Modi's truths, government's credibility

'One can't understand why, for example, the shifting of the Amar Jawan Jyoti had to be done so quietly', says the author

As the BJP enters into a marathon of 16 Assembly and one general election between now and 2024, and Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to kick it all off with her fourth budget, the Modi government is faced with an age-old problem: Why is its credibility so low even when it’s telling the truth?

Many unbiased commentators and experts have noted that its record of achievement is very strong. Even the record of attempting reform, and of getting things to work, is quite admirable.

Yet it has a serious credibility problem that it seems unable to overcome. If it said the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, it will not be immediately accepted as the truth. Rural loos, water in household taps, cooking gas delivery, DBT are all true. But are they sufficient to build credibility?

All governments face this problem but for this one it is a Himalayan one. It’s seen as a habitual liar or manipulator. The emphasis is on the term habitual. Its origins lie in the 2014 election campaign description of Narendra Modi as a ‘feku’ or wild exaggerator.

Nothing is more indicative of this than the revision of GDP numbers. The whole thing was handled by two of India’s best economists and econometricians. Yet they were not believed. Completely half-baked analysis was used to debunk it all. It simply has to have been one of the most shameful episodes in India’s economic history.

Or take a very tiny portion of what this government has done by way of economic reform: GST, IBC, RERA, the repeal of the UPA’s retrospective tax policy, a Bad Bank, to name just a few. The support was there. But the doubts, legitimate and manufactured, were magnified and amplified to an extent that the reforms were brushed aside.

As to the reforms attempted but discarded there was the land acquisition law reform of 2014 and farm laws of 2021. Both were brave moves. Both had to be jettisoned. Politics triumphed over economics, as indeed it must in a democracy. But no one can accuse the Modi government of not having tried.

The doubters have it

In short, there has been a credibility problem throughout. Anything this government does is suspected of some sort of mala fide. So every data release and every policy change are viewed with suspicion and derision.

Sometimes even a definition correction is dismissed as a fraud.

The most recent example is the renewable energy target achievement. Again it’s the same story, of not being transparent about adding hydel power to the bag.

There was also that ridiculous unemployment report. Ridiculous because anyone who claims it can be measured in a meaningful way in India is a snake oil salesman. Yet there was a great old fuss because the government equally ridiculously suppressed it till after the 2019 general election.

And there was the CAA, where the government’s intentions were dismissed out of hand despite the actual contents of the law which sought to protect Hindus in Islamic countries, not persecute Muslims in India. But credibility being low, the false opposite version gained currency. And the government compounded it all with needless violence against the misled protesters.
 

One can’t understand why, for example, the shifting of the Amar Jawan Jyoti had to be done so quietly. Or the decision to place Netaji’s statue under the canopy at India Gate was sprung on the country with the same secrecy as the deletion of Article 370.

The central vista project is also a case in point. That the government buildings in the area were an abomination was known and accepted. That they needed to be rebuilt was also known and accepted. Yet when the government started the project the whole thing became about heritage. Of ugliness?

It’s a long list. Each item tells the same story. Do the right thing but don’t get believed. It’s like “Modi hai toh zaroor gadbad hai.”

The solution

Amazingly, the government that Mr Modi heads and directs has done very little to rectify this, doubtless in the conviction that, as advised by the Bhagwad Gita, the focus on deeds is a reward in itself, so don’t look for anything more in this lifetime.

After nearly eight years in office any government would have learnt the obvious lessons. But not this one. It has confused doggedness of purpose with obstinacy of conduct.

In the end the buck must stop with the prime minister. He needs to utilise his ministers better for communicating the successes instead of trotting them out only for damage control, damage that could have been preempted.