A consolidation in governance towards effecting strong
deliveries across the board should be setting in just about any time now. There
have been indeed many, and continuous, preparatory moves, scattered across the
first year of the Modi Administration.
But now, being able to go into Myanmar, with its
permission, in an American style helicopter
borne raid, to eliminate insurgents attacking our Army positions in
Nagaland and Manipur, is a thrilling demonstration of the difference of
approach. Our armed forces have been unshackled, and given their head by the
political authorities after a very long time.
The same Maoist insurgents knocked off here, ambushed and killed 18 armed forces
personnel in Manipur just a few days ago, with plans to kill many more, right
across the North Eastern States. But our
swift and effective retaliation, unprecedented as it goes, is a demonstration
of the fruits of Modi’s hectic regional diplomacy; and, of course, his much
more muscular stance militarily.
Mercifully, we had no casualties this time. Our Army decided to generously use its best
equipment for a change. It was an operation approved by the PMO. We killed 15
insurgents in a surgical strike, and sent out a strong message that things have
changed in how we will handle provocations like this in future.
How long then, before we pursue terrorists from POK
across the loC, even as we call Pakistan’s nuclear threatening bluff? When we chase Pakistani terrorists like this,
by land and air, with a view to eliminating them, we will asuredly get some
decent results. And, as things stand, we will probably do it with US, Israeli, Saudi and Russian backing; probably as a full
and permanent member of the UNSC ourselves, and possibly - surprise, sursprise,
with Chinese tacit support as well!
Back at the Ranch, for now, we find the corruption at the top has indeed
been stymied. The permanent bureaucracy has been reshuffled, somewhat, and
tuned up to work for specified objectives in a time bound manner.
Some cobwebby laws have been scrapped, others are being
drafted from scratch, and yet others are being revamped/adapted for current
relevance. The statist sarkari bent, Kafkaesque in its convolutions, is
being reoriented, with even a rationalisation and regrouping of ministries.
Road blocks, created by impossibly high environmental
standards, have been eased. Money has miraculously been found by the Government
where it was lacking. Terms of contracts and tenders have been revised to make
things go again; and the private sector, has been, and is, definitely being
encouraged.
PSU and nationalised bank shareholdings are being
diluted. The monetisation and tweaking of national assets are being undertaken.
A new broom is attempting to sweep the land clean, and moves are afoot to stop
polluting the river waters.
The pledged foreign money, into infrastructure and
industry, particularly for roads, power, ports, railways, and defence-manufacturing,
will soon start to flow. Defence manufacturing in particular, despite the immense
payola and wondrous honey traps that will have to be foregone, alongside an
honest to goodness modernisation of the Indian Railways, will be remembered long after
Narendra Modi is gone.
The new job creation platform, touted over the last year
and a half, is beginning to show some green shoots. But soon enough, the
newspapers and TV Channels will be quite
full of it.
Modi’s duck taking to water foreign affairs thrust,
something of a major feature of this administration, is going particularly
well, and will become the mainstay of transforming his grand vision into
reality.
The world of Narendra Modi may be small-town, but it is
as brash and confident as any Kangana
Ranaut. This is baffling to the
established Nehruvian set, quite at sea
from what it has tackled in the past.
Modi is, after all, the quintessential outsider, a
provincial politician made good, and the Lutyens Media find it hard to predict
what he will do next. Modi, and reigning No.1 female actress Kangana Ranaut of Bollywood, without benefit of the
triumvirate of successful Khans, are small town folk; albeit with spectacular,
grand destinies to fulfil. They are both remarkably at ease being alone, and, having
taken their knocks- keeping their own counsel.
It is true however that the honeymoon period, if it was
ever there for the highly resented Modi, is indeed over. And the euphoria of
its supporters, just a third of the electorate anyway, has also ebbed. Everything
is now down to actual valuations and hard news.
The equity stock markets have corrected back to the
levels of October 2014, and the Debt Market is volatile and jumpy in
anticipation of possible interest rate hikes in the US. But this is all as it
should be. We cannot run on hype and empty for any longer length of time.
The many Modi promises must be made to come true, and
when they do, the ground rules will have changed forever. This is a Prime
Minister and Government that wants to be judged on performance and not
ideology. And its ideology, such as it
is, is not an unheeding Hindutva, as
his critics would have it, but to bring prosperity to all, in the shortest
possible time.
Many people believe him,
and unanticipated changes are afoot. Lakhs of Muslims have joined the
BJP as primary members. Mumbai will, at last, build it long awaited coastal
road from end to end, under the present BJP/SS administration. Coal, Telecommunications
Spectrum, Insurance, and sundry other
things, have already had their values unlocked, and enhanced for exploitation.
Bangladesh, a Muslim nation within SAARC, has, once more,
become a warm ally; even as an unmoved Pakistan, still plays to the old Muslim
League script, alongside our own Owaisi and Geelani. But what will Pakistan do, economically
irrelevant as it is in world affairs, when a slowing China finds it fit to do
feverish business with India?
The Bihar Assembly
elections are looming, and the Opposition, midwifed by the Congress mother and
son combine, has united to try and defeat the Modi/Shah duo. Lalu Yadav, and
his now relative by marriage, Mulayam Singh Yadav, have been made to yield
pre-eminence to the ambitious and tenacious Nitish Kumar, as presumptive CM,
backed, at last, by Congress.
If this alliance of convenience, which is as yet well
short of a merger, fails to stop Modi/Shah from taking Bihar, then it is
probably all over for it, even for the general elections of 2019. Modi, sitting
pretty though he is, may be consolidating already, but there is a lot of
growing up to do, and in the process, he might still be in charge a decade from
now.
For: The Pioneer(1,099 words)
June 9th , 2015
Gautam Mukherjee
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