Narendra Modi presented his state government of Gujarat as one with no flaws. Before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the Gujarat model was used as a demo showing what was to unfold if BJP manages to take hold of the central government. People were assured of good governance if they elect BJP over others. The ploy worked so well that BJP managed to pull off a historic mandate in their favour as Narendra Modi, the face of Gujarat model, became the face of Indian Government.
Three years on, PM Narendra Modi and his government stand gazing at a simple question, have they done enough to get called as a good government? Have their actions matched their own protocol of good governance? It seems the government is too busy to find an answer to these simple questions. So, just to help them out, here are 8 failures of the NDA government which prove they are still far away from good governance.
1. Demonetization
What could have been the bravest move in the history of Indian economy turned into a disaster just because of poor execution. On 8th of November, 2016, the Government of India announced the demonetization of all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes. The move was expected to slow down the flow of black money and curtail the fundings of various terrorist organisations operating illicitly in the country. However, it failed massively. On August 30, 2017, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated in its annual report that 99% (15.28 trillion rupees) of the demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were exchange or returned. What that meant was that all the black money holders had successfully managed to transform their black money into white, leaving the government’s move completely ineffective.
Apart from that, demonetization also hunted down India’s growing economy. Growth, which was at 7.5% before demonetization, fell by almost 2% to 5.7% in less than an year. Also, due to the expenditure done by RBI for printing of new notes, the dividend paid by it to the government fell by around 53%. And of course, the hundreds of lives lost due to the cash crunch stands as proof of how big a blunder it was.
2. Appointment of Smriti Irani as the HRD Minister
Smriti Irani’s appointment as the HRD Minister was a mistake so big that it had to be rectified midway to stop the slew of controversies created by her. Her own education came under scrutiny after it was found that the documents submitted by her in 2014 contradicted her educational qualifications as mentioned in an affidavit back in 2004. Her claims of having a degree from Yale university was also shot down after the university clarified that she had only attended a week-long programme, India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Program, in 2013.
Apart from her own education failures, she had many more controversies to her name. Constant interruption of the HRD ministry prompted many directors of IITs and other top institutions to resign. Her initiative of celebrating Good Governance Day on 25th December (a holiday for almost every single student) was bashed severely by students and teachers alike. She came up with the idea of teaching Sanskrit in IITs and replacing German with Sanskrit in the HRD Ministry run Kendriya Vidyalayas in October 2014. The furore was so massive that Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel had to hold talks with Narendra Modi regarding the working of India’s HRD Ministry.
3. Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister
A big share of Narasimha Rao government’s success was credited to his strong finance ministry. Manmohan Singh, as a finance minister, brought about a few economic reforms that shaped the growth of India’s economy. In Narendra Modi’s government, the credibility of Finance Ministry has been too questionable at times. The success of PM Modi’s government lies on much weaker shoulders. The failure of demonetization has a lot to do with Arun Jaitley. He was responsible for changing rules every other day which opened up many loopholes in the whole policy. His failure to chalk out a strong execution plan for demonetization meant that all the black money holders got ample chances to tackle the so called surgical strike on black money.
Apart from that he has also failed to manage the taxation system of our country. The taxation on petrol and diesel stand at over 58% and 50% respectively, too much for the general public to bear. Narendra Modi had a lot of better options for the finance ministry but eventually his choice turned out to be a mistake. Arun Jaitley had failed to win in Lok Sabha elections as well, which could have served as a reason good enough for Narendra Modi to keep him away from such a crucial position.
4. Digital India
The foremost objective of Digital India was to develop a secure and stable digital infrastructure. The government has failed to accomplish this objective so far as many of its own websites have been hacked of late. As for the stability is concerned, the website which was meant to serve as a platform for reporting corruption had crashed recently. The reason being the shifting of databases from TCS to NIC. This meant that the data of many black money holders was lost or deleted.
5. Poor Spending
A government is responsible for spending the taxpayer’s money wisely. One of the biggest mistake of Modi Government has been the poor spending of taxpayer’s money. They have focused more on advertising and doing presentable things leaving aside the core and more important issues. The Rs 3600cr worth Shivaji Statue has been criticised heavily as the government already has a lot to spend their money on. Various state governments are completely sunk in deficit, loans of farmers are supposed to be addressed, rural infrastructure is not getting enough fund, but still the Modi Government considered spending money on building a monument more important. Also, Rs 2000 crores were allegedly spent by BJP to mark the completion of three years of NDA government.
6. Not controlling communal hatred
Another mistake of the Modi Government has been its failure to properly address the incidents of communal hatred. Communal hatred was expected to increase as BJP has always been known for religion based politics but what failed the people of India was their inability to put the culprits behind the bars. The BJP government has so far failed significantly in controlling violence against minorities in the country and if the trend of letting loose the errants doesn’t end, BJP is least likely to make any improvement.
7. Neglecting Indian Railways
Modi Government’s initial days were decorated with a hopeful success of the Indian railways. Suresh Prabhu was at the helm of a railways that was bound to grow and usher under the new government. Three years on, Piyush Goyal has replaced Suresh Prabhu and the Railways stand in a mess as it always used to be. Trains getting derailed has become a new normalcy. The recent Elphinstone Stampede exposed off government’s negligence towards the actual growth of Indian Railways. The government is planning to spend another incredible amount of money on bullet trains leaving the already existent issues of passenger safety behind. The protests have prompted the ministry to take some action as Piyush Goyal recently assured installation of CCTVs in Mumbai’s local trains.
8. Not taking any action against black money holders
Modi Government had spoken boldly against corruption and taking strict action against the ones found guilty. However, their actions have failed their own words. Even after getting the details of Panama Papers, the Modi Government did not take any action against the ones mentioned to have black money. Moreover, the likes of Robert Vadra and every other name whom BJP targeted before coming to power are still roaming free of any charges. Also, loan defaulters like Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi are enjoying their foreign tours as the Modi Government has waived off a significant amount of their loans. They chalked out demonetization to show that they are against corruption but did not take any action even after getting all the evidences against the real corrupts. Moreover, Vyapam and other scams left exposed their claim of a corruption free government.
We just hope our beloved PM takes note of all these mistakes and rectifies them ASAP. Again, it is our right to support our government, but it is also our duty to criticise them when they go wrong. We’ve pointed out these mistakes with a hope of making our government better and if you too have any noted any more mistakes of the government, do let us know in our comments section below.