"Old maids sweeten
their tea with scandal."
—Josh Billings (American,
1818-1885)
Word for the day
Pococurante (n)
A careless or indifferent
person.
Malice towards none
It seems that the 'B' team
of PM Modi, including BJP chief ministers and central ministers, has been
assigned the duty to displace Rahul Gandhi as the most popular character
amongst Indian joke writers.
As of this morning RaGa is
place at 10th position, with 6 out of top 10 spots being occupied by BJP
leaders.
First random thought this morning
The political discourse in the country stopped long back being
funny. Traversing the vast and tough terrains of pugnacity it has now entered
the grubby terrain of repugnance and nausea.
The unfortunate part is that when seen through the prism of social
media, the political establishment appears to be reflecting the people in
general, as should generally happen in a democracy.
The consolation is that we all know and believe that it is not the
true character of India and Indians. We shall see politics reflecting the true
character of India and Indians soon. Amen!
Four years of Modi rule - 2
Evaluating the performance of the incumbent government purely on
the basis of available statistical data is tough for a variety of reasons.
For example, in many cases either there is no base, or base has
been changed. In many cases adequate data is not available to make a meaningful
assessment. In yet some other cases, the years of efforts have yielded fruits
in past four years. In such cases affording the entire credit to incumbent
government may not be completely justifiable.
It is therefore only appropriate, in my view, to assess the
performance on both quantitative and qualitative criteria.
Moreover, the promises made by the leaders of BJP in run up to
elections have been very ambitious and were presented very forcefully. This
becomes a constraint in making an objective assessment as the tendency becomes
to assess the performance against promises rather than the base data.
Nonetheless, here is my assessment.
First, let's note the positives.
Continuity: The best aspect of the 4year Modi Rule
is the continuity he has maintained in policies, methods, and programs of the
previous governments. The government under Mr. Modi not only has continued with
a majority of the social programs, economic initiatives and socio-economic
& strategic policies of the previous governments, but enhanced them
materially.
GST, RERA, IBC, Aadhar, DBT, GAAR, Integrated energy policy
especially energy security, APMC reforms, monetary policy setting mechanism,
import substitution through indigenization of technology and production, etc.
are some of the examples where pace of execution has increased noticeably in
past four years.
Programs like rural housing, rural roads, rural electrifications,
agriculture productivity enhancement (especially pulses mission, dairy
development), financial inclusion and digital connectivity have gained traction
in past four years.
Federal cooperation has gained momentum after 14th Finance
Commission recommendations were implemented, redrawing the center state revenue
sharing.
The government has also commendably resisted the temptation to
temper with the principles laid down by the Supreme Court for allocation and
sale of national resources like minerals, telecom spectrum etc.
Even more commendable is the commitment to the fiscal tightening
path and enlargement of tax base, initiated by the previous government and
indulging in the fiscal profligacy for political expediency.
There are many efforts of the government, outcome of which cannot
be determined today, as these still remain work in progress, especially
programs like sustainability, cleanliness, etc......to continue tomorrow
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