The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:
“I wish to congratulate every Prime Minister and every government of this country for playing a crucial role in developing the country”. Thus, spoke Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2014. This was perhaps the first time that a Prime Minister publicly acknowledged the contribution of all his predecessors, irrespective of whichever party they came from. This ofcourse came as a shocker to the Lutyens group, but those who knew Narendra Modi knew that this was not going to be a one-time gesture!
Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, speaking on the last day of this Lok Sabha recollected his first meeting with PM Modi in May 2014. During the course of the campaign then, Deve Gowda had announced that he will quit politics if Modi becomes the Prime Minister. After the victory, when Deve Gowda met Modi. And in that meeting, Prime Minister Modi had specifically requested Deve Gowda to ignore everything that was said during the campaign, and that Deve Gowda should continue to remain a member of the Lok Sabha because his guidance is required for the House to run!
One of Modi’s first act as new Prime Minister was to go and visit Dr. Manmohan Singh at his residence. Upon completion of his first year in office, Prime Minister Modi invited former PMs Dr. Manmohan Singh and Deve Gowda to his residence and held discussions with them – another first in our history (perhaps). However, Rahul Gandhi, as is his wont, took cheap digs at Modi for meeting Dr. Singh. Rahul Gandhi said that Modi was taking lessons from MMS because he didn’t know how to handle the economy. However, these cheap jibes did not deter Modi from becoming a person like Rahul Gandhi!
The President of India was inaugurating the GST. Prime Minister Modi yet again invited both former Prime Ministers to share the dais with him in the central hall of the Parliament. Infact, Deve Gowda had nothing to do with the GST, but still Modi showed him the respect a former PM of our country deserves. Quite expectedly, the Congress party decided to boycott the GST inauguration and did not give permission to Dr. Singh to grace the stage. Yet, for some miraculous reason, our media doesn’t seem to think that the Congress party is an epitome of viciousness.
Enough of Prime Ministers and their meetings man! Do a handful of meetings make him a statesman?
While we are on GST, did you know that ALL the 33 meetings of the GST Council have been unanimous so far? The GST Council consists of Finance Ministers from ALL states. There are multiple parties that are in power – and ALL of them have unanimously passed GST resolutions in the council meetings.
The Vibrant Gujarat Summit was a brainchild of Chief Minsiter Modi. It was held every 2 years. And seldom did any UPA minister grace this event. Below is a picture from the 2013 Summit. We do not see a single Union Cabinet minister.
Now, let’s take a look at a couple of pictures below. The first is from the “Invest Karnataka Summit 2016”. Congress leader Siddaramaih was the Chief Minsiter of Karnataka then. NDA government could have easily sat this one out, and or even send a Minister of State. Instead, look at the heavy weights on the stage – Arun Jaitley, Venkaih Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar etc.
The second picture (a collage) is even more interesting. Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, and Piyush Goyal are seen in conversations with Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee.
I do not have to tell you how much both parties hate each other on the political arena. The NDA could have easily sat this one out too. Instead they chose to assist the West Bengal government further their investment agenda too.
The presence of Union Ministers at every swearing in ceremony of a Chief Minister
We know the viciousness with which elections are fought. I still remember how the Bihar 2015 election was fought. And how the victory of the first Mahaghatbandhan experiment was greeted with cheer from all over the Lutyens and the English media cabal. It was as if the end of the Modi government has begun. Every single opposition leader in the country went to Patna to celebrate. Amidst all this, I was surprised to see Venkaih Naidu on the stage. He was attending the event as a representative of the Union Government. I realised that a similar thing happened for the Delhi CM swearing-in too. And then later we saw that happening for the swearing in of the Mamta Banerjee government too. And slowly I began to realise that this has been Modi’s policy that at least a Union Cabinet minister will be present at the Swearing-in of every new CM in any state of India. Yet another first, which also gives confidence to the new dispensation that they can expect the fullest co-operation from the Union government.
The photo-op is fine. Did any actual co-operation happen?
Fair enough question. Let’s therefore hear it from the horses mouths only! Telangana CM, K. Chandrashekhar Rao (TRS) in 2016 thanked Piyush Goyal for helping Telangana overcome the power crisis in record time. In the same meeting, he also congratulated the PM for giving a corrupt-free government! Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh (Congress) has acknowledged that he has had no problems working the Modi government. Infact, he even gives a great example of how the Modi government gave some innovative suggestions to overcome the crop-burning problem in Punjab. Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy (JDS) waxes eloquent on how he is getting good respect from the Central ministers. Despite the noise on Social Media by the usual suspects, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan (Left Front) has publicly acknowledged the awesome support received from the Modi government due to unprecedented floods.
Puducherry CM Narayanaswamy (Congress) goes on and on about how many of his road problems have been resolved by the Modi government. Then Himachal CM, Virbhadra Singh (Congress) too, praises Nitin Gadkari. Telangana’s minister KTR publicly acknowledges that Telangana got more roads constructed than ever before. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweets “before and after” pictures of a finished road project, that was pending for a whopping 40 years (remember he was part of the ruling dispensation for 5 years too!). 11 out of the 14 promises made to the state of Andhra Pradesh have been fulfilled. The list can go on and on – but never have seen so much co-operative federalism in our country as much as we saw during the past 5 years.
And the many small things!
The offer to take along Chief Ministers along with the Prime Minister on foreign tours. In fact, the Congress party refused to allow its Karnataka Chief Minister to accompany Prime Minister Modi on one of his visits! We, of course, did not see any English media writing about Congress party’s attitude. The holding of different conferences, earlier restricted to only Delhi, in different parts of the country (irrespective of the party in power in that particular state).
Over the course of the last five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi played the role of a statesman in an utterly divided polity like ours. He has not let politics come in the way of development. He has consistently shown that political niceties are very much integral to our culture and the Sonia era viciousness is a thing of the past.
This is the 5th part in a series on the Narendra Modi Government. Here are the links to the previous parts:
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