a
different perception on what the line of actual control
is, India has a different perception.”
It seems that incursions by Chinese are no longer an
issue, legitimised because the perceptions of the two
countries on the line of actual control are different. In
China, Mr. Modi unilaterally made a statement that
e­visas would be granted to Chinese tourists, despite
the Foreign Secretary stating the opposite a few hours
earlier. Mr. Modi has lost a great opportunity to use
the e­visa as a bargaining chip to settle our concerns
qua Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
As for the U.S., Mr. Modi suggests there has been a
transformation in relations since President Barack
Obama accepted the invitation to be a Guest of Hon-
our on Republic Day. Relations between countries are
not transformed through ceremonial visits. It is only
when Americans invest in our economy that the rela-
tionship will be considered transformative. From the
U.S. standpoint, road blocks to investments in India
remain. Unless bold policy decisions are taken, real
transformation will not happen.
Social sector setback
The real failure of this government has been its com-
plete disregard of the social sectors. Agriculture, edu-
cation, health, and the concerns of small traders, who
represent the backbone of the economy, have all been
sidelined. Allocations on education and health have
been drastically reduced. Agriculture is in distress.
The growth rate in agriculture has come down to 1.1
per cent from 3.7 per cent in 2014. More farmers are
committing suicide than ever before.
The average debt of 52 per cent of all agricultural
households is Rs. 47,000, of which 26 per cent is owed
to private moneylenders — the root cause of farmer
suicides. There has been no attempt to have a crop
insurance scheme. Mr. Modi should know that 80­85
per cent of all farmers own less than 1 hectare of land,
which means that land is their only source of liveli-
hood. If they lose that, they will be deprived of their
livelihood and, in the absence of skills, they cannot
be absorbed in non­agricultural sectors. Therefore, the
amendments to the Land Bill are ill­timed. This legisla-
tion should only move forward when there is enough
capacity created in the non­agricultural sectors and
enough skills imparted for surplus rural labour. It is
clear, therefore, that this government has no clue how
to deal with the endemic problems that confront the
agricultural community. Mr. Modi is instead shower-
ing benefits on a few industrialists, which is the worst
form of crony capitalism.
There is also a sinister transformation taking place in
India; a silent but sure­footed saffronising of both poli-
ty and institutions, particularly in education. This does
not augur well for our democracy. Vicious attempts
by the saffron brigade to create conflicts through ‘love
jihad’ and ‘ghar vapasi’ are matters of deep concern.
The essence of India must be protected at any cost.
The government by fair means and foul is attempting
to destroy what our civilisation has always stood for.
*****

8. 4
Slogans vs Reality: 12 Simple Facts
on Modiji’s 12 Months
Dr Shashi Tharoor
The media is full of anniversary retrospectives, and
since I've been early off the starting gate with my own
assessment of the Prime Minister and his regime (as
far back as December 2014), I am reluctant to repeat
myself in mellifluous analytical prose all over again.
Since my point of view is well-known already, I would
prefer not to belabour my readers with further com-
mentary. Instead, here is a simple recital of bare facts
- one for each of Mr Modi's months in office to date,
juxtaposed with the related Moditva slogan:
Slogan: "India First".
Reality: The Prime Minister has delivered more
speeches in Parliaments abroad, than in the Lok Sabha
of which he is a member.
Slogan: "No more tax terrorism".
Reality: The government inflicted tax demands on
entire new categories of victims, shaking investor con-
fidence. Foreign funds have withdrawn $550 million
from India in the first half of May alone, a dubious
record.
Slogan: "Responsible government".
Reality: Despite draconian measures and targets, the
Government missed the revised tax collection target
for both direct and indirect taxes by Rs. 2,288 crore in
the financial year 2014-15.
Slogan: "Make in India".
Reality: Manufacturing rate of growth under UPA,
May 2014: 5.6%. Manufacturing rate of growth under
NDA, April 2015: 2.1%.
Slogan: "We will create jobs for our youth."
Reality: Number of Indians entering the job market
each month: 10 lakh. Number of new jobs created
by UPA April-June 2014: 1.82 lakh. Number of new
jobs created by Modi government October-December
2014: 1.17 lakh.
Slogan: "Indian businesses will thrive."
Reality: India's merchandise exports shrank for the
fifth consecutive month in April. Merchandise ex-
ports last month were 14% lower than the $25.6 bil-
lion in April last year, and imports fell 7.5% to $33
billion, leaving a trade deficit of $11 billion, according
to commerce ministry data.
Slogan: "We will build India."
Reality: The total value of tenders issued in 2014-15
(across infrastructure sectors) stood at Rs. 395,300
crore, a 23 per cent decline from the previous year
under UPA. The problem of weak tendering affected
railways, highways, real estate, water supply and the
irrigation sector.
Slogan: "We will build roads that UPA couldn't."
Reality: The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yoja-
na (PMGSY) got a budgetary allocation of only Rs.
14,291 crore for 2015-16. According to the Ministry of
Rural Development, the state governments require Rs.
57,206 crore just to complete pending road-building
projects already sanctioned. The budget won't cover a
quarter of that, let alone new roads.
Slogan: "Jan Suraksha".
Reality: Social-sector spending as a percentage of the
gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen to its low-
est levels since 2010 - and that's not even taking into
account five years of inflation since then. Budgets for
health, education, sanitation and women's security -
all major talking points of the BJP's election campaign
- have been savagely slashed. Central schemes remain
on paper but are now unfunded or grossly underfund-
ed.
Slogan: "Jan Dhan Yojana".
Reality: 60% of the new Jan Dhan Yojana accounts
have zero balance.
Slogan: "Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas".
Reality: India's minorities are daily being made to feel
unwelcome by the majoritarian discourse flourishing
under the BJP, with ruling party MPs, including two
Ministers, uttering Hindu-chauvinist sentiments nev-
Date: 26 May, 2015
Courtesy: NDTV

9. 5
er heard before from people in authority. Ghar wapasi,
saffronization, statues of Godse, Ramzadein and Ha-
ramzadein, have all entered into and seared our polit-
ical discourse, while the Prime Minister has remained
ostentatiously silent, refusing to discipline or dismiss
his errant ministers.
Slogan: "Our coal auctions made record sums of mon-
ey."
Reality: These are projections of what auctioned coal
mines would make over thirty years of full and suc-
cessful production. It takes a level of chutzpah that
only Mr Modi is capable of to claim credit in 2015 for
accomplishments that won't actually occur till 2045.
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but not to
their own facts. These are incontrovertible facts; the
glowing polls being cited by Mr Modi's supporters are
opinions. At this rate, the facts will continue to speak
for themselves in the only poll that matters - the one
that's coming in 2019.
*****
The A-Z of ‘Acche Din’
Dr Mani Shankar Aiyer
A is for AAP: That stripped the BJP of its halo and
showed up its Lok Sabha victory as a flash in the pan
A is also for Agrarian Distress: That is the chief out-
come of One Year of Modi: agri growth is down now
to under one per cent
B is for Black Money: That Modi promised to bring
back at Rs.15 lakh a head, but which languishes still in
foreign banks while domestic black swells and swells
B is also for Budgets cuts: That Modi's government has
savagely imposed on social sectors like Health, Educa-
tion, MNREGA and Child Nutrition
B is finally for Banks: Or perhaps "bankruptcy", since
Non-Performing Assets have reached the highest
point ever but credit off-take lags far behind alleged
GDP growth
C is for Chai-wallah: That Modi never was; he helped
out in a canteen at the State Transport Depot taken on
contract by his family
D is for Development: Of the Gujarat kind, which
means fattening the fat cat by grabbing land from in-
nocent mice
D is also for Dignity, Decorum, and Decency: That
Modi throws to the winds every time he addresses
NRIs abroad
E is for Environment: That is being ruthlessly wrecked
with clearances fast-tracked without a care for the
consequences
E is also for Exports: That continue to plummet, drag-
ging the Rupee down to depths not plumbed before
Date: 25 May, 2015
Courtesy: NDTV

10. 6
F is for FDI: That Modi hopes will bail him out, but
which fights shy, seeking action not slogans
F is also for Ford Foundation: That Modi is hounding,
little honouring its huge contribution to the consoli-
dation of Development and Democracy in our land
G is for Godhra: And all that followed, which Modi
wants us to forget but which the nation cannot
G is also for Ghar Wapsi: That discredits Modi and
calls into question his protestations
G is finally for Greenpeace: That Modi is going after for
having the temerity to question him and his policies
H is for Hindutva: Modi's badge of pride, even if it
alarms all those who believe in the Idea of India
I is for Industrialists: The heartless crowd that within a
year has turned on Modi
I is also for Indian Council of Historical Research:
That is headed by a pracharak and is being packed
with mythologists, not historians
J is for Jayalalithaa: That elusive will o' the wisp, who
keeps Modi dangling in despairing hope
K is for Kisan: Whose very existence is being snuffed
out because Modi considers them a nuisance and a
roadblock to growth
L is for Land: That Modi wants to acquire with both
hands to pass on to his "suited-booted" cronies
M is for Minorities: That Modi has ceaselessly failed to
protect
M is also for Manufacturing: That adamantly refuses to
pick up despite Modi's pleadings
N is for Nagpur: That dictates the BJP's every move
O is for Ordinances: That Modi spews like a fountain
P is for Panchayats: That Modi grossly neglects
P is for Parliament: That Modi is also grossly neglect-
ing
Q is for Questions: That hang over Modi's acche din -
aakhir, hain kahan?
R is for RSS: That rules the roost
R is also for Rafale: That has killed "Make in India"
S is for Swachch Bharat: That has left us as filthy as
before
T is for Talkathons: That Modi loves treating himself
to, forgetting the Gita's injunction that action is his
duty
U is for Ubiquitous: That means Modi being every-
where
U is also for Universities: Left headless while Modi's
government seeks saffron ideologues to fill the vacan-
cies
V is for Voter: Duped and abandoned
W is for Wife: Whose RTI petition is callously thrown
in the dustbin
X is for Xmas: That Modi has obliterated as a holiday
(also, see point M on Minorities)
Y is for YOU: You poor misled citizen
Z is for Zero: The mark awarded to One Year of Modi
*****

11. 7
How Modi Let Down India In Just One Year
Sanjay Jha
Narendra Modi rode a rhapsodic wave to 7 Race
Course Road amidst frenzied BJP supporters, media
calisthenics, promotional blitz and mind-boggling
promises of acchhe din. Twelve months later, it is es-
tablished that Modi has no magic wand. Or a unique
panacea for India's diverse challenges. In fact, he has
come up woefully short. Despite being a Congress
spokesperson, I shall attempt to be dispassionate and
prejudice-free in this brief synopsis of a year that was
annus horribilis for us.
Modi's only positive accomplishment was that he,
at least temporarily, revived national sentiment on
India, which paradoxically enough, was relentlessly
smothered, slaughtered and singed by the BJP itself.
But a painstaking analysis demonstrates that Modi
remained in campaign mode and orchestrated atmo-
spherics like the Madison Square Garden show dom-
inated the rock-star politician's agenda. The actual
performance though remained sub-par.
The institutionalisation of the RSS was formalized -
its chief got official government approbation by being
allowed broadcast his Hindutva philosophy on the
state-run Doordarshan. Modi promptly tweeted his
earnest endorsement of Mohan Bhagwat’s speech. Ex-
pectedly, what followed were inflammatory outbursts
from the likes of Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath
and Giriraj Singh. Ghar Wapsi, Love Jihad, unheard
of sectarian templates suddenly overwhelmed politi-
cal discourse. Meanwhile, the RSS has imperceptibly
penetrated some crucial institutions of India, like ed-
ucation. It hardly portends well. Hate-spewing voices
like Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Sadhvi Prachi gained
prominence. Modi, a past-master at running with
the hares and hunting with the hounds, found that
his political stratagem had backfired. By the end of
a year, people were asking probing questions. Modi’s
convenient silence followed by a self-righteous tweet
seemed trite.
Church attacks continued unabated, getting ex-top
cop Julio Ribeiro to ruefully question his status as an
Indian citizen. Earlier, just before he returned home
after Modi’s bear-hugs and riveting tales of his croc-
odile conquests following India’s Republic day, US
President Barack Obama remained circumspect about
India’s secular credentials -- if Mahatma Gandhi was
alive, he would be stunned to see Indian society rising
communal intolerance.
The BJP/RSS have a pathological antipathy towards
India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and it
shows - from renaming schemes earlier named after
him, to repeated attempts to mortify the world states-
man. It reached a nadir when personal equations be-
tween him and Sardar Patel and Netaji SC Bose were
distorted mischievously through selective leaks.
Despite some heaven-sent economic tailwinds that
had crude oil prices slump to below 50% of the levels
prevalent during the UPA, Modi’s economy was slug-
gish and slothful, with all crucial economic indicators
such as job accretion, core sector growth, merchandise
exports and agricultural productivity languishing.
Despite massive ad spends for government branding
of popular schemes (erstwhile UPA launches), there
was little incremental momentum. Make in India,
Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan Yojana etc re-
mained just seductive slogans. Modi was peripatetic, a
constant globetrotter but with nothing to show but his
rock-star image, particularly to NRIs. India’s econom-
ic performance has been unimpressive, despite GDP
growth projected at 7.5%. Irrational obstinacy in the
Land Bill by a recalcitrant Modi has led to increas-
ing farmer resistance, and Gajendra Rajput’s death in
scorching heat in Delhi was a macabre exhibition of
farmer angst.
Modi’s arrogance can be best seen in his Scarlett O’Ha-
ra attitude, with the ordinance route employed fla-
grantly. But the opposition was resolute in its defiance
of anti-poor legislative amendments being hurriedly
pushed through. Arun Jaitley, who masterminded
the parliamentary gridlock during UPA-II that held
back crucial bills, now appeared distraught. No one
was convinced. The BJP is like a Robin Hood gone
rogue; it has slashed social sector allocations on pub-
lic health, delayed MNREGA payments, allowed the
Food Security Act to remain comatose and mocked
at farmer-friendly provisions in the Land Ordinance.
The poor are understandably disillusioned, and even
the middle-class are feeling short-charged.
Date: 8 May, 2015
Courtesy: Huffington Post

12. 8
The promise to recover black money within 100 days
was revealed to be mere electoral rhetoric by Amit
Shah. It was the perfect example of the BJP's sleight
of hand.
Foreign policy remained muddled, even as traditional
adversaries Pakistan and China seem to be drawing
even closer by sharing strategic military and econom-
ic corridors (USD 46 billion investments) on crucial
geographical terrain sensitive to Indian borders. And
non-state actors given polite patronage by the Paki-
stan establishment looked increasingly hostile. The
bravado on capturing dreaded don Dawood Ibrahim
has only caused acute embarrassment.
Opaqueness ruled as the RTI appears to be sidelined.
And the Lokpal, an independent CBI, and related
anti-corruption infrastructure bills remained in cold
storage. For its political satire and self-deprecating
humour, the AIB Roast found itself instead being tar-
geted. In Maharashtra, the beef ban was symptomatic
of religious polarisation getting whole-hearted en-
couragement.
The Delhi elections results manifested the mid-
dle-class's disillusionment with Modi. But it is the po-
litically opportunistic alliance with the PDP in Jammu
and Kashmir that has raised serious concerns on In-
dia's national security.
Modi has even tarred NGOs, such as Greenpeace and
those funded by the Ford Foundation, with the brush
of suspicion. The government has looked waspish, ex-
asperated with jholawalla activists. They apparently
pose mountainous threats to India’s growth model. It
sounded peevish and puerile and reeked of political
insecurity.
The media has been generally indulgent of Modi, bar-
ring the occasional castigation. This after Modi con-
temptuously dismissed them as news traders (“baza-
ru”). With General VK Singh branding the media as
“presstitutes”, one expected Modi to do some damage
control. Instead, he sounds embittered, sulking at
their reluctance to appreciate his government.
Frankly, Modi’s honeymoon is over and the signs of
disenchantment are clear. The party’s spokespersons
have a standard answer for every question: “develop-
ment” and a reminder of their brute force in Parlia-
ment.
Returning rejuvenated from a brief sabbatical, Rahul
Gandhi made a straightforward but bodacious attack:
“Modi’s is a suit-boot ki Sarkar, it exists primarily for
crony-capitalism”. He found innumerable takers, giv-
en Modi’s brazenly demonstrated public proximity to
his select favourites, who look equally thrilled to be in
exotic foreign locations with their generous host.
As a Congressman, nothing lacerates my sensibili-
ties more than when Modi talks of a “Congress Mukt
Bharat”. It was the successful fight for Indian Indepen-
dence in 1947 which ended European domination.
The simultaneous Chinese Revolution of 1949 led to
an Asian resurgence and the rise of two superpow-
ers-driven bipolarity in the Soviet Union and USA.
Modi and the BJP do not seem to know that the Con-
gress-led freedom movement changed world history.
He can do nothing to change that. Nothing.
They say a week is a long time in politics. A year, as
Modi is probably discovering, is eternity. India is wait-
ing. And is getting increasingly impatient.
*****

13. 9
Mr. Modi’s War On Welfare
G Sampath
The Modi government is determined to dismantle the
two-pronged welfare paradigm.
It is now an established fact that one area where the
Narendra Modi administration has acted with a sense
of purpose, urgency and resolve is in slashing so-
cial expenditure. Be it education, health, agriculture,
livelihood security, food security, panchayati raj in-
stitutions, drinking water or the Scheduled Castes/
Scheduled Tribes sub-plan, central government funds
earmarked for social protection have been cut.
The cutbacks have been so drastic that one of NDA’s
own Cabinet members, Maneka Gandhi, the Minister
for Women and Child Development, felt compelled to
write a dissenting note to the Finance Minister. Ac-
cording to the estimates doing the rounds, the overall
reductions in social sector spending add up to about
Rs. 1.75 lakh crore.
No Indian Prime Minister has ever launched such a
full frontal attack on the welfare state that India, for a
brief period, has tried to be, or some might say, pre-
tended to be. Considering that the biggest beneficia-
ries of these schemes were the poor and the marginal-
ised — typically dismissed as vote banks responsible
for the political nuisance of populism — Mr. Modi de-
serves full credit for this achievement, the most note-
worthy of his first year in office.
But these cuts in social spending tell only half the sto-
ry. We need to look at the other half — what he wants
to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Em-
ployment Guarantee Act, the Public Distribution Sys-
tem, and all the other existing social provisions with
— to get the rest.
Social security that isn’t
The ruling party’s spokespersons, in response to the
charges levelled by the Opposition that their govern-
ment is anti-poor, have been pointing to the social
security initiatives launched by the NDA including
the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the Pradhan
Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri
Suraksha Bima Yojana and the Atal Pension Yojana.
If anyone wants to find out how pro-poor the NDA
administration really is, all they need to do is to com-
pare the provisions of the social expenditures it wants
out, such as the MGNREGA, with the ones it is push-
ing. The larger design becomes immediately apparent.
The MGNREGA and the Food Security Act (which
governs the Integrated Child Development Services,
PDS and the Midday Meal programmes) are both
rights-based social provisions. The MGNREGA legal-
ly recognises the citizen’s right to demand work as a
right, and if the state cannot deliver 100 days of work
in a financial year, it has to provide unemployment
allowance.
Similarly, while it may come as a shock to economists
imported from Washington DC, many people in this
country hold the bizarre belief that it would be diffi-
cult to stay alive without food — which is why the FSA
makes food a citizen’s right.
The NDA’s various Pradhan Mantri Yojanas, in con-
trast, put the onus of social security on those who lack
it the most — the poor themselves.
Launched by Mr. Modi on August 15 last year, the Jan
Dhan Yojana has been touted as an initiative for finan-
cial inclusion, a slippery term that can be spun to say
one thing and mean another. It could mean real finan-
cial empowerment, which is what it is being projected
as. What it entails in reality is having your income,
however meagre, made accessible (via the banking
system) to global financial capital, which has run out
of options in the economies that have finished emerg-
ing and don’t know what to do.
Sections of the media have already begun writing glib-
ly about the “success” of the Jan Dhan Yojana. What
do they mean? Simply that a great number of bank
accounts have been opened — 14.99 crore of them as
of April 15, 2015. But as per the government’s own fig-
ures, the majority of these accounts (58 per cent as of
March 31, 2015) have no money in them. Thankful-
ly, India has enough public sector banks that can be
arm-twisted to take on the potentially ruinous burden
of these lakhs of ‘no-frills’ accounts that are also, at the
moment, ‘no money’ accounts.
Date: 26 May, 2015
Courtesy: Huffington Post

14. 10
But the Jan Dhan Yojana is at the heart of the NDA’s
whole social security framework, such as it is, or will
be. It is the basis for the life insurance, accident insur-
ance, and pension schemes scheduled to commence
from June this year.
While a detailed scrutiny of each of these schemes is
beyond the scope of this essay, the broad contours can
be summarised.
First of all, unlike the schemes on the NDA’s chopping
block, none of these are rights-based, which means
they can be wound up at any time, or the benefits de-
nied on technical grounds (no Aadhar card, for in-
stance).
Second, they are contributory, and earnings-linked.
If the poor don’t have jobs, they won’t have an in-
come, and if they don’t have an income, they won’t
have money to put in the Jan Dhan accounts, (which
is why 58 per cent of them are lying empty). And if
they don’t have money to put into their accounts, they
will default on their insurance premiums and pension
payments — and if they default, well, there ends their
social security from the Pradhan Manthri Yojanas.
All the three schemes — the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan
Jyoti Bima Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima
Yojana, and the Atal Pension Yojana — operate on an
auto-debit basis from the Jan Dhan bank account. All
three state categorically in their rules that if there is
insufficient balance to keep the insurance/pension
plan going, the benefits will cease.
Of course, on paper, the Jan Dhan account is where
the subsidies, such as the cash equivalent of the food
grain subsidy, are supposed to be transferred. But cash
transfers alone, without jobs, will never be adequate to
live on, let alone pay insurance premiums.
Put simply, the government’s intent behind these Yo-
janas seems to be to disavow any responsibility for the
socio-economically vulnerable.
Welfare to paternalism
The very idea of social welfare in a modern, capital-
ist, market economy has been informed by two essen-
tial principles. One, because capitalism doesn’t work
equally well for everyone, it requires some cushion-
ing, achieved through income redistribution from
the comparatively wealthy to the poor. This is accom-
plished via progressive taxation, and by setting up a
public infrastructure of certain universal social bene-
fits such as a free health service, or subsidised school-
ing, or housing.
Two, a recognition that social entitlements are a polit-
ical right, not a charity. The post-World War II golden
era of capitalism — which lasted till the ascendancy
of neo-liberal economics — was able to deliver a good
life to so many only because of a strong welfare state
premised on these two principles. The social democ-
racies of the Scandinavian countries, which always
top any global ranking for quality of life, still largely
operate on this model.
It is precisely this two-pronged welfare paradigm —
rights-based social provisions and redistribution of
gross national income — that the Modi government is
determined to dismantle.
Under so-called Modinomics, citizens shall have no
right to work, no right to food, and no right to ask for
what is their due by right (which might explain why
the government hasn’t filled the post of the Central In-
formation Commissioner for the past eight months).
Of course, insurance-based schemes driven by contri-
butions from the citizenry are also a widely employed
social protection tool. But these are more suited to the
developed economies with less acute poverty. Its role
there has been to offer protection against economic
risks such as unemployment or sickness. Social insur-
ance is not a poverty alleviation measure — which is
what India needs at present.
So, what does a social protection scheme that is also
an effective poverty alleviation measure look like?
This is what the radical communist organisation, the
OECD, says in a report released this week, “India has
one of the largest public works programme in the
world in terms of coverage, the NREGS, which plays
an important role in reducing short-term poverty and
smooth employment and income throughout the year
for rural labourers.” And it adds, for good measure,
“The programme, however, remains little used, main-
ly in poorer States, because of lack of funding”.
Unfortunately, for India’s rural labourers, Mr. Modi
doesn’t think as highly of the MGNREGA. There
is, however, a practical reason for this dislike of any
rights-based welfare measures: by definition, and by
law, a rights-based entitlement cannot be subjected to

15. 11
fiscal tyranny.
This is precisely why all of India’s rights-based legisla-
tions — the right to work, the right to food, the right
to education, and the right to information represent a
huge achievement for Indian democracy. They sym-
bolize the triumph of politics over blind monetarism.
And today, they form the legislative edifice on which
the social and economic aspirations of a vast majority
of Indians rest.
But the Modi dispensation — like the one that pre-
ceded it — is also under pressure to kowtow to the
dogma of fiscal rectitude. Yet fiscal discipline is not
the only agenda behind the savage spending cuts in its
very first year. The aim is also to prepare the ground
for fundamentally altering the default settings of so-
cial welfare in India — from a rights-based one that
honours the dignity of the poor, to a paternalistic one
that will push thousands more of the landless poor
into a debt trap, depress rural wages, and make them
ever more dependant on government charity, and at
the brutal mercy of the unorganised labour market.
At the end of the day, all that the average Indian asks
of the state are basic amenities for a life of dignity, not
life insurance. It is doubtful, however, if this expecta-
tion will much impress our ‘tough love’ Prime Minis-
ter.
*****
Farm And Factory
Mr Hartosh Singh Bal
Arguing in support of the Land Acquisition Bill in the
Rajya Sabha in March, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
emphasised the need to reduce the number of people
in the country who subsist on agriculture. “The share
of GDP of agriculture is 15 percent, and 60 percent
of the population shares that 15 percent,” he said. “So
you have to bring people out of agriculture and create
jobs in manufacturing.” This was as succinct a sum-
mary as any of the government’s intentions with re-
gard to agriculture and industry.
While the aim itself cannot be faulted, the concrete
measures taken towards it so far suggest that Jaitley’s
is a facile formulation, and one that conceals far more
than it reveals. Jaitley’s assertion begins with an indis-
putable fact, central to the challenge of India’s growth:
if wealth is to be distributed more equitably, it will be
vital to reduce the number of people who depend on
farming. A great part of the wealth being generated in
this country is not reaching a large section of the pop-
ulation; and farmers suffer most severely from this
inequity, which is only increasing with time. In the
1994 financial year, agriculture generated 28 percent
of the country’s GDP, and 62 percent of total employ-
ment; by 2010, these figures had fallen to 15 percent
and 53 percent respectively. Thus, the decrease in ag-
riculture’s share of total GDP was far greater than the
decrease in the number of people the sector supports.
But Jaitley’s conclusion, that jobs in manufacturing
offer a way out, does not follow from this. It is based
on the premise that, in general, if more jobs become
available in sectors such as manufacturing, people
move out of agriculture in greater numbers, allowing
those who remain in it levels of affluence comparable
to those of their counterparts in urban India.
A look at the evidence available suggests reality is
more complicated. Consider the figures (in millions
of people) for employment from 1999 to 2009:
Date: 1 May, 2015
Courtesy: The Caravan

16. 12
Between 2004 and 2009, India witnessed a fall in the
absolute number of people employed in agriculture.
This was also the period of India’s highest rate of eco-
nomic growth in modern history. Belying Jaitley’s rea-
soning, however, the number of manufacturing jobs
actually declined during these years; industrial growth
was fuelled largely by increases in productivity, not
labour participation. From the data, it’s clear there is
only one sector that could have absorbed those who
left farming: construction.
Looking at other demographic trends gives us a more
complete picture of these changes. Census data show
that India’s number of cultivators—those who have
a supervisory role in agricultural work, whether on
their own or on leased land—decreased from 127 mil-
lion in 2001 to 119 million in 2011, even as the av-
erage size of landholdings shrank and small holdings
grew less profitable. Meanwhile, the number of farm
labourers—those who work in the fields for wages—
increased from 107 million to 144 million in the same
period. Considered alongside the steady migration
from villages to cities over the same time, these data
suggest that many labourers migrate to cities to take
up unskilled construction work—in many cases the
only jobs they are equipped for.
Jaitley’s statement conceals the simple fact that the
vast majority of those trying to move away from agri-
culture are of no use to the manufacturing sector. The
fact that most rural migrants to urban India end up
becoming construction workers suggests that, despite
the drawbacks of village life, the decision to move is in
most cases not voluntary, but born out of some degree
of coercion.
One possible way of changing this, of course, is to im-
prove the skills of those migrating to cities in search of
jobs. Concomitantly, since a workforce is of little use if
in poor health, we will also have to address the health-
care needs of this population. So if, as the government
suggests, its “Make in India” policy will lead to a vast
increase in manufacturing jobs, shifting people into
those jobs from farming would require it to invest in
rural education and health.
That investment is not happening on the ground. This
government has actually slashed its expenditure on
health. As far as rural education is concerned, it has
inherited a mess from its predecessor. While there has
been a large expansion of educational opportunities
since the implementation of the Right to Education
Act in 2009, this has come with a very real fall in
standards. The Annual Status of Education Reports,
prepared by the NGO Pratham, do a commendable
job of mapping the status of education across the
country. What they reveal about rural government
schools over the last few years makes for depressing
reading. From 2010 to 2014, the proportion of class 5
students in these schools who could perform simple
subtraction fell from 64 percent to 51 percent, while
the percentage of class 8 students who could divide a

17. 13
three-digit number by a single digit fell from 67 to 44.
Education of this quality is no preparation for even a
basic manufacturing job.
Meanwhile, those who remain in agriculture are not
receiving adequate support from the government. Be-
tween the 2014 and 2015 financial years, the budget
for agricultural research and extension has remained
at Rs3,691 crore; spending on irrigation has come
down from Rs1,900 crore to Rs600 crore; and fund-
ing for rural development has dropped from Rs80,043
crore to Rs71,642 crore. The latest budget document
states: “It may however be noted that despite reduc-
tion in Central assistance to State Plan in respect of
most programmes, overall outlay for the programme
will remain unchanged with States pooling resources
from their enhanced devolution”—or, that the overall
outlay for rural development has not fallen. Of course,
owing to inflation, an unchanged overall allotment is,
in fact, a budget cut in real terms. This administration
seems to believe that simply creating urban jobs will
ameliorate rural problems; it fails to see the contradic-
tions in offering workers urban jobs without strength-
ening rural infrastructure and amenities.
Ironically, this neglect comes from a government
whose political future may well depend on the rural
economy ability to absorb a greater number of those
seeking employment. A 2014 report by the research
and analysis company CRISIL argues that, in the short
term, the country has to depend on the agricultural
economy’s ability to take on more people if unemploy-
ment is to be stemmed. In view of the slowdown of the
economy post 2010, the report says, “nonagricultur-
al employment … could, at best, grow by 38 million
from 2011–12 to 2018–19.”
This is insufficient to absorb India’s growing labour
force—estimated to rise by 51 million over the same
period. Thus, due to the lack of adequate opportuni-
ties in industry and services sector, an additional 12
million will be forced to either depend on low pro-
ductivity agriculture or remain unemployed. If some
of these people do not resort to farm employment, In-
dia’s unemployment rate will be seen to rise above its
current level of 2.2% (2011–12) in the years ahead.
The national crisis that lies ahead as a result of em-
phasising urban over rural development has already
played out at state level—in Andhra Pradesh, during
the second chief ministerial term of Chandrababu
Naidu, between 1999 and 2004. Earlier, Naidu had
commissioned the consultancy McKinsey to draw
up a blueprint for the state’s development. The doc-
ument, titled “Vision 2020,” laid out a vision for the
future very like that of the Modi government today.
It spoke of “e-governance,” of using information tech-
nology to provide better services in specially devel-
oped cities, decentralisation, and involving the private
sector in health care. It envisaged a rapid expansion
of infrastructure and services to fuel growth and em-
ployment, which, by 2020, was to reduce the share of
the state’s population dependant on agriculture from
70 percent to 40 percent.
In practice, this approach resulted in a deterioration
of rural infrastructure, as is likely to occur under the
Modi government. By 2004, Naidu was voted out of
power. He has learnt his lesson: in his current stint as
chief minister, he speaks of making agriculture prof-
itable through waiving farmers’ loans and appointing
new extension workers. Nearly a year into Naidu’s cur-
rent term, the proportion of Andhra Pradesh’s popu-
lation dependent on agriculture still hovers at around
70 percent, even as farming’s share of the state’s gross
domestic product has fallen from what it was during
his previous stint in power.
The larger problem here is that electoral corrections
in response to flawed policies often arrive too late. By
investing in rural infrastructure and amenities in a
sustained manner rather than merely occasionally, in
order to gain votes ahead of elections, the government
can gradually place skilled and educated migrants
in jobs that provide a basic standard of living in ur-
ban areas. This administration is taking the opposite
tack—while paying lip service to equality, it is ensur-
ing that cheap and easily exploitable labour remains
available to aid urban growth.
*****

18. 14
Wasting 282
Mihir S Sharma
May 16, 2014, was supposed to be a watershed. As
the results rolled in, and all of north and west India
turned saffron on our television screens, it was im-
possible not to believe that something special lay in
our future. Indians had grown so used to the idea that
all change would be incremental, consensual - limited
by coalition bargaining, and by the careful husbandry
and expenditure of dribs and drabs of political capital.
Thus, when Narendra Modi's 282 victories shattered
the coalition era, it was only fair to expect that some-
thing deep would change.
In the storm of ineffectual rationalisation that marks
Mr Modi's first anniversary as prime minister, let us
not forget May 16, 2014. Let us not forget the things
he laid out as a candidate, the promises he held out
and the dreams he sold. Let us not forget that the peo-
ple of India gave him the rare chance - one they did
not provide to Manmohan Singh or Atal Bihari Va-
jpayee - to actually live up to his promises. Mr Modi is
the most popular politician in the world's history. He
is our most powerful leader in a generation. It is not
unfair to expect him to do something with this polit-
ical capital, to invest it in our future. What is unfair is
to expect us to treat him like any other leader we've
had. With great power, as a wise man once said, comes
great responsibility.
A common-sense evaluation of the government
over the past year does not give great hope. True, it
has largely stayed away from anything controversial,
which is a great relief. And, absolutely, if you look
hard, there are signs of hope for the future. (Most of
those doing the evaluation have done precisely that,
driven by the same wishful thinking that led many
to imagine that a 206-seat Manmohan Singh would
be a messiah for reform.) But you have to look really
hard for those signs: you have to read the uploading
on a website of a draft new labour law as a great step
forward, you have to imagine the finance minister's
mention of a bankruptcy code in the Budget is a step
towards genuinely mobile capital - albeit one already
delayed. In terms of a legislative and administrative
reform programme, these flashes of hope are all we
have - one whole year after 282 made such reform
possible for the first time since Rajiv. You could, if
necessary, argue this is marginally better than what
we have had to put up in the coalition era - but that
was a significantly different time. The old excuses no
longer apply; but never mind, apparently we are busy
inventing new ones.
Here is the central problem: there is no clear direction
from the top. This is not what one could have expected
on May 16, 2014. Mr Modi's campaign was so exact-
ly, so perfectly an extension of his will we assumed
that something similar would happen to the central
government once he took over. India's ship of state
is unwieldy to turn, but Mr Modi sold his skills as a
helmsman, and 282 meant he had a once-in-a-lifetime
wind at his back.
Yet the constraint, one year on, is Mr Modi himself.
The government's confusion reflects his own lack of
direction. Delhi's bureaucrats and ministers pull in
different ideological and administrative directions
not because Mr Modi is not in command; it is because
they do not have a clear idea of what he would do in
their place. Have you heard the story - almost certain-
ly apocryphal - about Margaret Thatcher throwing a
Milton Friedman book at her Cabinet and making
them read it? There is a basic lesson there. What India
needs is a simple set of principles to be known, which
would allow for effective delegation and across-the-
board reform. Sadly, Mr Modi disagrees; he imagines
hands-on, case-by-case action, such as he delivered in
Gujarat, is enough.
This is why this government's successes have all been
of the specific project kind: a number of clearanc-
es, auctions of natural resources, the release of grain
from the state's stores, and so on. I do not want to mi-
nimise the import and effect of these actions. But are
they revolutionary? No. Even the coal auctions were
essentially mandated by the Supreme Court and by a
2010 amendment of the mines and minerals Act. Few
governments would have acted otherwise under these
circumstances. You did not need 282 for anything on
this list. None of these involves a reworking of the sys-
tem; each is a natural evolution of processes already in
Date: 15 May, 2015
Courtesy: Business Standard

19. 15
place. Others are driven by external actors - by the Su-
preme Court, or in the case of federalism entirely by
the Fourteenth Finance Commission, working under
new terms of reference drafted by the previous gov-
ernment. In fact, we are still waiting for the first - the
first! - legislative change entirely driven by Mr Modi's
own vision for India's future.
What went wrong? First: many misread Mr Modi's in-
tentions. He did not intend to change how we were
governed. He saw nothing wrong with the system or
its motivating ideology. He only saw something wrong
with the people running it.
But also, second: we misdiagnosed the slowdown un-
der the last government. It was not a problem of "pa-
ralysis" at the top, to be solved by a "strong leader". It
is now clear that blaming paralysis was a foolish error.
In fact, India was faced with a systemic problem, born
of the wrong laws and insufficient regulatory capac-
ity. We have tried to solve paralysis, and now we're
surprised the problem has barely gone away. This is
because repairing growth needs investment and en-
trepreneurship to restart - and that needs a complete-
ly different environment for workers and investors. It
needs an environment of trust in the system, which
can only happen if the laws change, along with the in-
centives of those enforcing them at the lower levels.
Mr Modi, sadly, does not seem to have realised this
yet.
Industry has figured this out. They are still waiting
for a new deal, for insulation from administrative and
legal risk, before investing. This has infuriated the
government and its backers - this unwillingness to in-
vest, the murmurs of discontent that business is still
a difficult proposition in India, is said to be merely
crony capitalists whining. No less an individual than
K V Kamath has said industry should abjectly thank
government for the absence of "paralysis". Instead of
complaining about too little being different, industry
should blame itself for over-investing earlier. So it
should. (The real blame, of course, goes to those who
financed this excessive debt - I wonder, does Mr Ka-
math, formerly of ICICI Bank, know who that might
be?)
Yes, we cannot rely on debt-laden balance sheets to
revive growth; but how will capital exit easily? How
will new investors have faith in the system that caused
those balance-sheet problems? Through legal and ad-
ministrative changes, that's how. But we have seen
none of that. What we have seen is - or so we are told
- the end of high-level corruption in New Delhi. Few
will pause to note that this had already happened by
the end of the previous government; the big corrup-
tion scandals all date to the end of the 2000s, remem-
ber? (Of course, even if we do have big-ticket corrup-
tion today, how would we know, without a CVC, a
CIC, or a Lok Pal?)
The point of 282 was that it gave a government the
power to change the rules of the game. That is all a
parliamentary majority in fact does. This has not
happened, yet. Till that happens, no real revival will
emerge. The entrepreneurial upsurge that is the only
hope for jobs in that saffron swathe of the north and
west will not happen. Feeble, incremental change - all
that this government has so far provided - will not
provide us with the bottom-up revolution we need,
not in 10 years, let alone five.
Without those jobs, Mr Modi is in trouble. His in-
credible victory was won because people believed he
would deliver a future that included jobs. He has not
started building that future yet. If he does not deliv-
er it, his party will perforce turn back to its preferred
ways of winning elections - and we all know what they
are. It is exactly those of us mistrustful of their so-
cial agenda who are hoping the most desperately that
Mr Modi will figure out what 282 seats gives him the
power, and the responsibility, to do.
*****

20. 16
Narendra Modi’s Popularity Wanes In India
As First Year Nears End
Rahul Bedhi
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi completes a
year in office on May 26th amidst increasing doubts
over his efficacy as a competent and inclusive admin-
istrator, economic reformer and team player.
Over the past 12 months, the 65-year-old heading the
country’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) government has been unable to deliver on the
many promises he made on the election trail, trigger-
ing widespread public disappointment.
These included kick-starting the economy, boosting
employment, industrial production and infrastruc-
tural development, improving education and health-
care and modernising India’s police and military.
But nebulous policies to retrospectively tax foreign in-
vestors – dubbed “tax terrorism” by the Indian media
– and failure to provide incentives for manufacturing,
have adversely affected India’s investment climate.
Economic initiatives
Earlier this week the government was further enfee-
bled, after failing to push through two crucial eco-
nomic initiatives in parliament.
These were the Land Acquisition Bill – to make it eas-
ier to acquire land for industrial and infrastructural
expansion – and the bill for Goods and Services Tax,
to ensure a nationwide uniform tariff much like Ire-
land’s VAT.
An aggressive opposition in parliament’s upper house,
where the BJP is in a minority, blocked both bills that
have been postponed to the upcoming monsoon par-
liament session in July, further eroding the Modi gov-
ernment’s standing and ability to enact legislation.
At the same time, the cost of living has risen, with the
price of commodities such as wheat, rice, vegetables
and fruit soaring in the past year.
In a high-voltage election campaign Modi, who has a
penchant for multicoloured waistcoats, almost single-
handedly propelled the BJP to power.
It replaced the corrupt and inefficient Congress Par-
ty-led federal coalition that had been in office for a
decade.
The BJP managed, against all expectations, to secure
India’s first parliamentary victory by a single party
in three decades, on the promise of ushering in vikas
(development) and ache din (good days).
During his first few months in office, Modi’s endur-
ing fiery oratory and grandiose promises earned him
plaudits at home and abroad.
But what his supporters labelled the “Modi Magic”
was seriously degraded when the fledgling anti-cor-
ruption Common Man’s Party trounced the BJP in
Delhi’s state assembly elections in February. The BJP
secured just four of 71 assembly seats.
High on rhetoric
“The BJP government is high on rhetoric and show-
manship, but low on delivery,” said political analyst
Seema Mustafa of the Centre for Policy Analysis in
New Delhi.
Modi has centralised power in the prime minister’s
office and is running a presidential, instead of an in-
clusive cabinet form of government, she said.
India’s minority Muslim and Christian populations,
which comprise about 15 per cent and 2.3 per cent
respectively of a population of over 1.25 billion, also
remain wary of the BJP and Modi.
Nine weeks after Modi assumed office, Hindu organ-
isations affiliated to the BJP forcibly converted poor
Muslims to Hinduism under a ghar vapsi or returning
home campaign. Several churches were vandalised,
Date: 16 May, 2015
Courtesy: The Irish Times

21. 17
reportedly by Hindu groups, and a 71-year-old nun
gang-raped in eastern India.
Modi’s condemnation of all such activity was feeble
at best. The shadow of the 2002 Muslim pogrom in
Modi’s western home state of Gujarat, of which he was
chief minister until he became prime minister, still
hangs over him.
He was never indicted for the unrest in which some
1,200 people died, but the extent of the rioting under
him, raises disturbing questions.
“The government seems to be more concerned with
managing headlines than putting policies in place,”
former BJP minister Arun Shourie said in a television
interview that unnerved the government.
Big picture
“The situation is like many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle
lying in a mess with no big picture in mind about
how to put them together,” he said, elaborating on the
growing sectarian unrest under Modi.
Meanwhile, on foreign policy Modi has been proac-
tive, travelling to several countries in India’s imme-
diate neighbourhood and to Australia, Japan, the US,
France, Germany, Canada and China among others.
Many of these visits have been peppered with dramat-
ic public appearances, some rivalling rock concerts,
ensuring wide media coverage and boosting Modi’s
personal image but for now, have delivered no divi-
dends.
Workaholic
There is, however, little doubt that Modi is a worka-
holic, sleeping no more than four hours a day, a teeto-
taller, abstemious in his personal habits and a propo-
nent of yoga.
Tales abound in official circles of his cabinet members
and civil servants sleeping in their offices and working
weekends to keep up with the tireless prime minister.
*****

22. 18
After A Year of Outsize Expectations,
Narendra Modi Adjusts His Plan For India
Ellen Barry
NEW DELHI — Standing before India on the first an-
niversary of his swearing-in, Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi on Monday gave a speech that was notable
for the subjects it avoided: Large-scale job creation.
Manufacturing. Urbanization.
Mr. Modi instead delivered an ode to struggling In-
dia. During the speech in Mathura, a town about 90
miles southeast of Delhi, he lavished attention on
farmers and said that mom-and-pop traders, not “big
industrialists,” should be India’s crucial driver of job
growth. Most of all, he praised the poor, who he said
“will become my warriors.”
The shift was telling. After soaring through India’s po-
litical stratosphere on the economic promise “achche
din aa gaye,” or “better days are coming,” Mr. Modi
must face the reality that much of his agenda is still
only potential.
From abroad, India is now seen as a bright spot, ex-
pected to pass China this year to become the world’s
fastest-growing large economy. But at home, job
growth remains sluggish. Businesses are in wait-and-
see mode. And Mr. Modi has political vulnerabilities,
as parliamentary opposition leaders block two of his
central reform initiatives and brand him “anti-poor”
and “anti-farmer.”
Most formidable of all is a problem Mr. Modi has
made for himself: outsize expectations that he would
sweep away constraints to growth in India, like strin-
gent laws governing labor and land acquisition.
“Their image became larger than they themselves,” Vi-
marsh Razdan, senior vice president at Orient Craft,
one of India’s largest garment exporters, said of Mr.
Modi’s government. “They have become superheroes.
And everyone knows superheroes don’t exist.”
A year ago, businesspeople were awaiting Mr. Modi’s
arrival in New Delhi with eagerness and a bit of ap-
prehension: In Gujarat, the state he led for almost 13
years as chief minister, he was known for his concen-
tration of personal power, his dislike of red tape and
his sometimes intimidating manner.
Since then, India’s business culture has indeed
changed, chief executives say. They rejoice that they
no longer have to notarize all documents submitted
to the government and say that it is far easier to find
bureaucrats at their desks during the workday. Sudhir
Dhingra, the founder of Orient Craft, says that only
about one-third as many inspectors are showing up
at his factories and that they are “fearful of accepting
money.”
Mr. Modi has built a centralized system that requires
business deals to be routed through his office. Gone
are the informal meetings that business leaders used
to hold with ministry officials, often to hash out poli-
cies regulating their sectors. As for Mr. Modi, business
leaders have found it hard to cultivate him socially.
“This one year has taught the businessmen one thing:
Meeting him at weddings, or meeting him at seminars
or whatever, doesn’t give them any advantage,” said
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, an independent member of
the upper house of Parliament and a technology en-
trepreneur.
“For me, and I have been around for a while, this is
very, very unusual,” he said. “A lot of people are having
sleepless nights because of that.”
By most measures, India’s economy has had a good
year. India is heavily reliant on imported oil, and
plunging prices have cut the cost of government fuel
subsidies, allowing the authorities to rein in a chronic
budget deficit. Inflation fell to 4.87 percent in April.
Foreign direct investment rose by more than 25 per-
cent, to $28.8 billion in the 2014-15 fiscal year.
The government has introduced a flurry of changes: It
has deregulated prices for diesel, petroleum and cook-
ing gas, and raised limits on foreign investment in the
Date: 26 May, 2015
Courtesy: The New York Times

23. 19
defense and insurance sectors to 49 percent. It has
opened 125 million bank accounts for poor families,
with the goal of eventually replacing food and fuel
subsidies with cash transfers to prevent corruption.
Coalfield leases, found to have been sold at artificial-
ly low prices, were reallocated through a transparent
process; so were telecom spectrum allocations.
Those urging Mr. Modi to introduce deep structural
reforms, however, have been disappointed.
Raghuram Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank
of India, told an audience in New York last week that
many people saw Mr. Modi as “Ronald Reagan on a
white horse” coming to slay anti-market forces, and
that the image was “probably not appropriate.”
He added that the government “has taken steps to cre-
ate the environment for investment, which I think is
important.”
Mr. Modi’s only truly risky change to date — muscling
through an executive order easing the government’s
ability to obtain land for development — backfired
this spring when he tried to transform it into a perma-
nent law. The proposed law met a wall of protest from
a rejuvenated opposition declaring that Mr. Modi was
“anti-farmer.”
Charges of cozying up to business must sting for Mr.
Modi, said Shekhar Gupta, a journalist, especially af-
ter his party’s crushing defeat in February elections in
Delhi. He was criticized there for wearing a custom-
ized suit with pinstripes made of embroidered script
spelling his name.
“It’s taken away from him the basic image of a tea-sell-
er who became a country’s leader in his own right,”
Mr. Gupta said.
Economic grandees have their own grievances with
Mr. Modi, which they are increasingly willing to ex-
press. One damaging assessment came from Arun
Shourie, an economist and former minister with Mr.
Modi’s party, who said the government lacked a single
unifying vision on economic policy, and was “direc-
tionless, a great disappointment.”
DeepakParekh,chairmanofHFDCBank,complained
that procedures for obtaining funds had become more
onerous, not less so, under the new government. And
he described “a little bit of impatience creeping in as
to why no changes are happening.”
Jayant Sinha, a former investment fund manager who
is now the minister of state for finance, said these com-
plaints were the natural result of fiscal and monetary
consolidation that the government had undertaken to
control inflation. Their “economic pain” will ease over
the next several months, he said, as the investment cy-
cle picks up.
“Everyone is saying, after a year, ‘Where are the good
days? Why hasn’t growth picked up?’ ” Mr. Sinha said.
“It is natural for them to feel challenged in an envi-
ronment like that. Analysts and economists, forward
looking, feel that India is on a very sound footing and
feel we can now drive hard for growth.”
The Reserve Bank of India, he added, “can cut rates
now.”
But some limitations of Mr. Modi’s ability to trans-
form India’s economy are coming into focus. Mr. Mo-
di’s large electoral mandate gave him control of only
one house of Parliament. In domestic affairs, he must
cope with a huge, fragmented bureaucracy.
One example came early this year, when the tax au-
thorities alarmed 68 foreign investment funds by de-
manding, for the first time, a payment of a 20 percent
levy on capital gains made over the last three years. It
contradicted Mr. Modi’s vow to end retrospective tax-
ation, and as foreign capital fled the country early this
month, the government scrambled to calm investors.
Arvind Subramanian, chief economic adviser to the
government, said the episode showed how difficult
it was to centralize authority in domestic policy. He
compared Mr. Modi to President Obama — “taking
decisions on his own” in the realm of foreign policy,
but constrained in the domestic sphere.
“In that case it was a recalcitrant Congress, in this case
it’s the bureaucracy,” he said. “Power is so dispersed
that you cannot expect speedy decision-making
across the board. It’s a grinding process. Notice I am
not saying it won’t happen. I am saying it will happen,
but it will happen slowly.”

24. 20
Opinion polls suggest that Mr. Modi remains quite
popular, with approval ratings upward of 60 percent,
even where there is little evidence of economic im-
provement.
On a dusty roadside in Greater Noida, outside Delhi,
on Monday, Gaurav Dikshit, 24, a construction engi-
neer, looked at the hulking shapes of a dozen half-fin-
ished high-rise apartment buildings, projects in lim-
bo because of land litigation. Around him, billboards
exclaimed: “Gold Coast Golf Course and Lake-Fac-
ing Luxury Apartments!” and “Aryan International
School.” But Mr. Dikshit, who earns around $400 a
month, has put his plans to move into the neighbor-
hood on hold.
“I expected that prices would come down,” he said. “I
expected that real estate would boom. That has not
happened. I thought there would be more jobs on the
market. I thought I would be able to change my job.
That has not happened.”
But he said he still had a feeling that things were going
to turn around in Greater Noida. “If you plant fruit
trees,” he said, “it still takes some time to get fruit.”
*****
Promises That He Can’t Deliver: Have Modi’s
18 Foreign Trips Brought In The
Ddesired Results?
First Post
A year in office and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
has already visited 18 countries, and spent close to 55
days abroad, making financial commitments that far
outstrip the resources at the foreign office's disposal.
Earlier this year, the Modi government slashed the
foreign office's funding for the current fiscal by 15
percent, forcing the resource-strapped external affairs
ministry to pull back from key diplomatic commit-
ments.
A Telegraph report in February had pointed out that
due to the slashing of funds, aid to Bangladesh will
reduce by more than 40 percent, while a Rs 158-crore
loan promised to the Maldives by March remains un-
fulfilled. The aid promised to Nepal has been cut by a
third, assistance to Bhutan by a fifth and that to Myan-
mar by three-fifths.
The Modi government had already incurred a travel
bill of Rs 317 crore in the first nine months of com-
Date: 22 May, 2015
Courtesy: First Post

25. 21
ing to power, according to the revised budgetary esti-
mates, about Rs 59 crore more than the Rs 258 crore
the UPA-II cabinet had spent in its last year in office
(2013-14). The government does not see the travel
spend coming down as the 2015-16 budget has made
a provision of Rs 269 crore even though there has been
a consistent cut in MEA funds as part of the overall
budget tightening by the finance ministry.
But these high-level visits abroad are taking a major
toll on the foreign office budget, so much so that the
foreign office is now planning to write to the finance
ministry to create a separate kitty for international
commitments made by the Prime Minister, President
and other senior government representatives to avoid
national embarrassments and save face, according to
another report in the Telegraph.
During his many trips abroad, Modi has promised a
Rs 6,400 crore credit line to Mongolia as well as setting
up of an English-medium school and an IT centre in
the country. While in Seychelles, he promised a Dorn-
ier aircraft for the country's maritime surveillance and
in Guyana Modi promised a Rs 384 crore grant for an
ocean ferry and a four-lane highway. The lavish list of
gifts doesn't end here and many promises of grants
and development projects made to India's neigh-
bouring economies such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan,
Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan, still remain unfulfilled
due to a funding crunch at the foreign office.
"Non-availability of funds during this critical working
period is detrimental to timely completion of projects
and leads to cost overruns as procurement of material
and labour cannot be done on the promise of immi-
nent release of funds. Delay in the release of payment
to vendors and stalling of projects affects our image
and leads to questions on our credibility to complete
key projects in a timely manner, the MEA had said in
a written reply to the parliamentary panel earlier this
month.
While several crores were spent in organizing Modi’s
event at Madison Square Garden, his visit to the US
did not translate into a single memorandum of under-
standing (MoU) being signed. China had pledged to
invest $100 billion but Chinese premiere Xi Jinping,
has met that promise with only a $20 billion commit-
ment, which too hasn’t materialised till date. China,
on the other hand, has already pumped in $46 billion
in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Moreover,
Modi went ahead and announced e-visas for a coun-
try that issues only stapled visas to Indians domiciled
in Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
But this act of over promising and under delivering
is not new to the Modi regime. The Vibrant Gujarat
investor meet during his tenure spoke of Rs 2.0 lakh
crore of investment. Billions of dollars were commit-
ted by India Inc though observers say these events had
a history of pledges that were never followed through.
A 2012 report in Caravan had pointed out that even
though Modi claims an implementation rate of great-
er than 60 percent for pledges made at the summits,
an analysis of data from the state industry department
suggests that only 25 percent of the promised invest-
ments have actually been made.
Is Modi now doing the same with his foreign policy
too... promising what he cannot deliver?
*****

26. 22
One Year Of Narendra Modi Sarkar:
Expectations Were Unrealistically High
Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Jokes sometimes have a way of capturing truth more
effectively than analysis. The measure of the present
government is captured by this one going around:
What is the difference between the UPA and the
NDA? In the UPA we had a government and no prime
minister; in the NDA we have a prime minister and
no government. This has an element of cruel exagger-
ation. But it highlights the central tension of one year
of Narendra Modi’s government. The PM is still riding
relatively high in public popularity. But the govern-
ment is looking very ordinary. Areas where he devotes
inordinate attention like foreign policy have some
sense of purpose. Occasional schemes done in mis-
sion mode like Jan Dhan Yojana achieve their targets.
There is a sense that overall transactional corruption
at high levels is, at the moment, down. There is still an
air of expectancy around big legislation like the goods
and services tax. But government as a whole is floun-
dering, getting tripped on execution and detail.
Admittedly, the expectations of the Modi government
were unrealistically high. The inherited regulatory
and administrative mess that the UPA had left were
never going to be easy to clean up quickly. But Modi
was also very lucky. He got the single biggest windfall
any leader can want in terms of lower global energy
prices, which automatically tempered his challenges
on inflation and subsidies.
The government’s economic performance has been
disappointing. Contrary to the prime minister’s own
rhetoric, there is almost no decision that this govern-
ment has taken that one could call bold. Some of the
new welfare measures, like old age pensions and in-
surance, are necessary. But they are, in comparison to
UPA’s welfare schemes, hardly trail blazing. The ratio-
nalisation of subsidies (other than petrol, started un-
der UPA) has barely begun. With the continuation of
Aadhaar a potential platform for a more rationalised
welfare state is in place; but the future shape of welfare
is still uncertain. Rather than being fixated on poverty
lines the governments framework is rightly focused
on access to key elements of inclusion, including pow-
er and infrastructure.
Date: 15 May, 2015
Courtesy: The Financial Express

27. 23
But the government is sending mixed administrative
and financial signals on social sector spending. This
will cost it political capital: In a time of stagnant rural
wages, which are dampening demand, MGNERGA
was the only instrument the government had for alle-
viating short-term agrarian distress. Demand is stag-
nating, and will not revive without an increase in rural
incomes.
Second, the UPA brought the economy to a grinding
halt by a combination of legislative hubris and law-
yerly casualness. This government risks falling into
the same trap. The finance ministry’s credibility to tax
issues is, rightly, sinking to a new low and it will take
time to recover. This session it did pass some signif-
icant legislation on insurance, mining, coal. But its
strategy on two major pieces of legislation, land ac-
quisition and GST, is perplexing.
The Land Acquisition Act of 2013 needed some
amendment; but the government’s approach has been
ill advised.
Instead of a sensible, workable middle ground, it
is trying to move the clock back to 1894. It has also
needlessly lost political capital in the process. The
GST, when passed, will be a game changer. But it is in-
explicable how the government has not done enough
to ensure that the full efficiency gains from GST are
realised. Not doing away with interstate levies risks, as
one commentator described it, producing a moth-eat-
en legislation. Third, on almost every regulatory is-
sue, from taxation to the environment, the Centre has
steadily produced more uncertainty rather than less.
It does not seem to have the support structures that
can create modern 21st century regulation.
Third, this government’s speciality was supposed to be
execution. In some ministries like the railways, there
is a promising new energy; the ministry of power at
least got Coal India to shape up on the production
front. But the ability of this government to get public
investment out of the door, a crucial element in get-
ting growth up, has yet to be demonstrated. As FE re-
ported earlier this week, there has been a decline even
in public tenders for big infrastructure projects. The
government does not yet have a credible plan for re-
viving stalled projects, most of which are not stalled
because of land acquisition problems.
Fourth, the government’s biggest and unconscionable
failures are on health and education. Admittedly, the
mess in these sectors was also inherited. But these are
two sectors where there is not yet even an indication
of a framework to solve deep problems in this sector.
The financial commitment to both these sectors is tep-
id in relation to the need; the regulatory frameworks
are a complete mess; and the air of ad hocism and un-
certainty makes for a dismal future for these sectors.
There is a sense that the prime minister wants to fly
high. But whether the government has the engine
power to support him is an open question. Since the
economy is chugging along, helped by favourable ex-
ternal conditions, the weaknesses of this government
will remain disguised for a while. But it needs to get
its act together, before the winds blow a sputtering en-
gine off course.
*****

28. 24
The One Thing That Has Saved Modi From
Being A Complete Flop This Year
Mr Girish Shahane
A year since Narendra Modi assumed power, the
Ganga is no cleaner, stashes of black money abroad
no closer to being repatriated, and the Ram Temple
in Ayodhya no nearer being built. The rupee is sliding
against the dollar, belying Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s con-
viction that it would strengthen by over 50% under
Modi.
Core sector growth has flagged though rejigged meth-
ods of calculating GDP have boosted India’s reported
economic expansion.
In some cases, the government seems to be not just
ignoring last year’s campaign but actively working
against it. Where the Bharatiya Janata Party manifes-
to promised to modernise and upgrade government
hospitals, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has slashed
outlays on health care. The manifesto targeted spend-
ing 6% of GDP on education, up from the 3.3% level
when the new government took office. Instead, the al-
location for education dipped substantially in Jaitley’s
budget.
History of obstruction
The government faces resistance within and outside
Parliament for its lone innovation: the amended Land
Acquisition bill. While condemning disruptions to
Parliament, BJP leaders ignore their own history of
obstructiveness while in opposition, and their public
defence of such tactics.
Was there no progress, then, in Narendra Modi’s first
year as Prime Minister? Far from it. Parliament ap-
proved a few crucial laws, and ratified a landmark
agreement with a neighbouring nation. What stands
out in these cases, though, is that they’re all legacies
of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance that
were stonewalled for years or rejected outright by the
BJP.
Item 1 on the list of U-turns is the Goods and Services
Tax, or GST. A tax reform unanimously endorsed by
economists, GST was on the UPA legislative agenda
for years. Unfortunately, chief ministers of BJP-ruled
states obdurately opposed the idea, its most promi-
nent critic being Gujarat’s Narendra Modi.
Item 2: UPA’s Insurance Bill. One of its provisions
raised the foreign investment limit in private insur-
ance firms to 49% from 26%.
The BJP refused to sign on. Prakash Javadekar, now
minister in charge of clearing industrial projects
without environmental safeguards, led the campaign
against the bill in his role as President of the National
Organisation of Insurance Officers. Barely 16 months
after Javadekar received support from Sushma Swaraj
and Arun Jaitley, the Insurance Laws (Amendment)
Bill was passed, in a form indistinguishable from the
UPA version.
The Prime Minister has made 16 foreign trips in his
first year in office, but the signature foreign policy ad-
vance of his term so far, which fructified a week ago,
concerned a nation he has yet to visit. I’m referring to
Bangladesh and the final settlement of the border be-
tween the two nations. As with GST and the Insurance
Bill, the BJP was against it before it was for it.
Nuclear deal
Perhaps the mother of all flip-flops relates to the civ-
il nuclear agreement between India and the United
States. The BJP fought the agreement tooth and nail,
damning it as “an assault on the nuclear sovereignty”
of India, and swearing to renegotiate it once in power.
The Indo-US nuclear deal was followed by the tabling
of the Civil Nuclear Liability bill, which described the
form compensation would take in case of a nuclear
accident. BJP members condemned the bill as uncon-
stitutional and a violation of the fundamental rights of
Date: 13 May, 2015
Courtesy: scroll.in

29. 25
Indian citizens.
Cut to US President Barack Obama’s visit during
the 2015 Republic Day celebrations, and the “break-
through” in negotiations over the nuclear deal. The
breakthrough, it turned out, was that the US got ex-
actly what it wanted, a restriction on the liability of
suppliers and nuclear plant operators in case of an ac-
cident. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but
to argue the case for restricted liability would take me
far from the focus of this column.
For those who believe a year is too short a period of
time to judge a government’s performance, I have two
acronyms for you: NREGA and RTI. Both the Nation-
al Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right
to Information Act were introduced in 2004, mere
months after the first UPA administration came to
power. Those pieces of legislation may divide opinion,
certainly NREGA does, but there’s no denying they
fundamentally changed how Indian society functions.
Despite all his sloganeering, and his comfortable ma-
jority in the lower house, Modi hasn’t come close to
promoting anything as important. The only thing
that’s saved him from being a complete flop is his flip
flops.
*****
India Wants Delivery, Not Just Intent
India Today
As Narendra Modi completes his first year in power
following an unprecedented mandate in three de-
cades, more than half of India feels the 'achche din'
(better days) promised by the BJP have not yet arrived.
Though 56 per cent respondents in the India Today
Group-Cicero snap poll rated the BJP-led NDA gov-
ernment's performance as good, the message was
unambiguous - people are ready to give Modi a long
rope, but for a government which seems to be enjoy-
ing an extended honeymoon, it is also a wake-up call.
Following are the 10 big takeaways from the India To-
day Group-Cicero snap poll:
1. Do you think 'achche din' has come as promised by
Modi?
Yes: 34
No: 53
No other election slogan has triggered imagination as
well as disappointment more than the BJP's master-
stroke 'achche din' promise in the run-up to the Lok
Sabha elections. A year down the line, the BJP has
been found scrambling to explain the various mani-
festations of its slogan even as a belligerent opposition
and the voter on the ground taunts the party for its
evasion.
2. What is Modi's biggest failure?
Not addressing farmer concerns: 30
Slow job growth: 28
Economy: 17
Religious intolerance: 8
For a government that is doggedly pursuing the
amendment to a 2010 land acquisition law passed by
the UPA, the taint of being anti-farmer - and by exten-
sion anti-poor - is hard to wash off. It is for the same
Date: 23 May, 2015
Courtesy: India Today

30. 26
reason that more people (26 per cent) think Modi is
pro-corporates than those who think he is pro-poor
(23 per cent). The sluggish pace of economic reforms
is his second biggest failure, according to the poll.
3. Media gives too much attention to Modi.
Yes: 71
No: 17
And the media has a reason. No other leader since In-
dira Gandhi in the 1970s has been able to collapse his
party as well as the government into his persona. For
most in the BJP, Modi is the government and the gov-
ernment is Modi. Besides, Modi is one of the smartest
politicians in post-social media India, using the tools
it throws to his best advantage.
4. Rahul Gandhi is right in saying that the Modi gov-
ernment is a 'suit-boot ki sarkar'.
Yes: 43
No: 36
Rahul Gandhi's selection of a phrase that became an
instant hit can be considered one of the best come-
backs by a politician, who, only days before he uttered
those remarks in Parliament, was being widely ridi-
culed for an unexplained 57-day sabbatical. When
more people think Rahul is right in using that phrase,
the BJP has reasons to worry about the perception it
creates.
5. 56% respondents have not heard of Modi's Mann ki
Baat.
A regular feature on the state-run All India Radio, it
won't be surprising if Modi does a rethink on this ad-
dress as he begins his second year in power. The Mann
Ki Baat with students, farmers and the countrymen
in general has not seen much enthusiasm among the
listeners, with many calling it indulgent and hyped.
6. 49% say there has been no improvement in quality of
life in the last one year.
One of the highlights of the BJP's 2014 Lok Sabha
campaign was the chord that Modi had struck with
the masses with his humble son-of-a-chaiwala an-
tecedent. For them, Modi was one of them, who un-
derstood their pain and pathos more than any leader
who claimed the Delhi throne did. It was natural for
them to expect that he will be instrumental in a sim-
ilar turnaround in their lives. When half of his vot-
ers say there has been no improvement in their lives,
Modi should realise the uphill task ahead.
7. 46% say Modi is yet to meet their expectations.
For the voters who gave the BJP of the biggest man-
dates ever in India's electoral history, voting Modi to
power meant the promise of a better life. The aspira-
tional Indians knew it had voted the UPA out with
the hope that the NDA is far more in touch with the
realities on the ground and will act accordingly. For
Modi, getting that confidence back will be the biggest
challenge as he begins his second year at the helm.
8. The best performing ministers:
Sushma Swaraj: 16
Rajnath Singh: 14
Arun Jaitley: 12
This was a surprise. For a minister who has generated
a lot of sympathy on Twitter for not being able to fulfill
her duties - thanks to Modi visiting 18 countries in 12
months - Sushma Swaraj remains the best performing
minister. It has perhaps a lot to do with evacuating
Indians from conflict-torn Yemen and Iraq.
9. The worst performing ministers:
Uma Bharti: 9
Piyush Goyal: 6
Radha Mohan Singh: 6
Bad news for Bharti for whom the BJP created a min-
istry and assigned her with the sole task of cleaning
river Ganga, one of the pet Modi projects. The Su-
preme Court, which has repeatedly pulled up the gov-
ernment over its ambitious Ganga plans, will not be
amused.
10. Who is the biggest challenger to Modi?
Rahul Gandhi: 31
Arvind Kejriwal: 29
None of them: 25
Lastly, the Modi dispensation has been forced to watch
the future plans of a resurgent Congress vice-presi-
dent, who has emerged out of the shadows to take the
government on on various issues. Kejriwal, despite an
impressive 29 per cent approval, knows he is not there
in this race.

31. 27
The Most Visible Part Of The India Growth
Story Has Been Modi’s Increasing
Ability To Laud Himself
Monobina Gupta
On 28 September 2014, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi took centre stage at Madison Square in New
York to face an audience that publications across In-
dia decreed as worthy of a “rock star.” Indeed, Modi’s
self-congratulatory speech appeared to be a pains-
takingly orchestrated performance that carefully fed
off the euphoria of his, and not so much the Bhartiya
Janata Party’s, decisive victory in the elections. “Win-
ning an election is not just occupying an office but
victory brings with it responsibility. Since I won the
elections, I haven’t taken even a 15-minute vacation.
The responsibility you have given me … I can assure
you that you will never have reason to feel small be-
cause of my actions,” bellowed the triumphant leader.
Eight months after that speech, as he completes one
year in office, the sense of elation around Modi’s con-
quest might have diminished, but his own affectations
remain unaltered.
Speaking at an exhibition centre outside Shanghai
on 16 May 2015, Modi told the Indian community in
attendance, “Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born
Indian. Now you feel proud to represent the country.
Indians abroad had all hoped for a change in govern-
ment last year.”
Such statements have served to highlight the discom-
fiting and persisting strain of vanity that Modi has ex-
hibited in his recent speeches delivered abroad during
his three-nation trip to China, Mongolia and Korea.
If he is to be believed, Indians had been denied “asmi-
ta” (pride) in their Indian origins till he rescued them
from a shameful existence. Through these words,
Modi happily represented himself as not just the na-
tion but its saviour as well. In Seoul he went on to sug-
gest that India was steeped in despondence and dark-
ness before he appeared on the horizon as the beacon
of hope and light:
“There was a time when people used to say we don’t
know what sins we have committed in our past life to
be born in Hindustan. Is this any country, is this any
government ... let’s leave. And they left. Even business-
men didn’t want to do business here. Most people then
had one foot abroad. They were gripped by pessimism
and rage. ... Now people, from all walks of life want to
come back to India, even if it means having a lower
income. Mood badlahain (the mood has changed).”
A careful reading of a succession of the speeches that
he has delivered before the Non-Resident Indian
(NRI) communities abroad presents an increasingly
problematic picture—one that reveals the prime min-
ister’s disturbing and overwhelming obsession with
himself.
Modi’s speeches have little to do with his government
working as a collective. In turn, the government’s
achievements have little to do with his cabinet col-
leagues or the ruling party. The narrative exclusively
hinges on one man. He is the messiah, the indefat-
igable worker, the economic revolutionary, and the
voice of the poor. The most pronounced word in all of
Modi’s speeches is “I,” “main” and “hum.” The BJP and
the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) find only
marginal references in his speeches. Everything and
everyone barring the prime minister is paraphernalia.
Consider this excerpt from his speech at Madison
Square Garden for instance, where, even as he feigned
humility, Modi’s discourse reflected anything but dif-
fidence: “Main ekbahut hi chhota insaan hoom, main
bahut hi samanya insaan hoon.Mera bachpan bhi aise
beetatha. Chhota hoon isiliye mera man bhi chhota
chhota kaam pe laga rahta hain.Chhota hoon isili ye
chhote chhote logon keliye bade kaam kartahoon” (I
am a small and insignificant person. My childhood,
too, was insignificant. I want to concentrate on small
things because I am a small person, who wants to ac-
complish big feats for other small people).
Whether in forging a democratic connect with the
people or focusing on hitherto foregone subjects like
Date: 26 May, 2015
Courtesy: The Caravan

32. 28
toilets or cleanliness, he becomes the sole mediator
between his government and people. The “small per-
son” is presented as a colossus towering over the na-
tion.
In speech after speech delivered in Toronto, Shanghai
and Seoul, Modi confidently asserted that a transfor-
mation of popular janman (mindsets) was underway
in all spheres—from eliminating corruption, inculcat-
ing conscientiousness about work to making cleanli-
ness a national issue. The prime minister’s speeches
paint a picture of total transformation over 12 months
where 60 years of flawed history have been effectively
wiped out—by him.
Taking it upon himself to declare his policies—such
as his mass-banking scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana—a rev-
olutionary success, Modi has cast this success in per-
sonal rather than institutional terms. Consider what
he said in his speech in Toronto:
Insaan bhi badal gaya. Bankwale bhi badal gaye (peo-
ple have changed and so have those in banks). The
same bankwallahs, going from village to village, house
to house, have opened 14 crore bank accounts in 100
days. I told the poor open an account with zero bal-
ance. But they deposited Rs 14,000 crore in the banks.
I bow to them. This is garibikiamiri. Janmanbadla-
hain.
To further corroborate this miraculously transformed
mindset, Modi said in the same speech, “A newspaper
proprietor wrote to me that the mood in the country
has inspired his publication to take the decision to de-
vote one edition a week solely to publishing positive
news. Maybe it is just one paper, but this is not a small
development.”
In Shanghai, he praised himself by claiming that In-
dians had been made worthy of respect not through
their own efforts but by his presence in power, “Earlier
you would be dismissed as Indians. Was anyone ready
to listen to you? Talk to you? Speak to you? Within
one year are they not treating you with respect? Don’t
you feel proud of the nation’s progress?”
It is ironic indeed that even as Modi has made for-
eign affairs the centrepiece of his governance archi-
tecture, Sushma Swaraj, his external affairs minister,
is conspicuous by her absence at these visits. Swaraj,
who used to be a prominent voice in the BJP under
its earlier leadership, appears to have gone silent. This
silence could also be attributed to the role that she oc-
cupies as an external affairs minister, which has been
rendered redundant by a prime minister who is all too
willing to assume centre stage under the guise of in-
ternational relations.
In the past, Modi had led an effective charge against
the dynastic rule of the Congress. However, there ap-
pears to be little difference between a dispensation
that was saturated by a family, and one that is besotted
with a single man. In his recent interview with Time,
the prime minister claimed that democracy is a mat-
ter of “faith” in India. But, what he seems to demand
from Indians is not faith in the democracy, but blind
faith in the power of one individual. It is an implicit
demand that reads more like a recipe for uneasy coex-
istence with an autocrat rather than the give and take
of democracy.
As the Modi government launches into its anniversa-
ry celebrations, it is difficult to think of even a single
minister who has been singled out by the prime min-
ister for being a ‘performer.’ Flanked by his two, and
perhaps only, trusted lieutenants—Amit Shah and
Arun Jaitley—on either side, Modi is happy talking
about himself and himself alone. Where does that
leave the government and its ministers? At the mo-
ment, the shadow of anxiety and fear of reprimand
clearly is working in forging a collective silence. But
how long will such silence endure?
*****