MODI GOVERNMENT'S 5 YEARS PERFORMANCE REVIEW - FINAL CHAPTER (POSITIVES)

                                                 FINAL CHAPTER – POSITIVES

          Development is the biggest takeaway from last 5 years of Modi government. Modi has lead from the front. Under his governance, India became the fastest growing economy in the world. Also internationally, India is now seen as a nation which has a strong leader.

                    Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Mission) is another great initiative by Modi government on cleanliness & sanitation. It was great to see big celebrities right from Prime Minister Modi to other famous personalities like actors & sportspersons to hold a broom in their hands & sweeping & raising awareness about maintaining cleanliness to the general public. World Health Organization (WHO) reported that at least 1,80,000 diarrheal deaths were averted in rural India since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

          Government claims to have built more than 9 crore toilets across India. That’s a remarkable figure in the field of sanitation to solve the problem of open defecation. The national sanitation coverage rose to 65% in 2017 from 38.7% in 2014.

          Swachh Sarvekshan Survey conducted across hundreds of cities fostered a healthy competition among cities. This resulted in few cities’ municipality bodies taking it very seriously & thus they put lot of hard work in improving the standards of the hygiene of their cities resulting in growth in their rankings of Swachh Sarvekshan in the subsequent years.  

          Indian Railways have installed more than 1,25,000 bio-toilets in train coaches. Bio-toilets ensure there is no direct discharge of human waste on the tracks. They have been developed jointly by Indian Railways’ engineers & DRDO’s scientists.

          All villages in India have now access to electricity. A village is considered electrified if 10% of its homes & all public buildings like school, health centres, dispensaries, community centres & village councils are provided with electricity. This is a significant achievement as India is the world’s third largest producer & consumer of power.

          UPA government’s highest construction of highways was 16 km per day. But BJP government has built highways at 26 km per day in 2017-18 financial year. Credit should go to Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

          Tax exemption limit was increased to Rs 2.5 lakh from Rs.2 lakh in 2014. In this year’s budget, individual taxpayers with annual income up to 5 lakh rupees got full tax rebate. It means individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not have to pay any tax if they invest smartly. 

          Introduction of GST was much needed & should have happened way earlier. Experts said GST can boost direct & indirect tax collections. Initial few months had little hiccups & even the economy was hit but it picked up later on. Since India being a very diverse country, 5 GST slabs (0%, 5%, 12%, 18% & 28%) are very essential. Also the government changed the tax slabs of many goods and services after its implementation based on the data of tax collection & the feedback it received from the industries & the consumers. This kind of flexibility rather than rigidness was great for the economy & showed the government was willing to listen to people’s alternative opinions & demands (at least on this subject).

          Low inflation (mostly below 5%) is one of the biggest economic achievements of the Modi govt. Low price rise, partially helped by low crude oil prices, helped bring down interest rates on everything from home loans to government bonds.

          Unlike UPA government where scams after scams erupted, Modi govt has been successful in steering clear of any corruption scam. There were doubts raised on Rafale deal but the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to Modi govt on it.    

    

          Sushma Swaraj has been impeccable in her capacity as Minister of External Affairs. She has always come forward to help Indians trapped with major difficulties in foreign countries. She was highly active on Twitter & thus was easily accessible. Her biggest success was the ‘Operation Raahat’ where 4,741 Indian nationals & 1,947 people from 48 foreign countries were rescued from war crisis in Yemen. You can read more about her work here.

          Modi after becoming PM tried to mend relations with Pakistan. But Pakistan continued its policy of exporting terrorism to India. Modi gave a free hand to the Indian defense, not once but twice. Our military retaliated with two surgical strikes. The first one took place against militant launch pads in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the terrorist attack on Uri in 2016. The second one occurred was Balakot airstrike after the Pulwama terror attack this year. Yes the major credit should definitely go to the armed forces & the intelligence agencies. But slight credit should also go to Modi for allowing the military to go ahead with the strikes. This government showed Pakistan that India will no longer stay quiet. We too can strike back. 

          Modi’s foreign policies have been well appreciated by the experts. After all he has travelled many countries & met many political leaders & industrialists. Modi government also encouraged digitalization by giving an impetus to it through its Digital India campaign.

          Make in India & Startup India are two great initiatives started by Modi govt. Make in India encourages foreign companies to manufacture their products in India. Few electronic companies such as Huawei, Lenovo, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi etc. have setup their manufacturing plants in India. Make in India has traversed to various sectors like automobiles, defense manufacturing, food processing & various others. Startup India encourages & supports young entrepreneurs to setup their startups. It’s a good beginning but more needs to be done for the ease of business across India. Both Make in India & Startup India helps in providing employment.

          During the midterm reshuffling of the Union Ministers in 2017, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was appointed as Cabinet Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports. Being a former sportsman & an Olympic Silver medalist for shooting, he knows the various challenges & difficulties faced by Indian sportspersons. He is the most ideal person to chair the Sports Ministry. He shares a great rapport with the sportspersons & seems to be quite accessible to them. He successfully conducted Khelo India Games – national level multidisciplinary grassroots games for school & college students in 2018 & 2019.

          India recently entered an elite space club by successfully testing A-SAT, an anti-satellite missile. It can destroy enemy spy satellites used for surveillance. Again major credit should go to the scientists involved in ‘Mission Shakti’ but government did give them the required permission to go ahead with the testing.

          I am sure there are many other topics which can be covered in all 3 chapters - Negatives, Grey Areas & Positives. I have written about those which I could remember & whose decent (at least little bit) knowledge I possess. I have tried to be as unbiased & impartial as possible without letting my inner favouritism alter my balanced thoughts while writing this series. Hope you liked it. Signing off until next time. 😊