Letter to BS: PM Modi's popularity is undiminished in the upper crust

The Narendra Modi government’s fourth anniversary passed off without the customary fanfare. It is evident that the government's performance indicators failed to match or measure up to people’s expectations. So far, vikas, the central plank of Modi’s 2014 campaign, has been far from tectonic to transform lives. The catch-phrase, “sabka saath, sabka vikas” acquired a hollow ring and gave place to “saaf niyat, sahi vikas”. The PM failed to fulfill his key promises of job creation, mitigation of farmer distress, provision of better health care and education and women’s safety. 

The government went about its job with policy-driven governance without realising that a change in living habits is unattainable without an improvement in living standards. Demonetisation cost the aam aadmi dear and crippled the economy. A much-touted measure like opening of bank accounts in the absence of radical and far-reaching changes in the political and social order for improving human development indices meant little for the impoverished multitudes. Of course the PM’s popularity is undiminished in the upper crust.

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G David Milton Maruthancode

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