Not so 'Acche Din' for accountability

The Prime Minister and his govt may want to dissociate themselves from their own words now that reality has hit but should they be allowed to?

“Acche Din…..” exclaimed Narendra Modi at the top of his voice and then waited. “Aa gaye” came the reply from the large crowd that had gathered in front of him at Vadodara on May 16, 2014. It was a victory speech by a Prime Minister Elect that underlined how the electorate had bought into his promise of good times.
 
The BJP campaign had focused on emphasising everything that was wrong when it came to governance and then sold hope in the form of Narendra Modi, the great administrator from Gujarat. It succeeded in selling Modi as an agent of both hope & change. There was considerable focus on selling him as the sole answer to all ills and this was conveyed with the help of the slogan:
 
“Acche din aane wale hain (good days are about to come)”

 
‘Acche din’ was an overarching philosophy that had something for everyone. It was the promise of more jobs for some, more unapologetic economic reforms for others. It was the promise of an India that will regain what was referred to as its past glory. Modi himself made some other promises even talking about bringing trillions of black money stashed abroad back to India; enough to give every Indian Rs. 15 Lakh in their accounts. The campaign rhetoric was such a heady concoction, that the BJP started seeing the demerits of having built such high expectations once the reality of governance hit them. This even prompted the BJP President, Amit Shah to call the promise of Rs. 15 Lakhs for every individual a mere “chunavi jumla”, an electoral proverb, used to emphasise a point rather than a promise.
 
Another such statement became a headline today when it was reported that Amit Shah had said that it will take 25 years to usher the good days in. Amit Shah and BJP have denied this report. A more careful parsing of his complete statement reveals that what he said was a little different but the import was somewhat similar. What is more important is the indication that lately the BJP has taken to underplaying expectations that it built during the campaign. In the last one year, we have seen them struggle to overcome the gap between expectations and delivery.

 
Reports from the Prime Minister’s meetings with handpicked editors and columnists over many days, reveal that he was at pains to convince them to not judge his government on the basis of campaign promises and that the development promised will take at least 10-15 years. Amit Shah’s rejection of electoral campaign promises as “chunavi jumla” and this recent statement about the timeline for delivery of campaign promises needs to be viewed in this context of expectations management. The attempt now is focused on shifting the goal-post where the head of the government and the president of the party in power are asking people to not judge them on the basis of their own words. This would have been an interesting attempt had it not been so disingenuous and twisted.
 
This is a peculiar method, one which unfortunately seems to have gone unchallenged, that political leaders must not be held to account for what they say during electoral campaign. The Modi campaign in 2014 was criticised for lacking specifics. As Mihir Sharma writes in his column:

“More than one BJP spokesman has, in fact, said outright that a manifesto is unnecessary – the party programme is all there in Mr Modi’s speeches.
Ambiguity is, of course, strategically important for the BJP. Its campaign has been a masterful performance in which it succeeds in being all things to all people.”
 
While votes were sought on the basis of words while keeping specific policy measures hidden; we are now expected to dismiss these very words as ‘chunavi jumla’ and allow the speakers to go scot-free. It was at Jhansi during the campaign that Narendra Modi, beseeched voters to give him only sixty months to fix everything that was broken. The voters have granted him that time with a decisive mandate and more than an year has already gone by where the focus has been deliberately moved from delivering on campaign promises to making sure the government isn’t reminded of those promises at all.
 
The government will be judged on the basis of jobs that it generates, on higher incomes for farmers, on revival of manufacturing, on easier norms for businesses, on the ability to deliver electricity to every household. We have seen little evidence of concerted actions on these fronts. Investments remain a concern, economic reforms have remained a non-starter, the form in which GST is being pushed is disappointing and the govternment’s focus seems to be creating high visibility events like International Yoga Day celebrations.
 
The Prime Minister and his govt may want to dissociate themselves from their own words but should they be allowed to? Should the citizens not hold their leaders accountable for what they promise? Good days for everyone were promised and these shoddy attempts to deflect scrutiny are a worrying sign that they aren’t coming anytime soon. @bhayankur