Not long ago when Modi breath fire, the dragons in the east and neighbours of the west trembled. For Narendra Modi had become much larger than himself, he was the living, breathing, nationalist to the core India.
Then the inevitable happened, fall from grace followed. It started with the Gujarat campaign trail. Modi reduced himself to a chief ministerial material and he has never recovered since. His direct public broadcasts are away from realities, his lack of press interactions are louder than Manmohan Singh’s silence and his lack of achievements on promises is staring back at him with a blinding glare.
In almost all cases of recent political discourse BJP and my extension Modi, is a laggard. For all practical purposes the undisputed leader of nationalists in India followed Rahul Gandhi in the ‘fasting’ competition. For Karnataka temple visits too Rahul got better on Modi.
What is most disheartening is the fact that Modi has eventually got himself in the category of ‘yet another’ politician. In all of four major ministries the centre handles, his achievements lack any lustre.
The Finance ministry keeps on loosing the promises of demonetisation, specially when the ATMs run dry and the RBI says that there is more cash in the country than before. This only implies cash economy has risen more than it was before and that its appetite is now hurting the common man.
The Defence ministry has cancelled almost all projects for modernisation of Armed forces in the quest for ‘Make in India’. The result is that we do not have a schedule for the future. Air Force cancelled its acquisition of 120 Medium aircrafts after a decade long process, only to initiate another one. Similarly Army has reissued notification for better Assault rifles after cancelling an order for the same.
Foreign ministry is no better. The Indian Diplomatic onslaught in the first two years of Modi as PM have been reduced to damp squib in last year or so. With Russians courting Pakistan, Chinese steam rolling in Indian Ocean region and US not warming enough to Indian interests, the Indian diplomatic efforts lack any depth. The efforts to counter Chinese belt and road projects have been on the back burner and the Jap-Aussie support has been under utilised.
The Home ministry is no better. With Ajit Doval running the combined Kashmir and Anti-Pak Ops the ministry is in disarray and the Home minister recuses himself even from Kadi Ninda.
On the party front, blind support to its leaders in epitomised in the Unnao rape case. The entire BJP is being reorganised on its faithfulness to its supreme leader Narendra Modi, leaving even important states like UP in hands of inexperienced administrators like Yogi.
As general election near, familiar voices have started raking up Ayodya, Article 377 and other hindu-nationalist issues but modi has already lost the narrative. As this voices gather momentum the loudest voice will be that of silence on the very same issues in the last four years.
