Transforming India Modi "Ishtyle" - First 2 years

"If hard work is your weapon

Success will be your slave"

Narendra Modi Govt completed its 2 years in office 3 days back. Two gone, three more years to go. It had been a tumultuous year all over the world and India was no exception. Much has already been said or written elsewhere about Govt's performance or non-performance during last 2 years. There will be divergence of views on the efficacy of Govt's functioning but Modi as its leader comes out with flying colours for his sustained work and sheer tenacity to achieve his dream of a better India. Not a speck of doubt on that.

Reforms: His vision encompasses both plausible initiatives like JAN DHAN and difficult ones like SWACHH BHARAT. But the centre of his governance is the ubiquitous common man  and towards this end, his Govt has passed many important bills in the Parliament like Real Estate regulation, Insolvency and Bankruptcy, Aadhar and carried out several impactful economic reforms including decontrol of diesel prices, liberalizing FDI rules, forming Bank Boards Bureau and improving ease of doing business   For statistics  aficionado - 21.81 crores new bank accounts with Rs. 37,616 crores deposit under Jan Dhan, 3.39 crore self-employed granted loans amounting to 1.41 lakh crore under Mudra Yojna, Ujjwala scheme of free LPG for poor likely to benefit 5 crore families by 2019 and introduction of DBT( Direct Benefit Transfer) plugging the leakages and saving nearly Rs. 15,000 crore and with potential to save Rs. 70,000 crore per year.  Newly launched schemes like Crop insurance, NAM (National Agriculture Market) and Soil Health Card aim at welfare and financial security of farmers and development of Agriculture in India. Modi Govt also fulfilled its promise of granting OROP (One Rank One Pension) to retired defence personnel which had been hanging fire since 1973. This will benefit 32 lakh ex-servicemen and widows. In short, Modi has planted these fruit-bearing economic trees to transform the lives of millions of poor, needy and vulnerable sections of society. When time comes, these may well transform into vote-yielding trees. However, all the excellent work pertaining to development and economic growth will be negated if there is no check on population growth. Our demographic dividend may become demographic disaster.

Domestic politics: From Oct, 2015 onward there was never a dull moment on domestic political front. Be it Intolerance debate, Award wapsi episode, disturbances in Hyderabad and JNU campuses, the main opposition and leftist parties kept the pot boiling for several months and some media channels chose to play ball with them. Party's own loudmouths did their best to discomfit the Govt by their inane, insensitive and provocative utterances. Modi Govt had to work hard to restore normalcy. Manufactured or not, these salvos were certainly well-calibrated and one of the causes of BJP's defeat in Bihar. By scoring a historic victory in Assam and improving its votes share in Kerala, BJP has shown that it may have learnt its lesson from Bihar and Delhi debacles. Party President Amit Shah gets a much-needed shot in the arm ahead of 2017 elections in UP but much remains to be done by Modi Govt in coming months.

Corruption: During last 2 years high level corruption has almost disappeared and there have been no big-ticket scams or cases of crony-capitalism. Progress on Black money is steady but slow and it is a depressing situation where country's middle class is struggling to pay their taxes and ' wilful defaulters' like Mallya are having a ball at the taxpayers cost. People may forget the promised Rs. 15 lakh to every Indian if culprits are brought to book and black money is recovered from them. Modi Govt also has to curb corruption in the lower echelons of bureaucracy. This may not be possible without active support from the state Govts but BJP-ruled states can be tasked to make their own states corruption-free in the next 2 years. Corruption in India ranking a high 76 among 168 most corrupt nations will always be relevant for winning or losing elections.        

Diplomacy: Modi has made official visits to 36 countries since becoming Prime Minister and developed personal rapport with many of world's top leaders, pursued vigorously India's economic and strategic interests and raised India's global profile. His unconventional approach to diplomacy has been, more or less, effective. Foreign ministry continues to be one of the top ministries in terms of performance. After his successful visit to UAE in Aug, 2015 his recent visits to Saudi Arabia (April) and Iran (May) were both symbolic and substantive. The trilateral agreement with Afghanistan and Iran on Chabahar port is the real takeaway, as it provides a gateway into Afghanistan which will enable us to contribute to its economic development and deepen our energy relationship with Central Asia, besides outflanking China-Pakistan Gwadar project. Despite Modi Govt's best efforts our relations with both China and Pakistan remain tense and complicated. China have an invaluable asset in Pakistan and they continue to needle us on cantankerous issues like its ambitious US $46 billion economic corridor through POK, Azhar Masood UN ban or NSG. China hopes to replace USA as No. 1 power in future and keeps us bogged down with problematic Pakistan. Our difficulties with China can be opportunities for both India and US and Modi's forthcoming visit to the US assumes significance in this backdrop. Perhaps, time is ripe to come a little closer to US and take our relationship to a new high in matters relating to technology-access, nuclear, defence and security. In 2008 Georg Bush (Jr) got us unique 'waiver' in 45-member NSG in the face of stiff opposition from China. Eight years later let us see if Obama can go all out like Bush and get us NSG's membership.

Challenges: There are several areas where this Govt is facing serious challenges, primarily low rate of job creation, high prices of essential food items like pulses, fruits and vegetables affecting a majority of population. It must find a legal way to eliminate the middlemen to benefit both the farmers and consumers. Hoarders and Black marketeers are as pernicious as any other hardcore criminal and deserve no mercy. Groundwater level in India has been going down steadily and water shortage has assumed alarming proportions and its conservation needs to be tackled on a war-footing. There is great hope that Modi Govt would find a sustainable solution to this crisis just as it's trying to clean Ganga and other rivers.

Narendra Modi is an energetic leader with a grand vision and rare ability to turn this vision into realty. He is a human dynamo and working 16 hours a day without a holiday in 2 years. More importantly, he is a good listener and even a better communicator and must be getting crucial feedback from millions of Indians through innovative 'Mann Ki Baat' and ' mygovt.in'. As for his team, some Ministers have done better than expected, many have done reasonably good while others have been pedestrian doing precious little and need to be eased out. 2 years is a long period to assess the performance and time for reshuffle is now.

Finally, in the backdrop of 7.5% growth of GDP, all-time high foreign exchange reserves of US$ 360 billion, over 11% increase in power generation, a bumper Monsoon and GST can be real mood changers.

Read: One Year In Hot Pursuit Of Acche Din