‘Lots of sizzle and no steak’?

Arun Shourie, former Union Minister and the right wing ideologue has recently commented on the performance of Modi government and its policies.

He said that the government even though had announced a lot of reforms and schemes, failed to implement them. His statement that “plates’ sound can be heard but the food is not coming” have drawn sparked considerable uproar and have been dismissed off by the ruling party. Shourie said that the government could not be run just by a handful of people and that everything relied on bureasucracy; he came down heavily on the Centre’s decision to replace German by Sanskrit and Modi’s much publicized foreign trips. Just as Modi government completes almost six months in power, the Outlook magazine has recently conducted the performance rating of the Ministers in the NDA government and the majority of them were ranked below average. According to the analysis, ‘the Prime Minister’s Office is running the show in various ministries’ and that the RSS was influencing the policy making with most of the individual Ministers behaving as ‘rubber stamps’.

Modi is apparently dancing to the tune of corporate bigwigs who themselves fear of losing the grip on governance and power. The promises initially pledged before and after coming to power and the hopes of “achche din” have died down. While the economy appears to be benefitting with a rise in Sensex, moderating inflation and dipping crude oil prices, the experts fear that the improvements are temporary. But the most crucial aspect is the aggravating of communal atmosphere in the country. The religious minorities have been isolated, neglected and in the fear of the hardline right wing extremists who constitute the ruling party. Modi have kept a silence during all the incidents of leaders spitting dangerous communal remarks hurting the sentiments of the people and carrying out acts that infringe their basic rights. Plans of constructing temple at the Babri Masjid, the hate speech of sadhvi Niranjan Jyothi and many other senior leaders before and the recent ‘cleansing’ or re-conversion of around 100 Muslims to Hinduism by the Bajrang Dal activists in Agra, all contribute to the escalating feeling of insecurity and the government is visibly unconcerned about it.

The BJP had critisised former premier Manmohan Singh for relying on Sonia Gandhi. But now the ruling party seems to be relying on RSS for each and every matter. The Union Ministers have been advised to interact with the RSS before finalising appointments and plans. The RSS has formed six groups to interact with Ministers and Ministries concerned with education, economy, security, services, people and ideology. Such meetings faced a clampdown after the leaking of Human Resource Development Minister Smrithi Irani’s meeting with one such group. The Prime Minister reportedly doesn’t consult his Cabinet before taking decisions on crucial matters and is concerned with building his public persona.

Modi’s ‘minimum government maximum governance’ is not yet achieved despite what the government say. It is impossible and impractical for a small group of hardline extremists to control and run a country like India. The motives are petty and selfish and are plainly against the democratic views. The ‘good days’ proclaimed are not of the people of the country but of a ruling party with harsh fundamentalist views.