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    Dear Priminister, 100 Days & I’m Little Disappointed


    Dear Priminister,

    For starters you must mark the difference in the way I have addressed you. I am a big fan of Narendra Modi but in this particular letter I am addressing my priminister, not my favorite politician. As Narendra Modi I may support each one of your decisions or go few steps ahead to even defend few of your judgments that may look little shaky on the face value but when it comes to being the PM of my country, nothing would be brushed under the carpet. After all it is a matter related to my country and here personal favorite or preference finds a place at the last row when it comes to priority.

    First thing first Mr. Priminister – I am little disappointed with your 100 days at office and all that you offered us citizens in the said time period. Hang-on, I have reasons for my dissatisfaction which I will elaborate in due course of this blog post. Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government was deplorable in every sense and when I pit your government against the last 10 years of mis-governance, I find the situation has improved leaps-and-bounds. But you will admit that as voters or citizens, we deserve much more than just a better government than that of Dr. Singh’s in few parameters.

    Here is the first reason why I am disappointed. I always thought, you as an individual give preference to credibility over personal or party choice. It was always evident from your actions. I thought you will carry that self-imposed guideline going forward. But I was proved wrong. I was proved wrong when I saw you installing both Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani in your cabinet. No, I am not questioning the credibility of these two people. They are quite capable in delivering whatever assignment they are bestowed with. No two ways about that. But for being a cabinet minister, the first thing he or she needs is the mandate of the voters. Next comes individual qualities and capabilities. Did these two leaders have that mandate at the first place? I am not going over the context or situation in which both of them lost their elections. I am not debating if they would have won, had they not contested from Amritsar and Amethi respectively. That is immaterial for me and also requires a separate debate. The bottom line is – both Mr. Jaitley and Ms. Irani never got people’s mandate to enter the temple called our parliament. Then how on earth you can install them with plump and important portfolios in your cabinet when people themselves don’t want them to be elected Member of Parliament even? I have seen you vociferously criticizing Dr. Singh for being the priminister through backdoor. Where your jibes disappeared when you decided to do a Sonia Gandhi and keep people of your choice in position, going against the wishes of the voters? If that is not enough, you gave not one but two ministries to Mr. Jaitley. Won’t you think when people have rejected someone as their representative, awarding him with important portfolios of Finance and Defense, is like betraying the trust of the voters? Come-on Mr. Priminister, I find you no different from the outgoing UPA government where personal preference always superseded people’s expectations. This is not acceptable, to say the least.

    Second reason for dissatisfaction is your big promises for a stable inflation. Forget it being stable, now it has become even more chronic. Where are your promises Mr. Priminister when you said you will stop commodity trading for some time? I don’t see any steps taken by you in this regard. All that you are doing is letting loose Mr. Jaitley on us with his mega plan to fixi the hoarders with all possible threats. That is so funny. And you know, why it is funny? I am sure, none at the finance ministry has any idea on the number of hoarders that officially we have. Even if we have the numbers then these listed hoarders could hardly be responsible for 50% of goods procurement at best. Rest of the procurement is done by unknown and illegal hoarders. And only a child would believe that these illegal hoarders flourish without patronage from political and bureaucratic class. How are you planning to curb this menace Mr. Priminister? Can Mr. Jaitley or you give us an idea on what proximity you guys think that by warning the legitimate hoarders with dire consequences in the event of illegal activities you people will fix the artificial inflation at least? Take my words Mr. Priminister, either the step will never take off or a bunch of people who now are promising big will fail miserably in the process. And I see the arrival of the second situation a ripe possibility. That is so funny, let me reiterate. And by the way, as a concerned citizen, I once suggested having a procurement ministry to work as a watchdog for inflation. If I am not mistaken, I had an acknowledgement of my suggestion from none other than the PMO. What I suggested is different from the standard notion but quite doable. Instead of running behind errant hoarders, I had proposed to have a procurement ministry solely responsible for procurement, directly from the farmers. All hoarders should come after this ministry as second line in the distribution system. By this we would at least have data to suggest the amount procured and the amount flushed to the end consumer unlike now where we have no clue about the input – output ratio of this all important supply chain. Whether the inflation can be arrested or not is a separate matter and I am not worried for that. What worries me is the complete non-action on your part or at best passing of gimmickry as credible steps from your government.

    Increase of rail fare within days of forming the government was another shocker for me. I was shocked, not because the prices were increased but because I couldn’t find any logic behind the decision. More than that, it smelled a little hypocritical as well.Sadanand Gowda announced that, the original decision of hiking the price was that of UPA and you guys just stamped it. Seriously? While seeing Mr. Gowda remaining blissfully ignorant of his utterances was not surprising, at least I thought you would pick the humor here. Aren’t you the one who was seen criticizing every policy of UPA during campaign time? Then how come this policy decision of UPA found its way through your approval system? Strange, no? Now, don’t tell me that you pondered on the suggestion before implementing it because I am no way ready to believe that such an important suggestion could be dissected for every angle in just about seven days. Either there are bunch of highly qualified super humans in the railway ministry to accomplish this herculean task within a week or Mr. Gowda thinks we general public are grade-A idiots.Even if the suggestion was thoroughly scanned for loop holes, adversaries and alternatives, does it still make any sense to burden the already burdened public with extra headache? For example, couldn’t the non-essential freight charge been increased instead? I may be wrong with my suggestion but then, your decision to increase the rail fare looks out rightly wrong from every position.

    Your development plank is well accepted and appreciated. To be a true super power we need overall development in everything, that includes world class communication network. That said Mr. Priminister, though utility of a Bullet Train in India is indescribable but we have far more serious problems that need PM’s attention on priority than high flying rail network. And trust me Mr. Priminister when I say this. I admit you came from a humble background but it seems you have forgotten how an average Indian is getting humbled on daily basis in his struggle to accommodate the basic needs in his life. I am sure Bullet Train can wait for some time. I was expecting my PM to take appropriate steps to fix problems that are crippling our nation and citizens from inside. Like the back breaking inflation; fix the deplorable health scenario in our country; fix our education system; fix all those errant public servants and many more. Though I see odd steps being taken in this regard, nothing seems noteworthy or convincing. Not at least to the tune that the veracity of the problems outlined above demand.

    I am disappointed dear Priminister and I want credible outcome from my government, not just hogwash that we were so used to with Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government. Please, do something.

    Warm Regards

    A Big Modi Supporter.

    17 comments:

    1. come on man.. bit disappointed in some portions of the post. Modi can't possibly disown Jaitley just because he lost the election. He is not only one of the brightest minds in BJP but in the country..

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    2. Finance and Defense portfolios are kind of technical positions, it doesn't need a elected representative. What it needs is someone who has clear understanding of economics and our Defense capabilities to tackle future challenges. Just because we need a elected representative in these important portfolios doesn't mean we can have Sushma or Nitin gadkari in Finance or Defense whose knowledge is close to nil in these areas.


      In US only President is elected, other positions in government are filled by technocrats appointed by the President.

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    3. Petrol has become cheaper signs of Acche din??????

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    4. Following communal issues that took place in Kishanbagh and Sikh Chawni, representatives of the Central Committee of Gurudwara Saheban Telangana State has appealed to the state government to provide adequate security to the Sikh community in Hyderabad.

      Committee representatives also alleged that the Cyberabad and Hyderabad police deliberately harassing their community people under the influence of MIM politicians.

      Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, president of the Central Committee of Gurudwara Saheban Telangana State S Gurcharan Singh said that they would submit representations to the police commissioners of Hyderabad and Cyberabad requesting them to take immediate steps to prevent attacks on Sikh communities in Sikh Chawan and Kishanbagh localities.

      The Sikh community, which has been living in the city for about 200 years, is known for maintaining communal harmony and peace among along all the religions and has never been never involved in communal hatred. For the past four months, a series of communal riots have been taking place in the areas surrounding Sikh Chawni in Kishanbgah. It started with mounting of beef on the premises of the Gurudwara, followed by communal riots and burning of religious flag in May this year and stone-throwing on Sikhs. “At the behest of MIM, which has a strong political influence, 40 educated Sikh youths were arrested and slapped with serious cases,” he said.

      General secretary S Inderjeet Singh Tuteja said that Sikhs were law-abiding citizens and serving the society in various spheres of life but the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police, acting under the influence of MIM leaders, were harassing the Sikh community by registering unnecessary cases against the Sikh youth and ruining their lives.

      “For the last few days communal disturbances are being created in the area by miscreants. Unruly driving of vehicles, making provocative comments, hurting the religious sentiments, use of vulgar and filthy language against Sikhs have been going on and no action is being initiated against the miscreants and anti-social elements who are hell-bent -n creating communal tensions. On the contrary, police, under the influence of some political leaders, are slapping serious cases on Sikh youths. Two days ago a couple of Sikh youths, who were returning home from their respective offices, were attacked by a mob. “The incident took place under the nose of Charminar MLA Syed Pasha Quadri. His staff, watched the incident with total indifference,” Tuteja alleged.

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    5. BC,


      The govt is laying the groundwork. It will take a bit time for new government to either build a rapport with bureaucrats or replace with people they can work with. You can see how even Supreme court is stepping out of line and asking status report from govt when they never did anything like that in 67 years. Congress still has a majority in the upper house of parliament and this will change in another 2 years. Govt has also inherited bad state of financial and defence situation. There are many good things already happened now. I have heard files are moving fast in Delhi . All ministers have to reach office at 9 am. Kerala CM oommen Chandi who is the least likely person to praise anyone in BJP, was full of praise to Sushma Swaraj and Modi govt over the nurses crisis. The announcement to give defense deal to Indian companies is also great. For the first time after Nehru's tryst with destiny speech, all Indians listened to Prime minister's speech on Independance day. For the first time , a Prime minister was really really speaking to the nation. What I feel is that Modi works by motivating people, not by changing system or policies.

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    6. Cabinet working council for security, consisting of prime minister and ministers of defence, home, finance and external affairs , is the core group who actually runs the country and IB updates all intelligence to this group. I am really glad PM has selected trustworthy and patriotic persons for the key ministries. Media was speculating Nitin Gadkari will be in and Sushma Swaraj will be out because Sushma Swaraj did not support Modi's PM candidacy. Yet PM has included Sushma Swaraj in core group instead of Nitin Gadkari. From the moment PM chose Sushma Swaraj over Nitin Gadkari to be in the core group, I knew our PM will always put nation's interest above personal equations.

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    7. Dear BC,
      Relax man !!! First time I'm a bit dissappointed and would disagree with you. As rightly pointed out by someone, the defence portfolio needs a combination of an intelligent and a strongly patriotic person rather than people's mandate. People have elected sonia gandhi too ...

      As per my understanding Modiji's agenda is of a multitasking nature, to take care of the common man's needs alongside overall nation development.

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    8. What has happened to your intellect Mr. BC? These portfolios need a dedicated and talented person & surely Mr. Jaitely is the right choice.

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    9. Jaitley is important and one of few who can fit into key ministry...he can't be ignored just becasue he lost the election. I'm not sure about infaltion part if that's right or wrong. But, you are completely wrong with train price hike...it was indeed needed. I've been travelleing from Bangalore to Mysore for just 25 Rs for almost 8 years. Now, I need to pay addition of 5 rupees...I'm very happy to pay 5 rs extra. Understand Railway budget...if that's implemented properly people would be happy to shell few % extra.

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    10. I totally agree with you. Ousting Arun jaitley based on votes would have been a really stupid decision - and I admire the PM for taking this stand. To be the PM u need to be elected but finance ministry needs someone with that bent of mind. Jaitley is he best man for the job. And increasing rail fare was looooooong overdue that even the people who are using the transport daily is in total agreement with that decision. I just saw on TV that he has asked for help in developing the small scale industries in India and I love him for that. India can come up a lot faster if these areas receive utmost importance, it is better to teach a ma to fish rather than provide him with free fish for the rest of his life. But it's not just poor people but the middle and upper middle class who needs some reassurance that not just ews will be taken care of. That's the idea behind bullet trains and industrial development. The speech on Independence Day was splendid and right to the point. Besides price rise has been stymied a bit. But for God's sake, give the man his 5 years and he will fulfil all his promises. I as an individual and as a banker can truly feel the changes in the economy. And I hear the common people's verdict about the govt. which is really positive. Even congress worshipers have changed their tune. That's itself is something to be proud of.

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    11. politically incorrectSep 2, 2014, 6:03:00 PM

      http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/27column.htm

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    12. Jaitley at least fought and lost the election. We were tolerating a guy who did not contest and was our PM.

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    13. Ya the train hike was much needed for upgradation of infrastructure and other developmental work!!!

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    14. IamnotpseudosecularSep 8, 2014, 8:31:00 PM

      Being Cynical, This article is reflecting your domain name. In a period of time your disappointment will certainly be vanished.

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    15. Spot on! It's been 100 days and there's not a single talk of 5 yr plan and roadmap. Imagine, you're hired a CEO of a sick company. Would you just enjoy your corner office for 100 days without coming up with plan? Would the board give you that luxury? Can the CEO survive just based on rhetoric and no plan? Don't you thinks its same for the PM??

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    16. "People have elected sonia gandhi too ...". And Rahulji also got elected!! Arun J is way way above these Congis.

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    17. And Sushma S seems to be doing a good job at that.

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