The Indian PM came to power on a huge wave of optimism which was soon replaced by an inevitable impatience among the electorate. But Modi is working towards a much bigger picture and the results are palpable.Let me begin by pointing out five apparently random events and announcements over the last fortnight.
Do you see the common thread running through the above I do, and it gives me hope that the political discourse in India, so fraught and confrontationist at present, will become more consensual and cooperative over the coming months.All the issues enumerated above seem to point to a realisation in the government that engagement with and partial accommodation of dissonant points of view may be a better way of governing India than trying to bulldoze its way through every debate.When Modi moved into 7 Race Course Road, he was the archetypal outsider in Delhi's most coveted address. Initially, he tried to repeat the strategy that served him so well in Gujarat and tried to bulldoze his way through all roadblocks.But India is not Gujarat. And as two successive washed out parliamentary sessions proved, even a brute majority of 336 in a 543-member Lok Sabha was not enough to push through important economic legislations that are critical to his vision of a fast-growing, modern India where everyone, regardless of caste, creed or religion, gets an equal opportunity to realise his/her full potential.Modi has said at dozens of public meetings since coming to power in New Delhi 19 months ago that the people of India have the right to hold him to his promises and judge him on the basis of the results he delivers.He probably recognises that while people are willing to give him some more time to make good on his election promises, many are getting a little impatient. The 2014 election was the most presidential we've had in India and most people across the country voted for Modi as Prime Minister when they elected the local BJP candidate as their representative to the Lok Sabha.So, blaming the Congress for his government's inability to push reforms such as the Goods & Service Tax Bill, which will improve the ease of doing business by stitching India's 30 states and Union Territories into one economic union that could potentially add 1.5-2.0 per cent to the GDP growth rate will not pass muster. The people elected him, so he has to find a way around the Congress's intransigence.Similarly, the appointments of Chauhan and Pehlaj Nihalini as the heads of FTII and the Central Board of Film Certification, aka Censor Board, had created needless controversy. Critics say Chauhan, best known for playing a leading role in a mythological teleserial, who has subsequently acted in several little known films, lacks cinematic heft to helm FTII, India's pre-eminent film institute. And Nihalini has courted controversy by pushing a puritanical view of Indian culture while censoring films - chopping off a kissing scene in the James Bond film Spectre and banning the use of 34 cuss words in Indian films.These appointments alienated the middle of the road, incremental voter who brought the BJP to power without bringing in any additional benefits.By now setting up high profile panels to clip the wings of its controversial appointees, the government has signalled that it is willing to bend back and compromise to diffuse the situation without actually bending over completely. A softer, more consensual prime minister is also more likely to win back the non-core BJP voter who is showing signs of vacillating and looking at alternative political platforms to support.There is a famous Agatha Christie mystery about a dog that did not bark. See the link to the current situation In the aftermath of the Pathankot terror strike Have you heard a single shrill statement about Pakistan from the lunatic fringe that has embarrassed the Prime Minister and his government so much in the recent past This seems to indicate that Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have quietly managed to rein them in (to the extent it is possible to rein in motor mouths and rabble rousers). And his peace overture to Sharif once again shows that the PM is willing to take bold political risks to pursue his vision of a peaceful South Asia.It took the Prime Minister two years to come to grips with the situation in Gujarat after he took over as Chief Minister of the state in 2002. He completely sidelined the loony fringe and soon thereafter successfully transformed Gujarat into, arguably, the best governed state in India.He will complete two years as Prime Minister in May. Can he repeat that performance in New Delhi as well There's no denying that
has possibly the sharpest political antenna in the country. By demonstrating that he is now willing to stoop to conquer, he has signalled that he has made the transition from the outsider in Delhi to a consummate insider.Renowned political columnist Ashok Malik said: “In 2016, Narendra Modi's agenda will inevitably turn domestic. There are many reasons for this, including the need for the prime minister to travel within the country and re-capture the narrative, hijacked or at any rate distorted by adversarial voices in recent months."More important, the attempt to use foreign policy as a booster shot for the economy is now at an end. It has paid dividends, but issues of delivery at home and actual realisation of stated intentions are coming to be raised. It is these that must occupy Modi in 2016.”This augurs well for the country. A more accommodative Prime Minister and a government that is willing to bend in order to bring on board contrarian opinions will go a long way in bringing down the political temperature in the country.Among the many reasons that led to the policy paralysis during UPA II was the complete breakdown in communications between the government and the BJP, then the principal opposition party. A redux is threatening Modi's economic reform agenda.If the Prime Minister can get the Congress to support the GST, bankruptcy and real estate bills to ensure their passage, it will give India's economy a decisive push upwards at a time when there are signs of a revival.This will bring back foreign investors to India's stock markets in droves once again and dispel fears of a sustained pullout from India in the wake of the ongoing stock market meltdown in China.It will also encourage the Indian diaspora, which Modi has embedded as an integral part of his foreign policy matrix, to continue their mutually beneficial engagement with their motherland. He has now merged the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs with the Ministry of External Affairs to better leverage this crucial overseas constituency.But to come back to the Indian Prime Minister, India is now waiting for Modi 2.0 to usher in the promised but slightly delayed acchhe din.
