As Narendra Modi enters the final phase of his second term as Prime Minister and has set the ball rolling for the election season spread over the coming six months, it’s time for a series in stocktaking. The main question before the electorate ought to be this: has India changed for the better – and how? Alongside governmental statistics, the ground realities too should guide us in this analysis. Take a look at India’s largest public sector undertaking, the Railways with a history of nearly 200 years, spread over the entire nation and employing over a crore of staff. When Modi started in 2014, he promised bullet trains and ended up in his ninth year with a Vande Bharat that has a speed of around 150km per hour – a minor improvement. Vande Bharat has less to crow about even in its structure; only an improvement on the antiquated styles of Indian Railways. Those who travel on it do feel a difference in terms of passenger comfort and speed. Yet, its speed counts last among a list of ten major train services in the world.
As for Aviation, the domestic passenger strength rose from 45 million in 2014 to 60 million in 2014 — the end of the UPA II term — and currently stood at 84 million. The number of airports has increased from 74 in 2014 to nearly 150 by now. As far as road traffic is concerned the national highways sector recorded impressive growth. The total length of national highways was less than one lakh kilometres in 2014, which rose to about 1.50 lakh km by now. Massive funds mismanagement is also cited. The length of four-lane NH increased two-fold. In the defence sector, India spent around $51 billion in 2014 while this annual spend rose to nearly $77 billion by now – a rise from 2.54 per cent of the GDP to 2.66 per cent. Some 13 per cent of the Union Budget allocations are reserved for Defence. Defence sector manufacture via Make In India initiative helped also in significant exports income. The national economy rose to be the fifth largest, its present growth pegged at 6.3 per cent. While the economy of some nations in the neighbourhood faced serious odds and some faced a near-collapse, India maintained its forward momentum.
Modi, overall, failed to reform India. Its rusted systems, plagued by bureaucratic and political corruption, remain more or less the same. He avoided facing serious challenges. Modi had promised to tackle the scourge of corruption when he campaigned for the PM post in 2014, but did precious little. His attempts to reform the agriculture sector fell flat; yet he implemented market reforms that were initiated and left undone by the UPA-II.
