This I-Day, Think of Your New Government

It's been nearly three months since the new government, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, took office in New Delhi. It's also been three months of greatest scrutiny that any government in Independent India has ever faced. While scrutiny is welcome, more than welcome it's need of the hour, but in the case of the new central government, the scrutiny has often bordered on plain jealousy, useless leg-pulling and an insatiable desire to see the government fail even before it finds it feet on the ground.

This Independence Day as Narendra Modi stands on the Red Fort to address the nation, calm down and think a little. Realize that a government is not only of the people who voted it to be in power. It is also for the people who did not vote for Modi or the BJP and also for those who did not bother to vote. It is in this perspective that one must realize that praying for this government to fail or wishing for Modi to make a mistake will do no good to this country. We have already suffered years of misrule (even if you discount UPA-1's relative good performance), and its time India had a government that has full support and trust of the masses.

Let's not make the mistake of thinking that those who are trying to run down the government are in vast majority or reflect the popular mood on the ground. They are a handful of self-proclaimed intellectuals with bruised egos who have yet not submitted to the idea of Modi riding on a massive, historic mandate. These are people who wrote off Modi and the BJP despite opinion polls predicting a landslide. Bogged down with egg on their faces and by lack of any credible 'issue' to challenge the new government, the intellectual, social media savvy gliterrati is pulling out rotten tricks out of the hat. No wonder, Smriti Irani's education suddenly becomes nation's talking point, what if we have had most unworthy of ministers occupying the office in past. It is absolutely laughable how a self-made young woman is being made fun of by a group of online war-wagers who claim to be all for woman's right and dignity.

Smriti Irani's deriding seems to be a flash in the pan when you take a look at some of other 'issues' raised by the naysayers. Hardly three months in office, and you start criticizing the govt's economic policies (let the govt. frame its policies first!), the budget is called unworthy and everybody forgets about the baggage of economic paralysis that this government has inherited. You start complaining of 'bure din' the moment petrol prices go up but fall silent when the prices go down subsequently. Do they even know that petrol prices are deregulated and hence out of the govt's direct control? You start crying hoarse over rising tomato prices but fail to realize that the prices have not gone up spirally (unlike in the past) and wholesale inflation has been going down. Who bothers about all this when the sole objective is to make poor parodies of 'Achche Din'?

You have people giving lectures on communal harmony and shedding crocodile tears on what's happening in Uttar Pradesh. Is maintaining communal harmony only the BJP's duty? What about the Congress, the Samajwadis and virtually every other political party? Why is the communal bogey raised every time the BJP comes into power?

And last but not the least has been the absolutely hilarious frenzy over PM Modi's supposed 'silence' since the time he has taken oath. Why the PM is not speaking as much as he used to do while campaigning? Really? Guess what, he is working. And also do you not realize there is huge difference between election campaigning and running a nation as big as India? Can you imagine how intimidating and overwhelming it can be to walk into the Prime Minister's shoes, leading a rather inexperienced group of ministers, being surrounded by bureaucrats with decades of experience? Can you imagine how foolish will it sound to speak out of turn or without proper knowledge when officials, bureaucrats, economists and diplomats thrown jargons at you?

Modi is taking his time. He is getting used to the PM's office, the air of Delhi, the corridors of ultimate power, the challenges of governing a nation that has seen anything but governance in the last few years. He is picking up the pieces of a nation's broken dreams, he is opening up the shackles of immense expectations that this country has from him. And that's why the relative silence. The PM is working. Give him time. Do not pray and wish for this government to fail. If your wishes come true or your prayers are answered, the results will be catastrophic.