Here is a video between Mitt Romney and Trump just compiled by BBC. See how Mr Romney was judging Mr Trump in this video –
“Mr Trump is a phony. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament, nor the judgement to be president and his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.”
In this exchange of this video, it is clear that Mr Trump is hurling abuses at Mr Romney, while Mr Romney is analysing the man, Mr Trump is or would be in his presidency. It seems that Mr Romney has mapped out the capacities of Mr Trump quite well but it just makes you wonder why those who can see the future, judge things minutely do hardly ever become head of the govt. Why do they get defeated in elections.
However, I would like to apply the Romney’s assessment of Mr Trump, to the champion who is leading another democracy in the world, Mr Modi. So, let us see if Mr Modi possess that elusive quality to stave off recession by his domestic policies (demonetisation move) or if Mr Modi’s promises made at election time can be fulfilled.
India has been pretty nascent democracy in spite of its seventy years of age and the analysing capacities or scrutiny of the govts’ performances are seriously lacking in media or by opposition. Usually, either you are ready to throw away a govt like previous scam ridden govt of UPA led by Congress or you are ready to revere a govt without understanding the implications of any govt initiative. So, analysis is missing but either hurling of abuses is non-stop or showering effusive praises are endless. The current govt of Mr Modi is having a easy time in spite of giving awful time to the public by its recent drive of de-monetisation or rather reissuing a Indian currency note and introducing a bigger note. Public is staying calm because indirectly, it seems that rich people have become less rich overnight and some sort of redistribution of wealth is going on between rich and poor in order to defeat the govt drive to eliminate black money. The poor people are getting offered a commission in order to help convert rich people’s black money into white, legitimate money. The poor people can not resist the powerful rich people(politicians included) either due to their display of force, power by rich or due to the poor people’s own greed or need. Somehow reverence of Modi gets converted into a devotion of him in spite of the hardships of standing daily in the queues to convert the money from black to white rather than going to earn your daily wage. Chances of wiping out a big chunk of GDP seems certain that relied on the availability of black money. So, how much of a big hole in GDP will it cause remains to be seen. Will it usher recession or merely drop some GDP growth rate is not clear to any one. Will it wipe out corruption or bring back black money stashed overseas as promised at election? It is pretty clear, it will not. It would just eliminate some black money. It will help RBI(Reserve Bank Of India) and govt to strengthen the banks balance sheets by infusing new funds into them.
A roar goes out against those who throw the pebble in the wells where devotees of Mr Modi also called Bhakthas in Hindi not only dwell but have been enjoying themselves in great numbers – specially on most of the WhatsApp groups. Discovering myself at the receiving end, recently I had wondered if they should be dared to be asked if any of them had ever read anything beyond local publications from New York Times, Washington Post, Globe & Mail, Telegraph, Guardian or Le Monde about demonetisation drive of Mr Modi. But I resisted the urge after remembering been questioned already once when BBC was quoted wherein a quote of the Indian PM’s speech of 2014 was referred. But Bhaktas had told that BBC was hardly trustworthy source even if it was a direct quote of the PM. One of the Bhaktha sometimes back had called the BBC as ‘Bak Bak Corporation’ meaning BBC just knows how to yap most of the time.
Recently, I was watching a video by Mr Arun Puri, an ex editor of a magazine called India Today. Mr Puri has been very eloquent in this video in summing up Mr Modi‘s inning thus far. When Mr Modi campaigned during elections, he was projecting all kinds of hopes in the minds of voters as well as giving the ray of optimism to the world. May be, he just projected and promised too much. It seemed as if he will not only be able to stop the corruption, scams of previous govt, but also be able to bring the efficiency in his new govt like it was never seen before. Unfortunately, he has ended up only tinkering mostly, so far in his new bureaucratic governance even though spawning some new initiatives like MakeInIndia, JanDhanYojna etc. In the early days of 2014, when he was sworn in he had raised the hope greatly by saying him believing in minimum govt, maximum governance . The Cabinet is now 80-member strong, up from 45 when Mr Modi came to power two years ago.
The tinkered bureaucratic system in India by Mr Modi is hardly ever going to complain about not changing much as why would the bureaucrats or the system machinery not like to retain their status quo. The public is hardly ever going to debate it, if the media does not display the state of affairs to the public. The opposition is abysmal, the media delinquent, boot licking type. It is strange that Mr Arun Puri till date, had not had a chance to say his bit that he has just said in this video. I wonder how could he never got a chance to say it earlier. Why could he not write this in local media or international media. May be he waited, perhaps, for the right occasion or perhaps like most in journalistic circles, he too was not ready to take on the sloganeering brigade of Bhakthas. Let us see how he copes with the new attention that he will now draw from those in power. But I am glad, he took the opportunity to judge Mr Modi‘s govt now. Like him, I had always felt the same. Mr Modi perhaps finds himself overawed in that position. He offers simplicity and sincerity in the face of complex issues, problems. The plethora of advisers must be making it really tricky for him. It is difficult to drop an advice on your own, if you can not think beyond the simple things and do not understand all the complexity of a system. In financial systems, demonetisation and impact of globalisation on investment, currency flows, corruption, recession, growth etc is even hard for most people to understand, so would it be any wonder if the simple leaders do not understand it. They rely on advisers alone. So, how will one make its mind before deciding to dump this advice or that advice. I am not surprised that Mr Modi has got lost in this conundrum. Unfortunately, Indian political scene is totally bereft of intelligent people in politics who could attain a position one day to challenge him politically. The political parties are really controlled by few people or groups and real talent within parties get stifled and never allowed to rise. It is not true that no intelligence exists there but what is there can never rise. But this democracy in India will not fail you as comprehensively as it does in most other countries where not only honesty, competence of the leader remains suspect but is also that of the leader’s advisers that the leader himself has gathered around him. One could easily conclude that democracy is a compromised system of government as individual intelligence of those not near power have not much role to play in it.
De-Lurking on the Net 