“Riya, you know what, many of the transporters in Delhi are evading GST by supplying plain invoices.”
“Yeah, I l know, GST evasion will be there unless assessments begin.”
“Do you really think it will be beneficial? People have been criticising it a lot.”
“Yeah, I ain’t too sure. But, now that it has been implemented, shouldn’t we just adapt instead of criticising?”
“But this whole government has failed. I had great expectations of Modi, but he has disappointed.”
“Do we have any other option? Is there an alternative to Modi for 2019?”
And, once again, there was silence. Again, I couldn’t say much. It was one of those rare days when Riya and I were discussing a serious topic. This time it was economy and politics.
“Can you really see India being led by Rahul Gandhi? Or by Arvind Kejriwal? Or by third front leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav or Mulayam Singh?”
I broke the silence (finally) and uttered firmly – “No, no, I can’t!” (Besides, if I had to break the silence, agreeing with her was the only solution. Otherwise, she was prepared to shoot some more missiles at me in the form of questions).
“Can you please give some logic in support of your argument?” I tried to make her nervous.
“The Indian Cricket Team lost to both Australia (0-4) and England (0-4) outside the subcontinent in the 2011-12 test series, but the selectors couldn’t sack him off the captaincy because he was irreplaceable as the captain.
It was after Virat Kohli’s stature in the team grew up substantially when media, selectors, BCCI officials, former cricketers, and general public rose their voices to give captaincy to Virat Kohli – at least in the longer version of the game.
Same holds true in politics too – Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav etc. can’t be even compared for prime ministerial candidature as of now.
While Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav aren’t in the race at all for 2019 prime ministerial candidature, it would be clearly Modi vs Rahul (if UPA chooses Rahul as their prime ministerial candidate).”
She was bang on right. While I couldn’t handle her intellectuality more, I silently thanked her for showing me a different angle to this hot issue.
Narendra Modi has proved his good governance in Gujarat when he has was the chief minister for 3 consecutive periods. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi is yet to prove his governance (lets’ not even talk good or bad governance).
While Narendra Modi comes from a political party where nepotism is negligible, Rahul Gandhi is the Vice President of one of the world’s largest political group where nepotism is the only criteria. Had this been not the case, Mr. Gandhi wouldn’t be enjoying the position, especially even when Congress still has some deserving leaders.
India, under the leadership of Mr. Modi, has been active on the global level, and finally world has started taking us “seriously”.
In G-20 summit, an Indian Prime Minister stood in the front row for the first time with nation heads of USA, China, Russia and other super powers.
When India boycotted the SAARC summit which was to be held in Pakistan in last November, it got the support from other neighbouring countries because of which SAARC conference had to be suspended.
India has never been so close to white house before, and is enjoying the status of “Chief Defence Partner of USA”. Our relations with Japan are all on time high. Not only this, we have improved relations with countries like Afghanistan, Israel, Vietnam etc. have improved.
On the other hand, Mr. Gandhi has done some even more amazing things, which need to be highlighted for better comparison –
- His statement of opening Amma (errrr. Indira canteens) in every ‘city’ of Bangalore was a historic moment – maybe he has long term vision to see IT hub of India as a separate state someday.
- His condolence message for Nepal was too natural – he just copied it from mobile and wrote in his own words – there wasn’t even 0.1% plagiarism.
- When he visited USA recently, he advised Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi to act maturely on sensitive North Korea issue – another instance, when media (it was international this time) didn’t take him seriously.
Modi is yet to respond on some really sensitive issues, and his government has failed on few fronts – specially tackling Kashmir issue and border issues with China and Pakistan.
GST and demonetisation have failed (atleast for public), although sample data is too small to actually analyse the situation and long term effects.
But, I would again repeat Riya’s question – Do we have any alternative? Atleast, A big NO for 2019. And we don’t have an alternative, why to even analyse him and his policies.
Let him do what he think best – may be they bring long term good effects. He has a team of able officers – who can guide him and tell him the exact situation of every decision. Grievance redressal has improved in last 3 years and his policies have been effective.
Let’s wait for the day, when we can get another political figure of his stature and personality – and this debate will be more fruitful then.