Modi after one year

 Arun Shourie summed it up rightly: “The plates are rattling but there is still no sign of food”. Going by media surveys, a majority still believes Modi will deliver. He still has four years to live up to the expectations he has raised. What do we applaud Modi for? The list can be long but here are key points: foreign policy, connecting with diaspora, helping quake-hit Nepal, making ministers and bureaucrats work and behave, coal and spectrum auctions, ‘Man ki Baat’, Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Skill India, Ganga cleanup, controlling inflation ( helped by cheaper oil), managing fiscal and current account deficits, and launching pension, life and accident insurance schemes. 

Modi talks big. That quality catapulted him to power and may well cause his undoing. His Republic Day speech lifted his political stock, which was hit subsequently by his irrational comments on the practice of genetic science and plastic surgery in ancient India as also the thoughtless observation that he was ashamed of being an Indian before occupying the PM Office. One wonders if it is the same man speaking — one who can be so comfortable with Obama and Xi Jinping. When he promises bullet trains or 100 smart cities, he leaves ordinary mortals wondering: Where is the money? Should that be the priority when countrywide towns and cities are so chaotic and unlivable? His emphasis on digital India may be just gas especially when no one seems to know how to fix the mobile network. The promise-performance divide may grow and ultimately ground him.