Tavleen Singh writes: PM Modi has done more to ‘satisfy’ basic needs of ordinary Indians than any Congress prime minister

The truth is that it was bad economic polices based on a peculiar mix of socialism and romantic ‘povertarianism’ that held India back. If only the Prime Minister had concentrated on making this very important point and engaged his hecklers and critics on the opposition benches to debate this with him, we may have seen a meaningful discussion in Parliament instead of chest-thumping, slogans, and mediocre poetry.

It is the budget session so it should have been the economy that was up for discussion. The Adani problem got in the way mostly because the Modi government’s response has been childish and plain silly. Senior ministers have wailed and whined about the Hindenburg Report being part of a plot against India. This is the default response of the Modi government. The BBC documentary was part of the plot and every article that criticizes Modi in the western media is part of this imaginary plot. There is no plot. Grow up.

To return now to that part of Modi’s speech that resonated with me let me say at the outset that it had special resonance because of an article written by Sonia Gandhi last Monday. In it she bemoaned the diminishing of the ‘rights-based laws’ brought in when she was India’s de facto prime minister. She accused Modi of putting the interests of his ‘few rich friends’ above the interests of the poor. What interested me most was her saying, “The promise of Independence was of a good life for every Indian, not only to satisfy their basic needs but to have equal opportunities to empower themselves socially, economically and politically.”

Of the prime ministers who ruled India in most of our years as an independent nation, three came from her family and two were chosen by her personally. So why did this dream of a ‘good life’ for Indians not come close to being fulfilled? Why was it not possible to ‘satisfy’ such basic needs as clean water for every Indian? Why were government schools so awful that no official or politician sends their children to them to this day? Why was healthcare so wretched that taxpayers paid for our leaders and high officials to go abroad for treatment until excellent private hospitals were allowed to come up? Why were public sector companies run so badly that almost none of them ever made a profit?

Modi has not been able to rectify all these things, but he has done more to ‘satisfy’ the basic needs of ordinary Indians than any Congress prime minister did. The welfare schemes he introduced like Swachch Bharat and the Ujjwala Yojana may not be perfect, but they have made a real difference in rural India. I write this week from the village in which I spent the first COVID lockdown and near the village pond now there are the first signs of the Jal Jeevan Mission that seeks to provide running water in homes. Water in this village is currently supplied by tankers.

Personally, as someone who blames socialism for most of our economic problems, I wish Modi had shown the courage to dump all the old welfare schemes that came up under Sonia’s ‘rights-based’ regime. In my humble opinion, it is when there is investment in real things like good schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, drinking water and sanitation that real development comes to a country. Most of these things are the responsibility of state governments and not the Centre but major states have been ruled by the BJP in the past few years and in none of them have we seen the sort of dramatic, visible change that we need to see.

It was my hope that the emphasis on public hygiene that we saw during the pandemic would translate into permanent efforts at waste disposal. It is sad that this has not happened and that across rural India you see villages that dump their garbage on the edge of the fine new roads that are being built. Much needs to change still before we can fulfill our dream of becoming a fully developed country in the next decade. There is much that Modi needs to do still but if he has the highest approval ratings of any world leader today it is because ordinary Indians have seen their lives change for the better. Sonia Gandhi’s article makes for dismal reading because it comes as proof that the Congress Party remains stuck in a time warp intellectually, economically, and politically.