How Modi Hacks EVMs, Part 8: Seminal 10 years with epochal events and decisions – from Ram Mandir to G20, Women’s Reservation Bill, NEP and more

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

As hard as it is to believe, we were actually able to write 9 articles in a series titled How Prime Minister Modi hacks EVMs (all listed at the end of this article) without even touching upon the huge and epochal events that have unfolded in his 10 years as PM. The scale of his trail-blazing decisions is very large. Even after 9 articles on various topics ranging from health to wealth, from law-making to peace-making, we still haven’t touched upon the many other decisions that look seemingly small but are infact big.

For example, that the Modi government changed the eligible age for marriage to 21 years for both men and women? Did you know that nearly 2000 old rules and laws that were obsolete were removed by the Modi government? There are many such more small things that we can spend time on (A twitter thread here talks about 175 unique accomplishments), but we should move on to discuss the events and decisions that no one thought was possible to achieve, but that this government has accomplished!

The opening of the new Parliament building, while a big event in itself, was also a witness to two huge events in Independent India. In 1947, just before the transfer of power from British to India, Jawaharlal Nehru was presented with a Sengol from Tamil Nadu, that will signify the transfer of power. Jawaharlal Nehru sent it to a museum and it was later classified as his walking stick! It took Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to restore the Sengol to its rightful place in the Lok Sabha. This powerful image of India’s Prime Minister walking with the Sengol, accompanied by the chanting of mantras by the pandits, has left a really lasting impression in my mind.

The Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in the first session of the new Parliament building. A bill that was first mooted in 1996 could only become law in the year 2023. This was passed with an unbelievable 454-2 majority in the Lok Sabha. The scale of this achievement will be visible (literally!) once we see 33% of our parliamentarians being women, post the delimitation exercise. Both the events are befitting the stature of the event of opening of the new Parliament building.

The National Education Policy has been revised for the first time after 1985. This NEP is even more transformational than the 1985 one. The current 3-tier structure in our schools will be changed to a more meaningful 4-tier structure; there is going to be increased focus on funding of research in our colleges; there are going to be changes in the way degrees are awarded; we now have the choice of making education more flexible (such as breaking up a degree into multiple slots). A single paragraph or a single article cannot do justice to discuss the monumental changes NEP will bring in once it becomes fully operational.

The Presidency of G20 was ridiculed by the opposition saying that this is just a rotating feature and nothing great about Modi. It’s phenomenal how they underestimate Modi when they ridicule him on matters so big! Nearly 200 programs related to the G20 were held in more than 60 cities or towns in entire India. It didn’t matter which party was ruling a particular state – all states got good preference in hosting multiple leaders from the most powerful countries of the world in their cities or towns. Celebrations were seen in the cities and towns that hosted these multiple summits.

The first big pleasant surprise came when we all saw our Prime Minister PM Modi addressed the G20 Summit with ‘Bharat’ nameplate.

The second pleasant surprise was equally very heartening. G20 was made more inclusive when the 55-member African Union joined the grouping – something that no one imagined. Just when they thought there will not be any more surprises, came two more big announcements. One is the establishment of the India-Middle East-European economic corridor. And the other was is the establishment of the Global Biofuels Alliance.

This OpIndia article captures very well the 10 huge accomplishments of the transformative nature of our G-20 Presidency. By involving all states of India, Modi didn’t make G20 the elitist event they thought it was. By getting the African Union to join G20, Modi made sure G20 isn’t an elitist organisation they thought it was. The Presidency may have gone to another country via rotation, but the legacy of what India achieved in its presidency will stay forever!

There came a time when no one took political party manifestos seriously. That was because everyone just thought all political parties lie on their manifestos and nothing really ever comes out of it. All that changed on August 5, 2019. Words fail to describe the emotions one was undergoing while watching the political acumen with which Article 370 was abrogated on that day in the Rajya Sabha and the next day in the Lok Sabha. The ensuing peace and prosperity in Kashmir that followed the abrogation is ample proof of how people have lapped up their new found freedom. It is baffling how people of J&K were deprived of all the opportunities available to the rest of the country and yet their misery was sold to us as a normal occurrence in J&K.

The pran prathista (I cannot find an English translation that will sound as beautiful as this!) of Bhagwan Ram in the magnificent Ram Mandir at his birth place in Ayodhya, is a truly epochal event. The epochal scale is evident from the fact that it took more than 500 years for this to happen.

 

The Prime Minister delivered a brilliant speech that befit this occasion. After most eloquently describing what Prabhu Ram stood for, Prime Minister Modi also reminded us of our duty to now lay the best possible foundation of a Bhavya Bharat for the next 1000 years. He has reminded us of the hope and aspirations that this new era brings to the crores of Indians. And he has guided us on how we must conduct ourselves to fulfil this responsibility of transforming our country. He has himself led by example and made us all his partners in the transformation so far.  The work is far from finished though. We built a Bhavya Mandir. We will now build a Bhavya Bharat!

This brings to end the 10-article series on how Prime Minister Modi hacks EVMs. Part-1 speaks about the focus on small-scale entrepreneurs; Part-2 speaks about the revolutions in the labour/employment sector; Part-3 speaks about the focus on both prevention and cure in health; Part-4 speaks about how the lives of women were made better at home, school and work. Part-5 speaks about the Focus on financial systems, along with Big Bang Reforms and simultaneous benefits to middle-class, economically weaker sections. Part-6 speaks about law-making and peace-making efforts that made India a much safer place to live in. Two articles, not numbered in this series, but count into how he hacks EVMs are – The many highs of the 17^th Lok Sabha; and the implementation of the AP Reorg Act. And of course, this particular article 😊.