After a Year of Outsize Expectations, Narendra Modi Adjusts His Plan for India

PM Modi may not be the ideal leader but with so many problems he is good enough. He is sincerely trying to uplift the downtrodden of India, my country of birth. In spite of militant Hindus flexing their muscles, minorities are being protected and provided with support.

Nevertheless, he could do a lot more. The problems in India are enormous. I have been and still am a "Congressman." But BJP under Modi may do a better job. I have been thoroughly disappointed with the post-indira Gandhi Congress party. Her grandson Rahul is a useless leader. He should retire. Without Nehru family affiliation, however, Congress may, and is disintegrating.

While anti-foreign sentiments have brought the so-called freedom, post Indira Gandhi Congress gave it away to local thugs who have been robbing the country blind. Hope Modi's BJP, despite its Hindu image, would reverse that trend. If not, India's future would be bleak, which is so painful.

I would advocate as many others have, a presidential system with much less power than the Prime Minister could have, which is far too elastic, ranging from dictatorial powers Nehru commanded, to very little and tenuous, as Charan Singh had to settle for. A presidential system would bring stability, without challenging democratic institutions, which have formed deep roots, perhaps the greatest legacy of Nehru. Some future presidents like Lincoln and FDR would bring reforms to benefit the downtrodden, not to the looters. Visit my website, agailas.com.

Modi is accused of being tyrannical. But that is what you need in a country like India. Democracy is messy ( who better than us to know ). But India, the largest Democracy is way out of hand. Democracy may look good on paper but getting anything done or for a Leader to achieve something, the consensus building itself takes up all the effort. If Modi is Authoritarian, maybe that's what India needs. Strict discipline has to be enforced like a stern father. India could do with high doses. Forget about a two-party system - India has a hundred if not more party system and ever since Independence has been stumbling block to her progress. And one year? In India, you have to be a little tyrannical and get things done or lackadaisical and get nothing done. But you most certainly cannot have both!

A lot of the comments, probably by people living in India, are a bit harsh. I think this article is provides a fair and very reasonable analysis of what has happened in india in the past year.

I am sure that India-watchers can blow holes through it but it was written for for the average international reader and not for an expert on Indian politics.

Wow - how things have changed. Just a year ago, Mr Modi was the divisive, polarizing, the hated right-wing nationalist - the devil-incarnate whose rise to top is supposed to bring in doomsday to India, he was supposed to end the "Idea of India". The entire spectrum of the media were fully convinced of the his deviousness. Now, a year later, he is considered some kind of super-duper deliverer who is supposed to deliver everything overnight. That's the new narrative that the masters of media universe are running with now.

OK, apparently Mr Modi brought this on himself, because he promised all that in the election manifesto. Fair enough. Not sure if Mr Modi actually promised a timeline of one year to deliver all that. If anybody has every had any doubt, he has already mentioned that he is executing 5 year "marathon", not one-year "Sprint".

Sure, some people are "disappointed", but most people seem to understand the game-plan, which is why his approval ratings remains high. So why all these crocodile tears? From the same folks who never understood his approach and philosophy to begin with, who have been fully dismissive of his leadership in worst possible manner for decades on, without any accommodation whatsoever. Please - give it a rest. Let the man do his job.

Indians are a pretty flexible bunch, it won't take multiple generations to adapt positive changes, Modi needs to increase the momentum of changes. There is a lot of money to be made in India, ignore at your own peril.

Modi used his economic development in Gujarat as an example to convince the public that he can achieve similar goals at the national level. In addition to that, his reputation for corruption free governance in contrast to wide published corruption charges against UPA got him elected with a mandate no one expected. Now, it is generally believed that corruption dropped significantly at the national level. In addition, the governance improved. However, economic changes do not come as quickly even if he has majority in the parliament in both houses. But, his foreign trips and Obama visit to India and the flurry of news on potential investments in India kept the hopes high that better days will come. He basically got the extension of honeymoon by another year. Meanwhile, he got the BJP peripheral actors such a RSS, VHP, etc., under control. There are no news on Church attacks or forced conversions. Going forward, I am concerned about the environment, land bill and water resources management that will become significant issues that would throw a monkey wrench into his development plans. Adding to the woes, the defense budget and oil prices may go up significantly thwarting the development plans. My view is that he will continue to push down the expectations during the next four years. If there is no corruption and governance improves, that in itself a major accomplishment and he would get re-elected.

Indeed, the "outsize expectations" - massive hopes of transforming India - may be Modi's biggest challenge. He doesn't have the luxury his predecessors enjoyed, and the tyranny of high expectations could prove his undoing. Any failure to deliver could change the mood of his voters and have an impact on the next election.
Despite changes, growth is still sluggish and millions of Indians are seeking jobs every year. Many don't have the patience to wait. They want to see results, soon.

THINKING SMALL Perhaps sweeping reforms and structural changes are going to be beyond the short-term reach of India, but India is well-positioned to take advantage of disruptive technologies. Properly done, shifting to new technologies such as solar electrical microgrids and fuel efficient stoves alone hold the potential to slash India's emissions of greenhouse gases. And the new equipment and networks will be most effective if social and business networks already in place can be persuaded to embark upon a large-scale effort to move toward energy independence, especially from dirty fuels such as petroleum and coal. Add to that a national movement to educate women and encourage them to run small businesses to move toward sustainable energy would also achieve enviable objectives. In fact, India is in a better position to leapfrog to new technologies and paradigms than the US, since it is without certain infrastructures that we have relied upon here and, therefore, will be loathe to change. So change India one electrical microgrid, one fuel efficient stove, one female entrepreneur and one schoolgirl at a time and watch her surge forward.

Rajan, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is quoted as saying that the image of Mr. Modi as “Ronald Reagan on a white horse” coming to slay anti-market forces, was “probably not appropriate.”
One must be thankful for that, because 35+ years after Reagan's free market trickle down economics American productivity is not any better and the only thing to show is greater income inequality and a shrinking middle class. Hopefully Mr. Modi will have better foresight in blending public policies and free market policies.

India is a very complex country with a multitude of complex problems entrenched in it's society for ages. Solving them in one year is an impossibility unless you are God! Writing him off in one year is downright a travesty. He has started by reigning in the bureaucracy which is at the root of all ills, inefficient, inept, corrupt. Grease the palms to get service due to you as a citizen. Centralizing and decision-making bypasses the red-tape. And why the gripe that he is not a social animal. In the days past schmoozing around just resulted in a privy few gain access to power. I would think that people should be happy to move away from the oligarchy of old. One year and an obituary - I hope Indians have some patience. So many years of past malaise but one year is too long. Unbelievable!

India is the poster child for explosive population growth and pollution. The air in major cities resembles that of Beijing. The water isn't any better. At least the Chinese had the foresight to adapt their one-child policy, otherwise they'd probably be at 2 billion. India, a country that's never been able to feed itself, keeps adding numbers.
I read in the NYT the Himalayan glaciers are disappearing. The melting water from those glaciers is absolutely vital to India and surrounding countries. As that water source for 2 billion disappears, things will get rather interesting in that region. Throw in the animosity between the Hindus and Muslims, and the fact that India and Pakistan have nukes. The region has far bigger problems headed their way than this article addresses. Climate change is coming sooner rather than later. If the glaciers melt, it won't matter who's in charge.

Farmers make 60% of the population and it makes perfect sense to shift focus on improving the rural economy which will generate the buying power for sustaining the industrial and service economy. As long as the right environment is created with good policy and with less red tape the manufacturing will pick up on its own and the industrialists will invest using their own or foreign money to grow and reap the benefits.
Modi has already domonstrated good governance by bringing in a better work culture, a foreign policy that bolsters the national interests, auctioning the national resources such as spectrum and coal block in a very transparent manner. He deserves kudos and support.

Congress under Nehru /Indira Gandhi dynasty with its leftist policies misruled India for almost 50 years with meager economic growth rate of 3-4% keeping India poor and backward. Finally Narsimha Rao reversed the course in 1991-96 to introduce major reforms and BJP's rule in 1998-2004 achieved 7% plus growth. Unfortunately the corrupt Congress led UPA coalition again misruled the country for 10 years until Modi took over a year ago. It will take Modi a few years to undo the damage done by Congree/UPA misrule of last 10 years. Thus judging Modi's performance after one year will be misleading. Give him a couple of more years. Hopefully, BJP will also get the majority in the Upper House by 2017 and Modi can push for more aggressive reforms.

Modi's job of cleaning up India is like cleaning the Augean stables. The problems are deeply structural, almost embedded in the genes. Modi's party controls the governments of a few states only and his writ is limited. Reforming India requires a cultural revolution which will only come when the masses become educated and law abiding and institutions become strong. Reducing corruption will require a strong partnership between honest leaders and civil society. Today, many members of India's parliament have multiple criminal cases pending against them and many criminals have founded their own political parties. Modi has a Herculean task ahead of him on all fronts but he needs to address the problem of endemic corruption on a priority basis to make progress.

Modi is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Anyone for Good Governance Day on December 25th? To honor Atal Behari Vajpayee I hear.

So much for the freedom of religious minorities in India.

And before self proclaimed "Hindu Americans" go on about how this paper focuses on the evils in India, why does it not do the same here, in Pakistan and where ever else, blah, blah ... It is a disgrace that people who enjoy the benefits of living in this society are among the leading underwriters of this kind of right wing sectarianism in India.

It will take time to make changes and probably few generations. But at least, he is asking right questions which is half the battle. Even if Modi runs out of time or cannot institute material changes, the conversation has shifted to development and the role of government which is a nice change in itself.

This is a most balanced analysis of the government led by its Prime Minister Mr Modi.However,it missed a crical point that during the election campaign,with eye on winning it,Mr Modi promises were skyhigh. There was no serious thinking behind tall talks that if they gain majority in the Lok Sabha what shall be priority to begin with.The mechanism to execute
prioritized item was not in place.The 'hype' and 'hoopla' of electioneering lacked critical thinking of governance.
In this backdrop one year achievment looks timid. Millions of Indians living on less than $1.2 per day are genuinely impatient.
The NDA government looks embattled between people aspiration and its one year performance.
Having realized this gap the government and its leaders feel sense of insecurity.The media and people perception sound dismal since unachievable were promised to make life better and happier.
Hence,planned celebration ,again over reaction, looks like a crisis management. Will this change the ground reality or people perception can be any one guess.
What can change the current perception is not one way communication but a direct dialogue with the citizens by the Prime Minister himself through and open press conference.One single press conference with the people and the press with freedom to all who want to put question to the Prime Minister on his one year delivery would have a most befitting occasion for Democracy.Flurry of multimedia management is a poor apology to democratic dialogue.

That is what happens when Indians go for mañana...

In every civilization, there are situations where a specific group of people do their thing...In India's case, after China in 1983, those specific group went to India and talked to their class mates in engineering that Indians went mañana time. So, nothing ever happened. The Universe works really strange and Indians know that than any other groups on the planet except American Indians. It will come...work is under way...God does not want to give up on Indians....thank you.

Why are people expecting so much to change in so little time? The Congress party and its cohorts were in power for more than 60 years, and they didn't do diddly squat! For heavens' sake, Give Modi and his government more time!

Nationalism is a poor flag to wave when bellies aren't full. While I am no big fan of Mr Modi, in fairness he must be given time to move the behemoth. The fact that a majority of Indians can agree on anything is a miracle. The rot in the psyche is so ingrained that it will take 1 or 2, possibly more generations to start realizing the gains of good governance. Expectations have changed, unfortunately behavior isn't changing as fast as the expectations.

Modi easily criticized the decade rule of congress govt without realizing the challenges in governing a country like with so many cultural, social and economic diversities. Governing india is not the same thing as governing Gujarat. He must have realized that by now. He told the things people want to hear to become PM. His party spent money that is provided by Corporate cronies to win. They are going thru ordinance route for the land bill. I am still not sure what great abilities Modi has that will enable him solve the big problems of this country. In contrast Kejriwal never said what people want to hear or did what they want him to do because it is the easy thing to do. I admire his courage and integrity for doing what he wants to do even if general public fails to understand his motive for doing so and risk losing public support and elections.

Mr Modi has been portrayed for his first year as a travelling representative of India, being with the notables, presenting a bright new face to India(as compared to the quiet and gentlemanly Mr Man Mohan Singh), which has been sought by a large majority of the young and rich who have benefited from the outsourcing of back-office jobs. All that's great, a selfie man for a selfie youth who voted for him. But the selfie generation is 10-15% of the population, albeit with lots of money to spare.
But the reality is as you said, legislatively, he doesn't control the upper house so he can't make legislative change. And to win the upper house he needs to wade into individual states with diverse problems. He hasn't done that.
I do find it amusing to hear the administrators in Mr Modi's govt complaining about the bureaucracy and how hard it its to change that. That's what they were elected to change, but wringing their hands won't make it better. They need to have a plan to change the bureaucracy and they don't. India is being run, just as it always has, at a macro level. Deep cultural change is difficult indeed, but without a plan, with only slogans, it won't work.
Cultural change in the bureaucracy will make a lot of people upset so they stay away and let the so called "babu's" torment major corporations.

Mr Modi has to focus on (in order of priority) 1. agriculture, 2. population control, 3.infrastructure 4. universal education. 5 Make peace with neighbours.

STOP COURTING FOREIGN POWERS. FOCUS ON THE DOMESTIC AND SUBREGIONAL ISSUES.

Stop buying arms abroad, and don't expect to transform India only by courting billionaires to invest in INDUSTRY. Industry will follow agricultural progress.

Thank you NYT for not uttering the words such as Polarizing, Right-wing, Hindu Nationalist, Divisive, and other such words that were common for the last 10 years in any articles on Modi in NYT.
Finally an article that focuses on news. Thank you.

This must be the most analyzed government the world has ever seen, and I can't help but think many people want this to fail so they can be happy their perceptions won.