मुखिया मुख सों चाहिए, खान पान को एक। पालै पोसै सकल अंग, तुलसी सहित विवेक॥ [The head of any institution/nation should be like a mouth, which accepts all food and nurtures all the organs that exist in the body as per its wit and conscience] — Goswami Tulsi Das
According to this couplet of renowned Hindu saint and poet Tulsi Das, the definition of the merits of the head of the country, that is, the Prime Minister, would be like this as explained in these lines.
Every citizen of the country should have a healthy body, but if he suffers from any disease, there should be good hospitals to cure it. There should be measures to deal with an epidemic like Covid-19, but at the same time, each and every Indian should have adequate arrangements to have vaccines to stop the spread of the epidemic. Food should be available to everyone, but the chief of the country should be concerned about giving food grains to deprived and needy ones. If the people of the country are in trouble, then the chief should also have the light of hope to get out of it, and most importantly, the country should have all amenities to stay happy within its territory, as well as the country’s army should have enough equipment to deal with the enemies sitting outside its borders.
Overall, smallest to biggest, the head of the country should focus on dealing with every problem concerning the nation. Therefore, when I judge Prime Minister Narendra Modi on these criteria, he fits the definition of a chief in terms of his work and vision, up to a large extent.
PM Modi’s 72nd birthday is a day to test his work as the administrative head of the country. Also, this is an opportunity to analyse how much he has fulfilled the promise of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas’.
While discussing PM Modi, people often mention his great achievements, but his fine abilities and capacity to spot nuances is not analysed the way it should be. In fact, Modi’s personality is so powerful that both admirers and critics often ignore many such positive aspects hidden in his personality which will bring many positive changes in the country in the days to come and those changes will be discussed a lot in the coming years.
I have seen many prime ministers in my long career in journalism, but their working methods have never been debated as much as Modi’s. The big reason for this is that PM Modi’s way of working is very practical. He is a tough man when it comes to taking decisions and motivates the entire team to do the same without keeping the decision-making on hold. For decades, the working style of governments was run-of-the-mill, which means it was running on a single track without showing any visible change. The whole government machinery was infamous for stalling matters; one can guess it from this joke that was famous about the government of former PM Narasimha Rao, who laid the foundation of economic reforms in the country, that only one-and-a-half people in it are serious about economic reforms. The rest of the government and the bureaucracy continue to exert full force installing, hanging and diverting economic reforms.
Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi, while being the PM, had openly admitted that 85% of the central schemes’ funds get finished due to corruption. Only 15% reaches the people living below the line. It is another matter that even after knowing the flaws of the system, Rajiv Gandhi did not make an effective effort to correct the loopholes and check corruption. On the contrary, he was accused of corruption himself.
But PM Modi has shown in his tenure so far that by using technology and making practical plans, the spread of corruption in the schemes of the Centre can be stopped. Modi’s work is not just limited to laying the foundation stones of schemes, but he also keeps a constant vigil on them till their completion due to which the ministers and bureaucrats working with him need to stay in alert mode. Modi’s biggest principle of selecting a team is that one who performs and brings out-of-the-box ideas will be selected in his team.
Many such decisions and works have taken place in the tenure of PM Modi which were never done after Independence. But big and headline decisions have overshadowed his many such revolutionary reforms which are like the solid foundation of development in the coming years, e.g. the cleanliness campaign.
In the last 70 years of independence, no government and no prime minister has paid attention to the most basic needs like cleanliness. There are countless things which are like the foundation to a very strong building of developed India, yet to take shape. I will mention five major changes among them as they will be game changers in enriching the physical, mental and economic health of every Indian.
1. Healthy India
No PM has paid so much attention to the health and well-being of people in a country like PM Modi did. A pandemic like Covid-19 also created challenges in the way of PM Modi. But instead of succumbing to pressure, Modi took it as a challenge and as a result, a lot of changes have taken place in the health sector in the last eight years.
A) Construction of hospitals: Just a few years ago, people from far-off places had to come to a hospital like AIIMS in Delhi if they had any complex disease. There were only seven AIIMS in the whole country and most of them were lacking either doctors or machines. In view of these problems of the people, PM Modi first started work on the policy of opening AIIMS across the country to facilitate health services. He clearly said that there should be a hospital like AIIMS in every state and union territory of the country.
Before PM Modi’s accession to the chair in 2014, there were only seven AIIMS hospitals in the country but it will grow to around 25 by 2024. Similarly, earlier there were about 400 medical colleges in the country but now, 200 new medical colleges have been approved in eight years of Modi’s rule.
B) Doctors: On the initiative of Modi, a plan was chalked out to strengthen the weak infrastructure of medical education so that there is no shortage of skilled doctors and support staff for the hospitals equipped with modern techniques. Under this campaign, medical seats of undergraduates, which were only 51,000 before 2014, have now increased to about 90,000 with an increase of 80 per cent. Similarly, the number of postgraduate seats for specialist doctors has also been increased by about 95 per cent.
C) Cheap cancer treatment: With the initiative of Modi, the treatment of diseases like cancer has become cheaper. For this special ‘Jan Aushadhi’ stores were opened across the country. Now about 9,000 ‘Jan Aushadhi’ centers are opened in 700 districts of the country in which more than 1,600 life-saving drugs, including cancer medicines, and more than 250 surgical items are being provided at 60% cheaper rates.
D) Combat coronavirus and provide indigenous vaccine to the whole country: The country would not have forgotten the crisis in the coronavirus era, but even more so, for the first time, the confidence with which the country fought such a big global epidemic is unprecedented. This task was very difficult as the biggest challenge was to continue with the expansion of health services to deal with the epidemic. Only the vaccine was the biggest weapon to stop Covid-19.
In such a situation, for the first time, the country prepared a purely indigenous vaccine without the help of foreign companies. Foreign companies like Pfizer and Moderna put such conditions for giving their vaccine, which threatened the sovereignty of the country. When the opposition parties were taunting PM Modi in those difficult times, Modi was on a mission to deliver indigenous vaccines to all the people of the country. The whole world is surprised by the fact that India has provided a full dose of effective indigenous vaccine to almost its entire population in a record one-and-a-half years. Countries like America and Britain with less population and stronger health infra than India have not been able to achieve this position yet.
E) Health insurance for all: More than four crore people have been treated under the Ayushman Bharat scheme so far. Similarly, Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission has been very successful. More than 22 crore people have benefited through Ayushman Health Mission till now.
F) Mission Indradhanush Yojana for pregnant women is the result of PM’s thinking to keep children healthy and disease free.
Modi emphasises relentlessly on how people can be benefited by the use of technology. With health and wellness centers and e-Sanjeevani OPD scheme, through 1.5 lakh health and wellness centers, people all over the country are getting specialists near their homes.
But the prime minister also insists that the body should be kept healthy so that there is no need to go to the hospital. For this, Modi himself has inspired the whole country to do yoga. His efforts have made yoga popular internationally. Modi and yoga are synonyms of each other and he has become a brand ambassador of yoga. The biggest advantage of this is the number of yoga practitioners have increased multi-fold. International Yoga Day is celebrated every year on June 21.
2. Strong Transport Infrastructure
For a self-reliant, confident and capable and powerful country, it is necessary to have a strong network of all types of infrastructure. That is why Modi is constantly giving priority to plans of new expressways. The PM’s office is keeping an eye on the construction of every road so that the project is completed in due time.
Modi’s another specialty is that as soon as the date for laying the foundation stone of the project is fixed, he asks the officers to fix the date of the project’s inauguration. This is the reason that many projects have been completed before the scheduled date.
Some examples of Modi’s development focus agenda are:
• Network of Logistics Park
• East-West Peripheral Expressway
• Construction of hundreds of railway bridges
• Kashmir to Kanyakumari Highway
• Delhi-Meerut Expressway (Completed)
• Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (work on speed)
• Delhi- Dehradun Expressway (Work in progress)
• Delhi- Amritsar Expressway
• Delhi- Chandigarh Expressway
• Delhi-Jaipur Expressway
• Ganga Expressway (work in progress)
• Char Dham All Weather Road (work on speed)
• Atal Tunnel (Open)
During the regime of the Manmohan Singh government, 1,435 km of expressway was being built annually, which has now increased to about 4,000 kms annually.
Modi’s biggest quality is that he does not ignore other works while doing a big task. For example, as work is being done on road infrastructure on a war footing, he is equally focused on improving the infrastructure related to rail, air and even water.
As the freight movement in the railways speed up, the passengers also get the experience of world-class travel with speed. For that, Modi has engaged the Ministry of Railways in strengthening infrastructure development. Only then the best railway stations are being constructed, as well as indigenously made high-speed trains like Vande Bharat have also started. In the next two years, 75 more Vande Bharat trains will run in the country which will reduce the travel time by 40 per cent from one city to another.
The virtue of Modi is that he is an immaculate motivational speaker. The most inspiring thing for people is that Modi not only gives the idea but also puts all his strength in turning it into a reality. Like when Modi talks about removing all the memories and symbols of slavery, it is not just a political statement. A new giant building of Parliament is being built in the country, which will be a symbol of self-reliant and confident New India. His recent move to give a new name to Rajpath, which is now Path of Duty [Kartavya Path], is also a part of this. The establishment of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue is also another big step to enhance the prestige of the country so that we know to respect the great sacrificial personalities who enhanced India’s reputation.
3. Strong Economy
Even in terms of statistics, the world has started recognising the strength of India’s potential. Under Modi’s regime, India has again overtaken Britain to become the fifth-largest economy in the world.
PM Modi is always two steps ahead to make India a start-up hub amidst all the development plans. According to the latest report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, India has also stood at the level of major economic powers in the start-up numbers. It is estimated that by the end of 2022, more than 50 indigenous start-ups will join the Unicorn Club. In the language of start-ups, unicorns are companies whose valuation is more than 1 billion dollars.
According to international agencies, the whole world is confident about India’s growth story. Considering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ever-increasing popularity and his track record for economic reforms, American investment bank Morgan Stanley has estimated that the growth of India’s economy in this financial year will be the highest in Asia and its economy is ready to speed up very fast.
4. India’s growing prestige at the international level
The best thing that has happened in India’s favour is that the impact of PM Modi’s foreign policy is clearly visible. When Modi was constantly trying to improve relations with all the countries of the world, his opponents were engaged in targeting and commenting on him. But the good results of Modi’s hard work are now quite apparent.
As we all know, the world’s big powers have been divided into two parts due to the Ukraine war. The whole of Europe is troubled by the energy crisis, but the best thing that has happened in India’s favour is that both Russia and America have consistently emphasised on strengthening economic relations on India’s own terms. China, another neighbouring country, is also worried about India’s growing prestige, but it can’t do anything except complain.
Oppose Modi but not the country
PM Modi often tells his opponents, “Oppose me, but be careful not to oppose the country”. Critics also believe that there is probably no communicator of Modi’s competition in free India. That’s why PM Modi knows very well which work will be done by the government machinery and which work can be made successful by making a mass movement. The ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ drive, cleanliness campaign, quit gas subsidy campaign, and the tremendous success of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ movement are the biggest examples of public participation.
He is way different from other PMs
Complete control on the bureaucracy is another quality of Modi that makes him special. Most of the politicians often blame the bureaucracy for being the reason for interruption in work and delay in decisions. But it is Modi who gets the same bureaucrat to work at twice the speed. Modi, who became PM in 2014, took complete hold of the administrative machinery of the Centre in a very short time. He fixed everyone’s responsibility but also ensured that every decision would be closely watched by him. As a result, neither the ministers nor the bureaucracy could do anything arbitrarily.
5. Unblemished even after being at the peak for years
There can hardly be any prime minister or chief minister who himself or through his government is not accused of favouritism or corruption. Despite being in high positions — prime minister for eight years and Gujarat chief minister for 13 years — there is no stain on Modi.
Even when the popularity of leaders of many countries of the world reduced drastically due to Covid-19-generated despair, Modi did not get disconnected from the public. His popularity continued to stay on the peak. Modi has earned faith like that of a doctor — people will eat even his bitter medicine with full confidence to restore health.
The definition of great economist and political Guru Chanakya i.e. Kautilya fits appropriately on PM Modi. A real king is one whose happiness resides in people’s happiness and who sees people’s well-being as his own welfare. The big thing is not that he should rule for a long time, but a real king is one whom people want as their king for years and years due to his work.
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