Will Modi's smart governance click?

Having said that, I recall the saying that a week is a long time in politics – everything will depend on the future developments on the economy, especially in so far as they affect the farmers and the vulnerable sections.

People essentially voted for the vision Narendra Modi articulated, in the background of the alleged scams and policy paralysis of UPA-2. He promised Achhe Din, an end to corruption, and an improvement in the lives of the common people. When he assumed office, oil prices started to fall and the government reaped the benefits. He spelt out a vision for the country, which for the first time put cleanliness as one of the top priorities. Fifty years from now, this will be the main reason for the country to remember him and be grateful.

But in the last two years, the dominant themes have been demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

On demonetisation, the final word is yet to be said, but it definitely reaped rich political dividends, primarily because the poor felt that it hurt the rich and corrupt more, and informally thousands of crores of rupees were transferred to them from those who needed to launder black money.

GST fundamentally altered the financial character of the country and its repercussion will be felt over the next decade or so, till the cooperative federalism mechanism assumes maturity. PM also realises that the country needs radical changes to survive in this transformational and disruptive world. Hence, Digital India, Start-up India, Smart Cities, Skill India and other programmes (already in the pipeline), which, however, need a greater emphasis and priority, and greater public participation.

On the social side, the focus on Hindutva, beef ban, cow slaughter etc. meant that the party could keep its core constituents happy but the fallout was an increasing divisiveness in the society which is yet to play out fully with all its attendant ramifications on law and order and polarisation.

These have been extensively written and debated about. I would, however, like to look at some larger governance issues that demonetisation and GST implementation brought about. These are more worrying in the longer context because they reveal deep systemic flaws in thinking. Not enough thought is given to the fallout of the decisions. Even when problems arise, there is an arrogance of belief that any criticism has to be motivated and hence ignored – till a political price has to be paid. If not for the Gujarat elections and the spate of corrections/ concessions made, the GST programme was headed for disaster. Even today, six months after implementation, it is still work in progress and I think that is not acceptable. As Nandan Nilekani stated, business does not have to become GST compliant, GST has to be business compliant.

In the case of informal sectors, the GST legislation and rules clearly showed that none in the government had any clue of how that section of the economy functioned; if they knew and brought it to the notice of the GST council, they were overruled summarily.

These illustrate a fundamental flaw in governance. See also the mindless linking of Aadhaar with all sorts of items. It was only when things started heating up that the UIDAI thought of virtual IDs. The bureaucracy is not willing to stand up and point out the flaws, or prefer directions to come from the top and accept no responsibility for the consequences.

Two other issues merit attention because without them being corrected, all the temporary gains from the articulation of a sound vision will come to naught in the coming years. These are inadequate outlays and attention to the education and health. We are in a knowledge economy and if adequate attention is not given to these sectors, the consequences are staring us in the face.

Digital India is the flagship programme of the government. The delays in the Bharat Net programme could delay this with consequences for the entire programme.

On the corruption front, the perception is that corruption at the higher levels has definitely been drastically reduced, but as far as the common man is concerned, there still is no respite from petty corruption. Digitisation can be a partial solution but needs focus and attention from the top.

Cyber security is another area where the government has not got its act together yet. One has a national cyber security coordinator, but he has not been given the authority to mandate and various government departments continue to function in their silos.

India is a complex and difficult country to govern, and this is understood by the people. The people are extremely resilient and can take quite a bit of shocks. If the economy does well, all will be forgiven.