What's wrong with our star PM, Modi?

Can something possibly be wrong with the darling of crowds from Delhi to the US, one of the 20 most powerful men in the world, one who announces one hugely successful scheme every month (or is it every week)? Yes, of course.

You see, fan following and election results do not mean that the guy was right. Had majority approval indicated sagacity, Congress government in the centre and the Communists in Kolkata must be treated as highly sagacious people, for most part of India's history. But the voters of today say something else. And so will those of tomorrow. Let's leave TRPs for Arnab Goswami.

So, despite his highly impressive popularity rating, what's wrong with N Modi?

If one must start with a summary, it is this - He simply loves the stage too much and avoids cleaning up the attic. He is just not getting down to what really ails India, because doing that may not be glamorous enough.

Swacchta abhiyaan, Pradhan mantri jan dhan yojna, Make-in-India, Look global-connect local (or whatever), Yoga day, visit to Siachen, Man ki Baat etc are good things. I mean it. But dirty streets, poor not having a bank account, outsiders not manufacturing in India, relations with Australia & Japan, not doing enough Yoga etc are NOT what is wrong with India.

So, what IS wrong?

Saw it on TV recently that a child dies of diarrhoea in India every 10 minutes and 15 die of malnutrition every hour. A road accident victim dies every 4 minutes. We have ghastly figures of rapes, non action by police force, no teachers in government schools, unacceptably polluted air in our cities, government doctors cutting up females for tubectomy faster than a butcher cuts up goats, people waiting for 30 years to get justice, others being kept in jails for 15 years for terrorism and then released by Supreme court for 'No case'. That's what's wrong with India.

This is what keeps India at a disgustingly low 135 number position at the UN Human Development Index (HDI) in a list of just 187 nations. Did you know that nations like Gabon, Samoa and Palau, are ahead of India in that list? Did you even know the names of these countries till now?

Let us accept that Modi has been only a few months and all problems we see noted above are the legacy of the Congress misrule.

But has he taken even the baby steps necessary to correct this? Isn't it better to remind him now while there is still time, than at the end of term?

Cleanliness is best sorted out by penalising those who dirty the streets, by improving the number of safaiwallahs and the equipment they use, by improving drainage and by ensuring that every penny given for these schemes is actually utilised for the purpose. For how long will PM Modi, Amitabh Bacchan, Nita Ambani clean our streets? I suspect that they have other jobs to do as well.

Children education and school conditions have to be improved by putting more money in education and not by getting Coca-cola and NDTV to do what the government should be doing. HRD ministry will have to do more than pass instructions to IITs about unsuitability of non-veg, tamasic food for Indian students. Oh yes, it has happened. Even I didn't believe it initially.

Justice system and police system can easily be improved by increasing the number of judges and correcting the glaring deficiencies of the police force, which have been repeatedly brought out by several committees. Any move in that direction? None.

Anything wrong with Jan-dhan account yojna of the PM? Everything. Government’s decision to extend overdraft facilities without incorporating adequate checks is a potential harbinger of bad loans for a sector already reeling under its worst NPA crisis in years. This “will mean Rs 75,000 crore for 150 million accounts,” columnist Swaminathan Aiyer wrote in the Economic Times . “If these are not repaid, banks will lose Rs 75,000 crore at a time when the PJ Nayak Committee says they need to raise an additional Rs 5.8 lakh crore just to meet the new Basel norms for capital adequacy.”

As an overview, one sees that NO attempt is being made to make the existing system work. ALL effort is towards starting new schemes.

Another objectionable aspect of his policy is the deepening of the hindu-muslim schism and India-Pakistan divide. There is absolutely no doubt about this. All said and done, the UPA did keep a peaceful, war-less, border with the SAME neighbours. We know that a war puts the economy back by 10 years. Building up the economy incrementally and then causing it to slide down radically, doesn't make sense.

Manmohan Singh could have been excused for not taking up these issues because Congress had so few MPs that he just had to do what the allies wanted. That's not much of an excuse for any PM, but with 280 MPs, Modi doesn't have even that fig-leaf. He has enormous power and he knows it well. Remember, how he used the obnoxious ordinance route within days of taking over. For what? Not to do something for the poor but to change service rules so that he gets a Chief/Cabinet secretary of his choice! No one could stop him. So the question is - You know how to rough-ride over others; so how about doing it for the sake of the country! When Superman refuses to act in public interest, we must ask 'why not?'.

It is true that with this majority, no one can stop him. That is what makes his non-action in critical national issues, more worrisome. His is not a 'can not do' case; It is a 'will not do' one.

And what is the legacy he has from BJP? Remember how, with much lesser BJP MPs, Vajpayee came to within a whisker of solving the Kashmir issue. With 280 MPs, Modi can solve the Kashmir issue and all other issues mentioned above, before you finish reading this post. And as for Vajpayee's legacy of ethics, do not forget that he lost his government by just 1 vote, which he could have easily managed. Just asking for voice vote, not a division, would have saved his government. But Vajpayee was an ethical man.

Why don't we give Modi more time? Why not just tell the dying poor of India - 'भूख लगी तो सब्र कर, रोटी नहीं तो क्या हुआ, आजकल दिल्ली मे है, जेरे बहस यह मुदद्आ (If you are hungry, why not have patience? These days they are discussing your very problems in Delhi). The poor may turn around and say - खाक हो जायेंगे हम तुमको खबर होने तक ( At this rate, we'll perish before you get to us).

Is overall shortage of resources the real problem? Let me narrate a story on that. In a flood situation, a rescue boat came around a drowning man. When the boat master refused to pick up more of the drowning on the pretext that picking up more would topple the boat, one drowning man said, 'I agree that you have are overweight as of now. But what if you asked that rich man sitting yonder to throw off his golf clubs?'

Our problem is of governance and administration, not of economy. Nothing works, because no one takes the pains to ensure that it does. It is much easier, and paying, to start a new one instead. No one gets penalised for not doing what he is being paid to do. Indian government is a bottomless pit in which you can pour scheme after scheme, and get no results.

The answer lies in putting a bottom in this bottomless pit. Let us ask Modi not to start anything and put his enormous abilities to make the existing provisions work.

P.S - The first few lines of the book 'Punished by Rewards' (Alfie Kohn) seem to describe well this situation of Modi frenzy -

There is a time to admire the grace and persuasive power of an influential idea and there is a time to fear its hold over us.------------ At the point when the objections are not answered because they are no longer being raised, we are not in control. Then we no longer have the idea. It has us.

Also posted on LinkedIn here  See comments there as well