Perform, no need to confront

In the five-year tenure of a government, two years is a long enough time to make a performance assessment. The Narendra Modi government at the Centre, which completed two years in office on Thursday, doesn’t really score high marks. Modi led the BJP to a resounding victory on his singular development plank. His campaign caught the imagination of a nation that desperately yearned for a new leadership at the Centre that would work purposively to revive the economy, combat corruption and improve governance. All this would require a foreign policy that would seek peaceful conditions externally, and peace and tranquillity at home to speed up economic growth and development in an inclusive manner.   

Two years on, what is evident at the national level is a sense of disappointment about the Modi government’s record. What has been evident in the BJP government’s approach most of the time is bellicosity, not cordiality. It would appear that Modi and other top leaders of the BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar had changed their goalpost in the wake of the unexpected majority that the party won on its own, without having to depend on its NDA partners. In the past, the BJP top leaders had often stated that the party would push forward some of its contentious and pet agenda when it gets a majority of its own in Parliament. In the last one year, many contentious issues, be it the question of beef eating, cow slaughter or Vande Mataram recital, the Modi government adopted aggressive positions. What has been evident is a majoritarian approach, rooted perhaps in the party’s belief that it was entitled to adopt such a policy in view of its parliamentary majority. 

An atmosphere of confrontation prevails in the polity and in the civil society. The prime minister could have removed misgivings about his government’s behaviour and conduct with timely interventions on key issues. But that has not been the case on most occasions. As a result of this, and for want of the Opposition’s cooperation, his government’s economic reform agenda has got stalled in Parliament. This discord has hardly been reassuring to Indian and foreign investors to invest big, which is required to fuel higher growth rate in the country. The government’s neighbourhood foreign policy too has been, at best, naïve. And, there is a risk that some of Modi’s grand initiatives, which are yet to bear fruit, might just get lost in the prevailing  atmosphere of confrontation. As he steps into the third year in office, it is time Modi reversed this for the benefit of the country.