In his nine year rules at Centre, PM has brought about a generational shift in BJP thinking
By Harihar Swarup
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed his Ninth Year as Prime Minister. Look at how he has already left his imprint on India's history, forcing a shift in how politics in practiced and governance in delivered.
In 1995, Narendra Modi shifted base to Delhi from Gujarat after he was made the BJP's general secretary (organisation). His reputation preceded him, as he had already won accolades for his organization acumen, scripting victories in his home state. Modi would soon usher in a generational shift in the BJP's collective thinking.
“We heard that he was very interested and well versed in technology”, said Manohar Lal Khattar,” Haryana chief minister who was the BJP's organizational secretary in the state when Modi moved to Delhi. “One fine morning when unpacked, one had what looked, like a TV. He told us it was monitor. This was 28 years ago, when people hardly knew computers.”
At Modi's instance, Khattar learnt to work computers. He fed into a wealth of party—related information, provoking questions of whether the entire party had been “captured inside it and its keys thrown away”.
Those were early days of information technology. Two decades later, Modi brought his fascination of technology to transform governance at the national level.
“Technology has become a powerful tool of empowerment to remove imbalance and promote social justice”, Modi said recently. “There was a time when technology was beyond the reach of common citizen and things like debit and credit cards were status symbols. But today, UPI has become a new norm because of its simplicity. Today, India is among the countries with the highest data use.”
The use of technology has been the hall mark of Modi's engagement with the people—from the party conducting its biggest drive, to Prime Minister using social media to bypass traditional instrument of communication. Even the biggest benefit of the much-debated demonstrated demonetization in 2016 was rapid digitization of financial transactions.
As Modi entered his 10th year as Prime Minister, he has already left his imprint on the country's political history. He has forced a shift in how politics is practiced and governance is delivered. The epochal challenged changes of past nine years have been foundational, with Modi making a conscious break from the past. He has left his mark on schemes that were initiated, and structures that have been built. Two of the most enduring such as Modi-era structures are in Delhi — the new Parliament building and the brand — new exhibition-cum-convention centre at Pragati Maidan, where the Prime Minister will hold meeting of G20 leaders.
What differentiates Modi's legacy from those of previous prime ministers is his ability to bring synchronization between capitalism and socialism, the country's two warring —economic streams. Modi has been able to dish them out from the same platform, without having to play a political price for it. He has ensured ease of doing business, scaled up start-ups from the from mere 100 in 2014 to more than a lakh now, and empower the industry to usher in changes so that wealth flows into economy and wedded it with socialist-era welfarism through schemes for farmers, women, deprived sections and poor.
“India is taking pride in following Indian growth models”, says Union Minister Bhupender Yadav. “Culturally, we have ushered in a process of returning to roots. The nation is working with “can do” approach”.
According to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, India's global profile has grown. Leaders, he said, often ask him about India's success stories in the field of technology, manufacturing and social welfare.
In fact, Modi asks all corporate honchos from abroad calling on him about their plans to start manufacturing in India. “The Prime Minister is direct and focused”, said the CEO at a tech company after meeting Modi recently.
(IPA Service)
