Four years of Mr Modi : Half full Half empty or Half full Half air ?

Four years is a tick in the history of a nation but a long long time in politics , long enough to make , unmake a nation. Hitler took much less to emasculate Reichstag, extirpate all other political parties , whip up unbridled Xenophobia against Jews, saturate the populace in jingoistic fervor, demand of the world more lebensraum (living space) and acquire the means to corral it. On the other hand ,just four years of Marshall Plan (1948-52) not only helped rehabilitate the war ravaged economies of Europe but also laid the foundation for its economic integration. 

One can ,therefore, with much legitimacy ignore voices to the contrary and draw up the score sheet of Modi sarkar thus far. 

Mr Modi’s ascent four years ago promised disruptive reconstruction in the true dielectic mould - from a maun leadership to one spewing fire and brimstone on corruption, Lutyens cronism, and maa-bete ki sarkar ;from one writing letters to cantankerous neighbours to one oozing muscularity and in battle readiness to eyeball and bare a 56” chest to them ; from economic paralysis of 60 years to national nirvana in next 60 months; and more. The nation felt a whiff of fresh air pregnant with Acche Din and Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas suffusing its body-politic. 

But in politics, more than anywhere else , things don’t always pan out the way politicians want it to. Herbert Hoover in  his 1928 presidential campaign   famously promised Americans ‘a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’, what Americans got instead was a  Wall Street crash and Great Depression. Mr Modi has held out a similar promise - ₹15 lacs to each citizen from the stash of black money in Swiss banks that will be brought home. This too has proven as elusive. 

Yeats bemoaned “ Political rhetoric lies to the people”. We in India have a more fanciful name for it ,Jumla . So is rhetoric of Mr Modi all jumla as the opposition would have us believe, or there is substance to it ? Mr Modi loves being seen as an incorrigible optimist. The glass to him is never half empty rather half full of substance and half full of air. The proof of the pudding however is in its eating. So at the end of the day, one needs to know how much air does Mr Modi’s glass hold. 

Over a few pieces I would be sharing my thoughts on it ,a layman’s viewpoint. Learned men would do a more analytical and much better job of it. Still, if the fable where a child is the first to point out  ‘the king is naked’ while more elderly looked on and praised the king’s new dress, holds any lessons, who knows, this layman too may hit upon a grain of truth. 

TO BE CONTINUED ......