Modi Sarkar Report Card - Sep 2014

Inflation dips to 5-year low of 3.7%; RBI rules out rate cut

16-Sep-2014

Softening prices of food items, including vegetables, pulled down the WPI inflation to five-year low of 3.74 percent in August.

Achche Din are here

Ever since Narendra Modi became PM, a few friends who did not like him because of any reason started posting on FB “Kya yahi hai achche din? Achche din kab ayenge?” every time there was a news of crime or anything that went wrong. How could one say if good days have come or not; since some crime and some bad news will always be there? Then we got this news: “Q1 GDP growth at 5.7% versus 4.6% QoQ; hits 2.5-year high!” 

This much higher GDP growth in Q1 was also result of some good decisions taken by UPA govt in its last months; since all such decisions witness a time lag to reflect in GDP numbers. But in April-June quarter a larger contributor was economic sentiment which was going bullish since it was almost clear that NaMo was coming to power. And good decisions by NDA would have impacted performance in Q1′s last weeks for sure.

So now we have empirical evidence which proves that “Achche Din” are here.

BJP Wins Majority in General Elections 2014

Thank you everyone who voted for BJP/NDA, supported Narendra Modi and helped him win in any manner big or small… It is certainly a historical victory. It is a moment of pride for India and our democracy! The day Narendra Modi said, “We can! We will!”, and his statement “Congress-mukt Bharat Nirmaan” have proven real meaning today. Till now politicians created minority vote-banks, divided Hindus on the basis of castes, bought poor voters through subsidies and freebies, and made sure they ruled. Together we have changed all that – and it would never been possible without our true leader – Narendra Modi! Let us hope India takes fast lane of growth and let us continue to contribute towards our national causes.

Baba Ramdev’s comment on Rahul Gandhi w.r.t. term ‘honeymoon’

Being a decent man, Swami Ramdev was too quick to apologize. Also because his statement was made out to be anti-Dalits instead of being anti-RahulG which it actually was. But I thought he need not apologize for what he said in metaphor. “RG goes there to party and honeymoon”, here honeymoon is metaphor for “political pleasure making”. He goes there, enjoys sponsored food, gets pics clicked, all planned beforehand and enjoys this whole experience; takes pleasure out of it thinking of caste politics. This can be compared to the term he used, in political sense. From this aspect I think there is nothing wrong in this term. But since RGandhi has big clout in media, he ruined this whole experience into making it appears as anti-Dalit; while even a novice would accept that Swami Ramdev had nothing against Dalits when he gave this statement.

One of the dictionary meanings of the term ‘honeymoon’ is: “An initial period of enthusiasm or goodwill”. Therefore we have terms like “honeymoon period” for people new on a job. These meanings do not have anything to do with post-marriage holidaying or anything to do with marriage or wedding as an event. Therefore we have news titles appearing in global newspapers like, “Is the honeymoon over for Geert Wilders and Dutch Jews?” [Link], “Will Hillary Clinton’s Media Honeymoon Last?” [Link] etc.

So it appears that the use of the term by Swami Ramdev was not that much absurd, but Congressis gave his statement such a twist that it was entirely misunderstood. And of course our media is expert in using such unimportant statements for TRP purpose. Also, it indicates once again that in Indian politics, there is not much humor left – we had seen it w.r.t. 60 year old Ambedkar cartoon in a text book being blown out of proportion for political purpose.

My personal opinion is that Swami Ramdev’s statement was misunderstood and I don’t think there was anything wrong in using the term “honeymoon” for what Rahul Gandhi does for “political pleasure making”.

Media’s infatuation with one party

I have sent this letter to editor of The Indian Express:

Dear Sir,

I want to bring in your attention something which has been troubling your loyal readers for many weeks. A party whose name starts with “Aam” has been given so much VIP prominence especially on the front pages that after I see news about it on the front page, my mood gets upset and I don’t feel like reading rest of the pages of your newspaper. This has been doing disaster in my daily routine. Can I request you to publish as many columns and pages out of your every edition but keep it out of the front pages and main headlines? So much else and more important events are happening in India and rest of the world but your infatuation with this party is ununderstandable.

Best regards,