Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by prime minister Narendra Modi has already completed over three years in the office and in less than 20 months time will have to face people to get a mandate in their favour. The government which has been based excessively on the charisma and leadership of Narendra Modi has a lot to answer to the electorate and the results on the ground have not been favourable.
The recent cabinet reshuffle or expansion saw some unique and questionable choices. The government elevated four ministers to the cabinet rank and it included Nirmala Sitharaman (defence), Dharmendra Pradhan (petroleum with skill development), Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (minority affairs) and Piyush Goyal (railways). The reshuffle also saw nine members inducted into the ministry and overall the exercise proved just for optics and photo opportunity. Modi knows that next 18 months or so are very crucial and by picking four bureaucrats in RK Singh, K Alphons, Satyapal Singh and Hardeep Puri has emphasised that delivery will triumph over political nous and experience. The ironical thing about the reshuffle exercise is that in case of Alphons and Puri they are not part of either Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha and the ministries given to them defies logic. The team of Amit Shah and Modi have always been proactive and are always thinking ahead of time and like to be on the winning side more often than not.
The general elections of 2014 saw a tectonic shift in Indian polity and Congress, who had governed India for 10 years were comprehensively beaten and were thrown out of the power for their gross incompetence and lack of performance. Narendra Modi came as a breath of fresh air and vowed to change political discourse and narrative. The last couple of weeks has been very rough for this current dispensation as the news of demonetisation (99% of the money returning to system) being a flop show for the economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the quarter being as low as 5.7%. Modi always championed for the poor and for the downtrodden, but the harsh reality is that government has failed on most of the parameters and the promise of job growth, employment have been very difficult to achieve. Indian electorate, who had pinned high hopes on Modi to deliver is losing patience and the policy of Modi’s core team has been proven wrong on more than one occasion.
The republic of India aspires to become a global player and super power in South Asia, but the crux of the matter is stability and development. The poor voter is not interested in cabinet reshuffle or any other big bang reforms, he is only concerned with his well being and economic prosperity. The mood of the nation is not very optimistic and Modi being a political animal that he is has to do a course correction to keep the hope alive of being re elected in 2019. India of 21st century needs jobs, growth, peace, security and a sense of purpose that things will change for the better. The supreme leader of India has to walk the talk and deliver on his promises otherwise the dream of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah of Congress free India will soon turn into BJP free India.
