Has Acche Din come or not?

The most important & visible slogan for Modi’s historic 2014 win was “Acche din aane wale hain”. Now after 2 years 8 months, we should ask the question – Has Acche din come? (Even though asking this question may still be little early). Yesterday, I was watching Akilesh Yadav’s interview with Shekha Gupta & Mr. Yadav was saying that Modi hasn’t done a single good work. So, I thought of reviewing NDA Govt. work in these 32 months.

The most visible change during Modi Govt. is the sense that India has a strong PM and we have a functioning Govt. Frankly speaking, we missed a strong & visible PM during UPA 2. The Govt. was run by 10 Janpath which took all decisions but didn’t took responsibility for those decision. Let us talk about domestic work of central Govt. I come from a rural farmer background and the LPG connection came to my house in early 1990s, but still most of the food was cooked on firewood & cow dung cake (on mitti ka chula). I have seen my mother, grandmother, aunts struggling in smoke to cook the food. Now the central Govt. gives free LPG connection to families living under poverty line. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has the power to transform the Indian cooking habit forever. Subsidized LED bulb has brought revolution in Indian household. Till today 215.6 million LED bulbs has been distributed at subsided rates saving electricity of 11,200 crores rupees annually. This is indeed an LED revolution which has potential to solve the electricity crisis in India. Now subsidy of LPG cylinders have been linked with Aadhar card & it has saved thousands of crores of leaked in that subsidy. Gradually many schemes are being linked to Aadhar & bank account to reduce the leakage.

First time after Gandhi jee, any leader has taken steps to clean India. The open defection is the biggest health hazard in India and it has drastically reduced. GST (which will be implemented this year) is the single biggest tax reform in modern India. It has potential to propel GDP growth by 1.5 to 2 %. Jan Dhan Yogna for opening the bank accounts was the biggest scheme of this kind in the whole world. Make in India initiative is also gathering pace these days. Also Govt. is keen on fighting the black money. Demonetization was a very brave step in with 86% of currency in value became worthless with just 3.5 hours of notice. Economists are still debating whether it was a good or bad step. But you need to have guts of steel to take such drastic decision when UP election was just months away. I could not have imagined to buy milk & vegetables without cash from a road-side vendor till Nov 8^th 2016. And even opposition accepts that it was not a big election debate. Foreign policy is an also a good achievement of Modi. India has improved its relations with USA, Japan, EU, Australia, Canada etc. Boarder Agreement with swapping of lands with Bangladesh was the single biggest achievement of foreign policy.

There has been many misses also during Modi Govt. The pace of economic reforms may have been higher. India-Pak, India-Nepal, India-China relationship has become worse. The situation of Kashmir valley is also not favorable. There are concerns that Income Tax Department may bring the inspector Raj back. The banking rules are changing more frequently & it is difficult for a common man to take note of that. Even though Growth rate is above 7%, it may have been higher under PM Modi.

Finally I can say that it is still early to judge Modi’s performance in just 32 months. PM Modi still commands the support of public despite losses in Bihar & Delhi. Majority of Indians still have faith on him and he is working tirelessly to achieve the dreams for 1.3 billion Indians. Seven hundred words for analyzing performance of Modi Govt. is like a drop in ocean. But I can certainly say that there have been more hits than misses in these 32 months.